WRCJ In-Studio Guests

Pianist Lara Downes is the featured soloist in this Friday morning’s DSO Live broadcast at 10:40am on WRCJ and the Michigan Classical Network. Downes speaks with Peter Whorf about the music she’ll perform at Orchestra Hall. She’ll focus on two composers – Scott Joplin and Florence Price – the latter representing an important discovery in Lara’s early musical life…

Earlier this week, WRCJ’s Peter Whorf spoke with pianist Lara Downes about her role in this weekend’s DSO Classical Roots concerts. Now, Peter talks with conductor William Eddins for a further concert preview of what’s ahead in this Friday’s DSO Live broadcast on 90.9FM…with music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Quinn Mason and Florence Price…

In this clip from "Live with C#" Cecelia speaks with author Brendan Slocumb about his debut book "The Violin Conspiracy".

Jauron Perry and William Hill III are students at Detroit School of Arts. Jauron plays trumpet and William is a pianist. Both of the talented young musicians aim to further their lives in music after their senior year at DSA. The two are well on their way. William has been busy the past few years performing at music camps at Interlochen Arts Academy, Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard Scho...

Dr. Dave speaks with Detroit’s own Damien Crutcher, an MSU alumnus and arts leader, who will be guest conducting the Michigan State University Wind Symphony this Sunday at the Detroit School of Arts. The concert will be re-broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 13 at noon on 90.9 WRCJ.

Cecelia Sharpe speaks with Afa Dworkin ahead of this Saturday's 25th Annual Sphinx Organization's Junior and Senior Finals Concert, in which musicians perform for prizes and the opportunity to launch a career.

In this interview from Live with C#, Cecelia speaks with 22 year old cellist Joshua McClendon who is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree at Juilliard. He is a founding member of the Isidore String Quartet, and recently made his debut with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

JoAnn Falletta is Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic. She’s also one of the founding board members of the Claudette Sorel Organization. Sorel was a pianist, teacher and music philanthropist who advocated a higher profile for contemporary music – particularly by women composers. Falletta and WRCJ’s Peter Whorf speak about the remarkable life of Claudette Sorel – commemorated in the recent r...

Detroit’s Barry Harris was without argument the greatest teacher in jazz, a brilliant pianist and all-round musician. His house in Detroit was a salon where everybody went to learn and play in the 40’s and 50’s. He moved to NYC in the early 60’s and continued to teach around the world for the rest of his life. In 2007 the Arts League of Michigan, now https://thecarrcenter.org/ , brought Barry to D...

Each year organist James Kibbie has a tradition of creating an audio holiday card! Listen to this interview with Dave Wagner as he tells us more about it. This year’s recording is Karl Osterland’s Personent hodie, which you can listen to here: www.umich.edu/~jkibbie.

Steven Jarvi, Music Director of the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, stops by to speak with Dave Wagner about the symphony's holiday performance on December 17, 2021 at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center.

DSO Music Director Laureate Leonard Slatkin recently returned to Detroit to lead the ensemble at Orchestra Hall. WRCJ’s Peter Whorf spoke with the Maestro from his St. Louis home about his recent book "Classical Crossroads" and his DSO reunion performance…

Dave Wagner talks with Damien Crutcher, the Managing Director of Detroit Harmony at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He talks about getting instruments into the hands of young students in Detroit in a joint effort with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra and Band Directors.

Maybe you’ve experienced Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved opera The Marriage of Figaro before – but probably never like this. This Saturday in downtown Detroit, Michigan Opera Theatre plays host to the Mozart masterpiece in a startling new way. WRCJ’s Dave Wagner speaks with MOT Artistic Director Yuval Sharon and new Director of Innovation, Matthew Principe about Bliss – the reimagining of one mu...

In this interview from "Live With C#", cellist and music educator Cecelia Sharpe speaks with her special guest, the legendary bassist from Detroit Michigan, Ralphe Armstrong.

Peter Whorf speaks with Michigan native cellist and UT-Austin Professor Bion Tsang about his new release of Bach Cello Suites - performed on a very special instrument.

WRCJ’s John Penney spoke recently with Saxophonist and Artistic Director of the Detroit Jazz Festival, Chris Collins, about this year’s artist line-up and last year’s virtual event. The world’s largest free jazz festival returns to live audiences in downtown Detroit, September 3 – 6.

Thursday, July 29th at 1:00pm, PUBLIQuartet begins its residency through virtual events that will be free to the community through the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Wright Museum. The first event is "Reflections on Beauty" a multimedia project about the life of entrepreneur, activist and America's first African-American women millionaire - Madame CJ Walker. PUBLIQuartet presents that project b...

In this excerpt from "Live With C#" Cecelia Sharpe speaks with special guest, acclaimed jazz violinist Regina Carter!

Detroit-based Akropolis Reed Quintet returns to live performance this Friday evening in Detroit’s Beacon Park. Saxophonist Matt Landry spoke with WRCJ’s Peter Whorf in May about his group’s recent recording entitled Ghost Light. Matt returns to talk with Peter about this week’s performance of music from that new release…

The Scandinavian Cello School presents concerts weekly at a cattle farm in Denmark, providing a stress-free, soothing environment for its cows, who enjoy the moo-sic.

Detroit-based Akropolis Reed Quintet recently released their latest recording of new works entitled Ghost Light. The collection showcases music by Stacy Garrop, Michael Gilbertson, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Theo Chandler and Jeff Scott with poetry from Detroit’s Marsha Music. Akropolis notes that “over the past two years, we’ve premiered a series of works dealing with life, death and rebirth…with Ghost...

In this excerpt from Live with C#, Cecelia talks with former psychologist and current life coach, Christine Elwart. She has some beneficial tips to help boost our mental wellness.

The final track of Pat Metheny’s 2021 album Road to the Sun is a confluence of three musical visionaries, featuring the master guitarist playing the music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, on the Pikasso guitar, an instrument developed by Canadian luthier Linda Manzer. photo credit: Florian Thoss/Courtesy of the artist

-Gavilán Brothers: A Concert and Film May 8, 2021 8pm- This week from the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, violinist Ilmar Gavilán and pianist Aldo López-Gavilán perform at the Flagstar Strand Theatre in Pontiac, in a performance of Aldo's genre-defying music rooted in classical, Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban traditions. Listeners can attend in person as part of CMSD’s socially distanced, limited-cap...