Past Articles by Anastasia Tsioulcas
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An Evening With Nico Muhly, 'Two Boys' And Other Works Watch an intimate concert inspired by Muhly's exciting, intrigue-filled opera Two Boys, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. Muhly is joined by close friends including singers Sam Amidon, Paul Appleby and Jennifer Zetlan, violist Nadia Sirota and violinists Angela and Jennifer Chun. |
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Andris Nelsons Named Music Director Of The Boston Symphony   The announcement that the 34-year-old Latvian conductor is taking the reins of the ensemble puts an end to years of uncertainty at the storied orchestra, following James Levine's 2011 resignation. |
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Come Dance The 'Rite Of Spring' With Us!  We're inviting you to create your own video using the last minute of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Dance it, animate it, improvise it, whatever you like — and then upload your creation to YouTube before May 28th. We'll be featuring some of the best videos on NPR Music in the weeks ahead. |
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Do You Have To Nearly Kill Yourself To Become A Classical Musician?  A pianist ponders how far he's gone to learn to play his instrument — and suggests you try, too. Though James Rhodes says he encountered massive medical and marital problems in his quest, he believes even amateur music-making beats prepackaged entertainment. |
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Nicola Benedetti: Tiny Desk Concert Watch the young violinist spin out music by John Williams and Bach in sweet and soulful tendrils of sound. Wielding a 1717 Gariel Strad worth $10 million, Benedetti performs with warmth and approachable grace that's simply enchanting. |
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What Do You Get Valery Gergiev For His 60th Birthday?  Today marks the superstar conductor's birthday. So what do you get for the man with plum posts the world over? In the case of Russian president Vladimir Putin, you give him a newly resuscitated Soviet prize — and a brand-new theater. |
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Madame Mao's Hollywood Fantasies See and hear examples of politically dogmatic — but extravagantly assembled — operas and ballets born during the Cultural Revolution. Glamorous photo stills by Zhang Yaxin of works like Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy were recently shown in Canada. |
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How Do You Handle Loneliness On The Road?  The refreshingly open American mezzo Joyce DiDonato doles out some great advice — and not just to aspiring singers. In her latest YouTube video, she tackles subjects ranging from alienation to friendships to creating a life free from expectations of what's "right." |
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Appreciating A Pillar Of The Chicago Sound: Trumpeter Bud Herseth  The legendary musician, widely adored by brass players and fans around the globe, spent 53 years as the principal in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He died Saturday at age 91. Watch some of his performances, including an extraordinary Mahler Fifth Symphony. |
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Caroline Shaw, 30, Wins Pulitzer For Music  The versatile composer, violinist and vocalist is one of just a handful of female musicians to earn the prize — and, at age 30, the youngest music winner ever. Her 'Partita for 8 Voices' was written for the debut recording by the vocal ensemble with which she performs, Roomful of Teeth. |
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Remembering Colin Davis, A Conductor Beloved Late In Life  The English conductor was knighted in 1980 and won three Grammys — but did not reach the real heights of his career until he was in his sixties and seventies. Famed for his interpretations of Berlioz, Sibelius and Mozart as well as contemporary composers, he died at age 85 on Sunday. |
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Huberman's List: How A Violinist Saved Jews In World War II  The story of how legendary violinist Bronisław Huberman used his prestige and fame toward a heroic end inspired a documentary film. See the trailer and learn more about the founding of what became the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. |
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Lochlannach Phil Lockout Jump-Started By Kickstarter A beloved regional orchestra in Minnesota ends months of labor difficulty by replacing union musicians with unpaid community members. Hear the result — you won't believe it. |
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Marches Madness: 'Turkish' Mozart, Jazzed By An Expert  Meta music: Mozart's Orientalist fantasy, tweaked by Turkish pianist and composer Fazil Say. |
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Beyond 'Dayenu': What's Your Music Of Liberation? With Passover beginning, Jews around the world prepared to commemorate this major holiday with food, prayers and songs. We're on the hunt for music that helps spool out stories of enslavement and liberation. |
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Marches Madness: A Dancer's Joy  Meredith Monk's march lives up to its "Light" name — it's a pure distillation of joy. |
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How Does A Jewish Artist Tell The Ultimate Christian Story?  How does an Argentine Jewish artist approach the ultimate Christian narrative? MacArthur "genius" Osvaldo Golijov says it's by creating a "Latin American Jesus." His Passion According to St. Mark was recently staged at Carnegie Hall with a diverse group of singers from New York schools. |
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Marches Madness: Beware Friday The 15th! You read that right. Forget Friday the 13th and beware the Ides of March instead. (It was great advice, even if Julius Caesar didn't take it.) Comfort yourself in the glory that was Rome, courtesy of Respighi's blazing "Pines of the Appian Way" — performed on another momentous occasion. |
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The Classical Pianist With 55 Million YouTube Hits  Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa decided to rev up her stalled-out career in a very 21st-century way: by putting up dozens of videos of herself playing core repertoire. Now she's a superstar by any traditional standard. Do her major-label recordings matter? |
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'Soldier Songs': Can Effective And Affecting Art Come Out Of War? A new opera by David T. Little chronicles three generations of soldiers' experiences in journalistic style — and resurrects some important questions about the function of art. |
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How Does A Jewish Composer Tell The Passion Story?  How does an Argentine Jewish artist approach the ultimate Christian narrative? MacArthur "genius" Osvaldo Golijov says it's by creating a "Latin American Jesus." His Passion According to St. Mark is being staged at Carnegie Hall with a diverse group of singers from New York schools. |
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Carnegie Hall Live: Golijov's 'St. Mark Passion' Hear one of the most exciting pieces of 21st-century music: a new retelling of Jesus' last days, from the Latin American and Jewish perspectives, courtesy of composer Osvaldo Golijov and his vibrant cast of collaborators. The result is "as if musical history were starting over." |
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Remembering Wolfgang Sawallisch, A Conductor Who Blossomed In Philadelphia  A conductor formed in the opera houses of postwar Germany had a surprising late-life renaissance in the U.S. The former Philadelphia Orchestra music director died Friday at 89. |
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Can You Learn To Like Music You Hate? A new study from the University of Melbourne claims that when you don't understand music, you don't even really hear it. And the more you hear it — and understand it — the more you might love it. |
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Remembering Pioneering American Conductor, Poet And Anime Inspiration James DePreist The nephew of African-American contralto Marian Anderson was a trailblazer in his own right, an acclaimed conductor in an age when few black men led major orchestras. His international performing, recording and teaching career blossomed despite significant physical challenges. |
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Lean But Seen: The Joy Of Smaller Opera A intense but modestly scaled new opera called Sumeia's Song, written by rising young Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz, offers clues into how chamber-sized presentations can be successfully both financially and artistically. And Philip Glass' new Walt Disney opera streams for free Wednesday. |
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Does Classical Music Have A Transgender Problem? A moving essay in the New York Times by pianist Sara Davis Buechner poses many questions, including this: Is the American classical music community more unwilling than others to accept a transgendered performer? |
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Carnegie Hall Live: Daniel Barenboim Leads The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra The orchestra drawn from Israel and many countries across the Middle East and North Africa play two of Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 2 and 9 as part of their "Beethoven for All" initiative — using music as a model for nonpolitical communication. |
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Daniel Barenboim And Members Of The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra NPR Music, WQXR and (Le) Poisson Rouge host an intimate evening of music that spans both great Western and Middle Eastern music with members of an inspiring orchestra, led by one of classical music's most eminent artists. |
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The Ebene Quartet Powers Through Mendelssohn Watch one of today's top string quartets delve deep at a Brooklyn bookstore to play the dark-hued second movement of Felix Mendelssohn's Op. 80 string quartet. |
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Classical Crib Sheet: Top 5 Stories This Week Anne Akiko Meyer's newest super-pricey fiddle and leadership changes from the Munich Philharmonic to the London Symphony to The New York Times. Plus: Classical music might be good for your heart and a demonstration of teamwork but still detrimental to your safety behind the wheel. |
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Back Off The Bach To Drive Safely A new study from London Metropolitan University in the U.K. posits that classical music makes for unsafe driving — that it's safer to listen to hip-hop or heavy metal than Handel, Haydn or Holst. |
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Leonidas Kavakos: Letting Beethoven Shine Hear an excerpt from a new recording of Beethoven's violin sonatas by the violinist and his collaborator, pianist Enrico Pace, that keeps the spotlight on the compositions, not the soloist. A musician's musician, Kavakos focuses on more than just the pretty sounds his instrument can make. |
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Seismic Change At 'Downton Abbey,' As Heard In 'The Waltz'   How the season opener of the worldwide smash television series reminded one viewer of an orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel — 'La Valse' depicts an elegant world gone to pieces in the aftermath of World War I. Ravel's experiences in the war left him as shattered as the show's characters. |
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The Landfill Harmonic: An Orchestra Built From Trash  An upcoming documentary highlights an extraordinary orchestra in Paraguay, whose young members play instruments made out of trash in a slum built on top of a landfill. Watch the trailer. |
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5 Essential Ravi Shankar Recordings, From 'West Meets East' To 'West Eats Meat' Ravi Shankar was not just an ambassador for Indian culture. He was an intrepid musical explorer who as a teenager heard Cab Calloway and who created collaborations with artists ranging from George Harrison to Yehudi Menuhin to Philip Glass. Hear five Shankar collaborations you must know. |
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Remembering Charles Rosen, A Prodigious Pianist And Polymath The extraordinarily wide-ranging pianist, scholar and essayist died at age 85 Sunday after a multifaceted life in the arts and academia. His broad repertoire and keen insight as a writer helped shape decades of thought on classical and contemporary music. Hear him play and discuss the piano. |
 Check out a duo riffing on the Goldberg Variations in a very cool way: beatboxing and piano. |
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Ray Chen might be the finest current violinist you don't yet know — but you soon will. See this stellar artist perform bonbons by Sarasate and Saint-Saëns in an intimate performance recorded live at the New York nightclub (Le) Poisson Rouge. |
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Joyce DiDonato: Sublime Singing Makes The Unreal Real Hear a celebrated mezzo-soprano sing an aria from her exceptional new recording of Baroque opera selections, ranging from Handel and Haydn to nearly forgotten — but fiery and fabulous — arias by composers including Orlandini and Giacomelli. |
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Carnegie Hall Live: Gardiner Leads Beethoven's Missa Solemnis The celebrated English conductor leads his Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique and Monteverdi Choir in a performance of one of Beethoven's most expansive and searching works: the Missa Solemnis, a piece that asks far more questions than it answers. |
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'A Late Quartet': Melodrama With A Pounding Musical Heart Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener keep trying to make beautiful music together in 'A Late Quartet,' a new film about the struggles of a veteran chamber group. Beethoven supplies the soundtrack and a prism for splitting the strands of relationships and mortality. |
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Young Cellist With An Old Soul Plays Elgar, Elliott Carter Hear an excerpt of MacArthur "genius" cellist Alisa Weilerstein's excellent pairing of the Elgar Cello Concerto — recorded with Daniel Barenboim, whose late wife Jacqueline Du Pre's name was synonymous with this piece— and the cello concerto by Elliott Carter, who died yesterday at 103. |
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How Is The White House Like The Opera House?  Terrorism, worrying about China and immigration from Mexico — these sound like topics for Obama vs. Romney, but these pressing political issues have also found their way into today's opera houses. Watch excerpts from five contemporary operas that grapple with these hot potatoes head-on. |
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Composer Hans Werner Henze Remembered  Known for his lushly lyrical scores and a fierce opposition to the Nazism that shadowed his childhood, this major German composer died Saturday in Dresden at age 86. Watch an excerpt from his children's opera Pollicino and learn more about his wide-ranging artistic legacy. |
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Halloween Fright: Five Versions Of That Terrifying Toccata And Fugue  Many folks would call Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor the ultimate piece of scary music. With that in mind, we've dug around YouTube for five frightfully wild versions, from a hauntingly eerie version for glass harmonica to creepy goings-on on a toy piano. |
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Roomful Of Teeth: Experimental Singing, Smiles Guaranteed Hear this youthful group bring a 21st-century spin to a capella singing on their debut album, featuring new music by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs and other exciting contemporary composers. Their joyful sounds range from Mongolian throat singing to the Moonglows' doo-wop - in just one piece. |
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Masur And Levine On Parkinson's, Animating Wild Things And Shattering A Stereotype From around the classical internet, all the week's news that's fit to link. |
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(More) Lockouts, Lawsuits And Losses Minnesota goes to YouTube, classical "geniuses," and another fiddle seized at the airport: a roundup of all the classical news that's fit to link. |
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Orchestra Strikes, The Winter Of 'Spring For Music' And A Fertile Face For Opera Updates on the troubles in Chicago, Atlanta and Minnesota: from across the classical internet, all the news that's fit to link. |
