Classical Conversations

It was announced today that after a two-year search, the Toledo Symphony has found a new Music Director: Alain Trudel. Alain (don't call him "Maestro"!) will be Music Director Designate until June 2018, after which he will serve out a three-year contract. The celebrated conductor and trombonist sits down with WGTE's Brad Cresswell for a conversation about all things Toledo Symphony: what he loves...

Two members of The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Fr. Zachary Akers and Fr. Garrick Huang, join us to preview their new album "Requiem," available from Demontfort Music & Sony Classical.

Timothy Cloeter, artistic director and conductor of Toledo's own Masterworks Chorale joins Brad Cresswell for a conversation about their upcoming Collage Concert, "What a Wonderful World," happening this weekend at the Valentine Theatre.

Piano powerhouse Simone Dinnerstein chats about her latest album, which brings two Mozart piano concertos to Cuba and the wonderful Havana Lyceum Orchestra.

Croatian-born international concert pianist Martina Filjak is in town for concerts with the Toledo Symphony which also bid farewell to the TSO's longtime Principal Conductor Stefan Sanderling. The dynamic young pianist joins us in the studio to sample a few of her recordings and preview the concert, which includes Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 13.

Conductor and trombonist Alain Trudel joins us in the studio to preview his concerts with the Toledo Symphony this weekend at the Peristyle.

Actor Paul Causman and composer Burton Beerman preview An Iliad, a one-man show which is a modern-day retelling of Homer's classic about the waning weeks of the Trojan War. An Iliad plays April 6-9 in Studio A at the Valentine Theatre.

We're joined for performance and conversation by Metropolitan Opera soprano Jennifer Rowley, mezzo Christine Amon, stage director Kristine McIntyre, and pianist Kevin Bylsma from Toledo Opera's upcoming production of Samuel Barber's Vanessa.

This weekend, Bowling Green State University's Opera Theatre and Department of Theatre and Film are staging Kurt Weill's opera Street Scene. Director Nicholas Wuehrmann and pianist/vocal director Kevin Bylsma join us for a preview, with members of the cast performing in the WGTE studios: soprano Kate Pomrenke, tenor Mark Tenorio, and baritone Ben Ganger.

Coloratura soprano Rachele Gilmore drops by the WGTE studios in advance of her appearances with the Toledo Symphony in Mahler's Symphony No. 4, to talk about her life and career, her return to Toledo and her distinction as having sung the highest note ever on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera (the "new" Met, that is!). Please note: due to copyright, the musical recordings in this interview have...

In his latest album, Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik essays a collection of works that exemplify the famous quote by Hans Christian Anderson: "Where words fail, music speaks." The highly-acclaimed young artist joins us to talk Mendelssohn, Mahler, and two works that he commissioned himself: Timo Andres' "Words Fail" and "Arioso Doloroso/Estatico" by Michael Gandolfi.

After an illustrious 20 year career, the members of the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet decided to disband for good this past June. They still had one recording in the queue, however, and it's just been released on the Avie record label: The Brahms String Sextets Op.18 and Op.36, which were recorded in front of a live studio audience at Skywalker Sound. The group's cellist Jennifer Kloe...

Leading British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor joins us to preview his latest album Homages, a collection of works by Busoni, Mendelssohn, Chopin and others which pay tribute to others.

This weekend, conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn leads the Toledo Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's complex and revolutionary Symphony No. 5, and solos in Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. The reknowned conductor (and son of legendary Soviet dissident author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) joins us in the studio for a conversation about these two remarkable composers and their music.

The Nashville Symphony's latest recording of music by composer Michael Daugherty is up for three Grammy Awards next month. One of the works on that disc, the organ concerto "Once Upon A Castle," is coming to the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle with virtuoso organist Paul Jacobs and the Toledo Symphony as part of The Citizen Kane Experience. Michael Daugherty sits down with WGTE's Brad Cresswell for...

Eminent conductor Semyon Bychkov has recently embarked on a multi-year series of performances and recordings of the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Russian-born Maestro joins us to talk about the first recording in the project, which includes Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, The Pathétique.

In his latest recording, pianist Kirill Gerstein turns his attention to Franz Liszt and the Transcendental Études - considered to be among the most difficult pieces in the solo piano repertoire.

Star harpist Yolanda Kondonassis celebrates the centennial of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera's birth with a new album, Ginastera: One Hundred. The recording features guest appearances by the violin/piano duo of Gil and Orli Shaham plus guitarist Jason Vieaux, as well as a centerpiece of Yolanda's repertoire over the years, Ginastera's Harp Concerto.

Superstar violinist Joshua Bell teams up with colleagues Steven Isserlis and Jeremy Denk for his latest album, entitled For the Love of Brahms.

Mark Kosower, principal cello of The Cleveland Orchestra, stops by the FM 91 studio with the Toledo Symphony's Merwin Siu to preview Mark's appearance with the TSO in one of the most passionately expressive works in the cello/orchestra repertoire, Ernest Bloch's Hebraic Rhapsody, Schelomo.

Violin powerhouse Jennifer Koh discusses her new Tchaikovsky album; modern vs. classic works and the secret that her first violin teacher kept from her for 25 years.

Following up on their 2014 album Brahms by Heart, the Chiara String Quartet has just released Béla Bartók’s six string quartets on Azica records, played entirely from memory. Three members of the group, violinist Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota, and cellist Gregory Beaver join us for a preview.

After two decades of spectacular music-making, the San Francisco-based Cypress String Quartet has decided to disband. They leave behind a rich discography, including their latest recording - the last in their series of Beethoven String Quartets. Violinist Tom Stone and cellist Jennifer Kloetzel join us to talk about the reasons behind their decision, and to preview their new Beethoven recording, n...

Rachel Barton Pine’s relationship with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach runs deep. The best-selling violinist joins us to preview her latest album, Testament, which features a cornerstone of the repertoire: Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin.

Fifteen years ago, cellist Matt Haimovitz famously brought the Bach Cello Suites to folk clubs and rock venues. Now, he brings us a completely new intepretation of these classics works, informed by the manuscript copy made by Bach's wife, Anna Magdalena.