The higher the Dominican singer-songwriter's star rises, the tighter he grips his artistic freedom. The new Candela caps a trio of albums connecting dots between bachata, merengue, trap, pop and more.Read More
After 18 years, Apple is killing iTunes — sort of. The software is being broken into separate pieces for separate uses on Mac computers: Music, podcasts and TV will soon have their own apps.Read More
The financially embattled organization surprised its musicians, and its audience, by shortening its season and cutting the players pay and vacation, it announced Thursday.Read More
Gangsta rap had been known as aggressive, rebellious and political, but the Geto Boys' 1991 hit made it something new: vulnerable. Hip-hop's relationship with mental health has never been the same.Read More
To make his latest album, Omoiyari, the Japanese-American artist decided to turn to the past. He visited Japanese internment camps and made music inspired by the stories he found there.Read More
A solo piano version of "It's Too Late" and a full-band take on "You've Been Around Too Long" were just two of the songs she performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival more than 40 years ago.Read More
The film by Erik Nelson honors World War II fighter pilots and is called The Cold Blue. It's being released this Friday, along with Thompson's score, in time for the Memorial Day Weekend.Read More
BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson's remarkably diverse aesthetic and personal sensitivity are on full display in his new book on the Russian composer's music — and his own personal struggles.Read More
Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Christopherson is a thoughtful songwriter with a powerful sense of perspective.Read More
Aisha Fukushima has a story to tell about hip-hop and rap, but it’s not the only story there is. Fukushima, a 2009 graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla, returns May 19 to share this story and her world-wide journey as an artist and activist as Whitman’s 2019 commencement speaker. Read More
Now 88 years old, Cuba's musical matriarch wants to perform for audiences until she dies. "What I have left to live for is smiles," Portuondo says. Read More
The video is a true tear-jerker, driving home the song's rawest emotions by depicting motherhood's joys and drudgery with equal affection and care.Read More
Petty's song has been used by striking workers in defiance, by political candidates to show grit, on national stages in the aftermath of tragedy. We asked what "I Won't Back Down" means to you.Read More
Steve Inskeep speaks with superstar pianist Lang Lang about his new album, Piano Book, a reexamination of the classical music repertory he learned as child.Read More
New Orleans has a fairly spotty track record when it comes to preserving cultural landmarks, but Buddy Bolden's blighted former residence may avoid being lost to time, as he nearly was.Read More
The Dentsu Aegis Network, which had been funding the ambitious, three-day 50th-anniversary music festival with headliners including Jay-Z and Santana, says that the August event will not happen.Read More
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge became a household name in 2016, not for its beautiful scenery or because 300 bird species flock there, but because a militant, anti-government group had taken over headquarters for 41 days, leading to a fatal shooting. Three years later, an Oregon symphony offers music as healing.Read More
"Hello Sunshine," the first single from Bruce Springsteen's upcoming album Western Stars, shares the same melancholy space as early '70s ballads by Jimmy Webb and Kris Kristofferson.Read More
The acclaimed Concertgebouw Orchestra issued a warmly worded statement Tuesday saying its disagreements with the conductor have been resolved by both parties.Read More
There's a grainy video of the first time Nirvana played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live, at a small club in Seattle in April 1991. Nirvana was largely unknown outside of punk and indie rock circles in the Pacific Northwest. The band hadn't even recorded the song yet, which meant that nearly everybody in the room was hearing it for the very first time. Still, the reaction Read More
NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Christian McBride of Jazz Night in America about the forgotten all-female big bands that toured the United States during World War II.Read More
The song was everywhere during the 1967 gatherings in San Francisco. After it was used in a public service announcement, it became an anthem for the rest of the world.Read More
Nézet-Séguin uses every part of his body when he conducts — including his eyes, eyebrows, shoulders and feet. He's the music director at New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra.Read More
Nirvana's Kurt Cobain died 25 years ago Friday. The band's former manager Danny Goldberg discusses his memories of Cobain and his new book, Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain.Read More
World Cafe premieres this tightly syncopated groove from Gilfillian which draws on the vibes of '70s Afro-rock and funk. Read More
On his new album titled c.1300-c.2000, the pianist begins with a medieval song by Machaut and ends with an étude by Philip Glass. Read More
The newly disclosed sale agreement of Westminster Choir College to a conglomerate partly owned by the Chinese government appears to state that the prospective owners can close the school at any time.Read More
The former member of The Walker Brothers and singer of "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" was also one of experimental music's most beloved composers.Read More
The bill for Woodstock 50 has been announced featuring acts like Imagine Dragons, Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus. The lineup is prompting conversation online. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson weighs in. Read More
The jazz legend and barrier breaker was born on March 17, 1919 in Montgomery, Ala.Read More
The DIVA Jazz Orchestra celebrates 25 years, and one of the last surviving members of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm reflects on the legacies of all-female big bands.Read More
Regretfully, the Brown-Bag Lunch with Suzanne Bona, host of Sunday Baroque, as scheduled for March 21 at the LCSC Center for Arts and History has been cancelled due to a […]Read More
In the book Speaking of Alabama, an essay by linguistics professor Catherine Davies calls "y'all" a speech "improvement" — at least when referring to the plural second person.Read More
To mark the sesquicentennial of the composer's death — and a new box set of recordings — Berlioz biographer David Cairns celebrates the one-time musical misfit from France. Read More
The black British singer grew up loving American country music. Now, she's living out her Americana dreams with her debut full-length, Walk Through Fire.Read More
A spokesman for Ohio's Cuyahoga County Public Library said there are no hard feelings about the extreme delay and the return sets a good example. "We just want our stuff back," Robert Rua said.Read More
André Previn died Thursday morning in Manhattan. He was a composer of Oscar-winning film music, conductor, pianist and music director of major orchestras.Read More
The mayor of Cremona, Italy, blocked traffic during five weeks of recording and asked residents to please keep quiet so master musicians could play four instruments — note by note — for posterity.Read More
How did Samuel Barber's stirring, lush work for strings — music that has become America's semi-official music of mourning — morph into a beloved and endlessly remixed dance floor anthem?Read More
Bob Dylan has called Izzy Young's Folklore Center "the citadel of Americana folk music." It was at the center of the folk music revival in New York City in the 1950s and '60s. Young died Feb. 4 at 90.Read More
After last year's Grammys, the president of the Recording Academy said that women needed to "step up" in the business. Women and men in the business pushed back, but what's actually changed?Read More
The warm-voiced, and much admired, singer eschewed the glitzy life of an opera star to concentrate on the art of vocal communication. Read More
Lubbock, Texas, hasn't always been fond of its best known son, Buddy Holly. But 60 years after his death, the town has a park with a bronze statue of him, and a street and a museum named after him.Read More
Behind musical legends like Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley and Ray Charles is one timeless genre that spans across lifetimes: gospel music.Read More
The two were arrested Tuesday night in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and are awaiting extradition to Texas. A young singer has accused the pair of drugging and raping him in 2010.Read More
Lady Gaga's 2011 megahit has been praised as inclusive and criticized as exploitative. But there's a little history to the song's origins that isn't often discussed. Read More
Together, the women of Lula Wiles are giving folk music a new reputation with band's sophomore album, What Will We Do. Read More
The musician worked across genres, collaborating with American stars like Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand.Read More
The breakout song from Disney's Frozen has inspired many marginalized groups — but its message of rejecting stigma holds special resonance for disabled people and their families.Read More
Yo-Yo Ma, the world's most famous living cellist, performed formally and informally in Mumbai this week, part of a long-term project to play Bach's six suites for cello in 36 places around the world.Read More
