Classical Post

Pianist Zsolt Bognár had a light-bulb moment while building his first artist website in 2012. What if, instead of short clips of his performances — something every pianist publishes on their website — he interviewed his musician friends about their craft and careers? Inspired by Bognár's love for Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio , the first iteration of the web series that would becom...

After more than two decades as one of New York City's busiest freelance oboists, James Roe decided to pivot his career. He packed up his oboe case, reed knife, and metronome to take on leadership positions at two of the ensembles he had regularly performed with. First he spent two years as president and CEO of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, before moving into his current role as president...

In business, marketing strategies often revolve around defining your ideal customer. What specific interests and demographics do they represent? The more specific you are in your targeting, the better. But Time for Three proves just how wrong that approach to building an audience can be. Performing their unique blend of Americana, modern pop, and classical music, the acclaimed string trio has grow...

When British saxophonist Jess Gillam refers to her Carnegie Hall debut as "a real dream come true," she's being literal. Since the age of 12, she's dreamt of taking to New York City's fabled stage and sharing her passion for the saxophone with the audience. Gillam's dream became reality in October, when she and pianist Thomas Weaver performed a wide-ranging program of mus...

Few careers in classical music read as illustriously as that of pianist Wu Han . For more than 50 years, her life has centered around the concert stage, delivering performances of the highest caliber in nearly every corner of the globe. She once viewed that jet-setting lifestyle as a symbol of success earlier in her career. But these days, in her work as artistic director of the Chamber Music Soci...

1983 proved a pivotal year in violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky's life. That was the year the Azerbaijan-born musician became a U.S. citizen, married his wife, and bought the Stradivarius violin he still plays to this day. It was also the year he discovered Glenn Gould's final recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations . That album inspired Sitkovetsky to arrange the Baroque keyboard mast...

From dinosaurs dancing to The Rite of Spring in Disney's Fantasia to a tuxedoed Bugs Bunny performing Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody , classic cartoons have long been a delightful entry point for kids of all ages to get to know classical music. That's a tradition composer and jazz pianist Joel Pierson is breathing new life into as artistic director of The Queen's Cartoonists . W...

The Spanish pianist Javier Perianes is racking up quite a lot of frequent flyer miles these days. This season alone, his concert schedule has him zigzagging the globe to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dallas Symphony here in the States, Europe's Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic, and a whirlwind trip to Australia for concerts with the Melbourne and Sydney Sym...

In early 2012, the coloratura soprano Marie-Eve Munger received an offer every opera singer dreams of — a lead role in a Mozart opera. But there was a catch. It wasn't a role in Don Giovanni , or The Marriage of Figaro , or any of the popular Mozart operas performed every season across the globe. The opera was Il sogno di Scipione , which Mozart wrote when he was just 16 years old. Munger had...

For violinist Hilary Hahn , finding success as an international soloist has never been about sticking to the same menu of concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Sibelius. Now in the fourth decade of her storied career, the three-time Grammy Award winner has consistently worked to expand the scope of the violin canon — commissioning a slate of new works from composers like Edgar Meyer, Jennifer H...

Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has often found inspiration for his music-making in the visual arts. But a recent visit to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gave Wedow, a specialist in Baroque opera, an altogether new view of ancient Greek and Roman art — and early music. "We used to think all Classical Greek and Roman statues were all virginally white marble," Wedow says on the...

Many classical music ensembles have only recently begun to prioritize programming works by underrepresented composers who've been unjustly lost to the sands of time. But for 20 years and counting, that's been the sole focus and mission of the ARC Ensemble and its artistic director, Simon Wynberg. The ensemble-in-residence at Toronto's Royal Conservatory , the ARC Ensemble is among Cana...

French-Canadian baritone Etienne Dupuis is a big fan of television, especially Ted Lasso . So much so that he's adapted a key phrase from the comedy-meets-philosophy series — "Football is life!" — as a mantra to stoke people's interest in opera. "Now I always say, 'Opera is life!'" Dupuis shares on the latest episode of the Classical Post podcast. " Bohème...

The life of composer Robot Koch is a study in contrasts. Raised in the same area of Germany as the Brothers Grimm — with its foggy forests and medieval castles — he now lives among the sunny splendor of Los Angeles. And although Koch leads a monk-like spiritual practice of yoga, meditation, and pranayama breathwork, he relies on digital technologies to produce the lush, atmospheric sounds of his e...

Icelandic composer Gabríel Ólafs has become a poster child for the German term wunderkind . At age 14, he wrote the song that landed him his first record deal. At 19, he released his debut album, Absent Minded , which has been streamed millions of times. Now 23, Ólafs is celebrating two massive achievements. Earlier this year, he co-founded the Reykjavík Recording Orchestra , Iceland's first d...

The idea of preservation is on tenor Timothy Fallon 's mind a lot lately. He recently bought a house in New England that dates to 1740 — which, he's quick to point out, means Bach was still alive when the house was built. And away from the renovations he's managing to preserve the charm of his new abode, Fallon — who will spend the next two seasons as a house singer with Vienna's V...

When most musicians join me to record the Classical Post podcast, they need a few minutes to settle in. This makes sense — whether they're an instrumentalist, singer, or composer, they're used to communicating through a medium outside of their speaking voice. So it can take some time to shake off the nerves. But the moment I sat down with pianist Klaudia Kudełko to discuss her stunning deb...

With composition titles like In the Cause of the Free , Ellis Island: The Dream of America , and Balance of Power , it's easy to tell Peter Boyer has more than a casual interest in American history. In fact, it's something that's inspired him throughout his career. But the Grammy Award-nominated composer-conductor isn't merely looking to memorialize America's past — he wants hi...

The cover art for most classical albums usually relies on a glamorous studio shot of the artist or a generically tranquil landscape that hardly relates to the music we're about to experience. But that's not at all the case on the cover of The Strange Highway , the debut album from composer Gity Razaz . A pencil and ink drawing depicting a cloaked figure with an arrow through the heart, who...

The savviest arts administrators know that putting a concert season together is more than programming popular repertoire or bringing big-name soloists to town. For Jeremy Geffen , executive and artistic director of Cal Performances at UC Berkeley , bringing to life all of the organization's artistic and educational activities — about 80 events per season — centers around ideas of building and...

Some classical musicians choose to follow a specific lane throughout their career, either as an orchestral musician, a chamber player, or a concert soloist. But Stewart Goodyear can't confine his career to one lane — he demands an entire highway. As a concert pianist, composer, arranger, and improviser, Goodyear has built one of the most multifaceted careers of any musician today. His recitals...

Among the countless projects classical music presenters have had to delay over the past two years, perhaps none has been more eagerly anticipated than that of Omar , a new opera from Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels . Originally slated to premiere in May 2020, Omar finally received its long-awaited opening this summer at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. Based on the life a...

So much of the way classical musicians perform or even think about music is informed by the work of past generations. But what happens when history books omit certain musicians, often due to their gender, race, or sexuality? How can those gaps in music history — and our shared musical legacy — be restored? These questions form the foundation of a new album from classical guitarist Berta Rojas , Le...

Many classical musicians turn to art, architecture, or literature to inspire their creativity and inform their performances. But for others, it's all about the music. Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux falls into that second category — especially when it comes to J.S. Bach. "A Bach score has everything I need or want," Vieaux says in the latest episode of the Classical Post...

Classical musicians are incredibly passionate about their work. But that doesn't mean they can't make room in their hectic lives for other passion projects. For harpist Yolanda Kondonassis — one of the world's greatest soloists and head of the harp departments at the Cleveland Institute and Oberlin Conservatory — earth conservation has been the focus of her activism for more than 20 ye...