Deceptive Cadence : NPR: Recent Episodes
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Deceptive Cadence un-stuffs the world of classical music, which is both fusty and ferociously alive.
Flow.'/>Nokuthula Ngwenyama's Flow is on a 13-city tour of performances by the celebrated Takács Quartet.
British composer Martin Phipps discusses how he used an 1808 French piano that once belonged to Napoleon in the score for Ridley Scott's biopic of the one-time emperor.
Florencia gives star Ailyn Pérez a rare chance to sing in Spanish. As the bilingual daughter of Mexican immigrants, she learned early on that language had the power to shape her experience and voice.
(Image credit: Ken Howard)
A new album of music by the 88-year-old Estonian mystic seems to put an arm around you and whisper, "In troubled times, music can help."
(Image credit: Luciano Rossetti)
Polish countertenor and breakdancer Jakub Józef Orliński talks about his new album with Il Pomo d'Oro orchestra.
(Image credit: Monika Rittershaus)
Absent from the recording studio for more than a decade, the restless musician has commissioned six composers for his new album.
The music that haunts the Oscar-nominated film is a calling card for conductor Rafael Payare.
(Image credit: Gerard Collett/Courtesy of the artist)
On her new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, the vibrant, young composer coaxes unusual sounds from a symphony orchestra.
(Image credit: Caroline Tompkins/courtesy of the artist)
What do great conductors listen to when they're not on the podium? Nézet-Séguin made a playlist, specifically for Fresh Air, of music that inspires him (plus one of his cats' favorite songs).
(Image credit: Chris Lee/Philadelphia Orchestra)
New York philharmonic president and CEO Deborah Borda discusses the decisionmaking process behind bringing the superstar conductor to the Big Apple.
(Image credit: Chris Lee/New York Philharmonic)
The PROTOTYPE festival, now in its 10th year, presents new operas and music-theater works in smaller settings. "We were trying to create a black box opera movement," says co-founder Beth Morrison.
(Image credit: Maria Baranova/Unison Media)
More than a century ago, a Met librarian made some of the first live music recordings. Now, (with an assist from NPR) 16 of the Mapleson Cylinders are joining the New York Public Library collection.
(Image credit: Alex Teplitzky/NYPL)
Among other things Badalamenti's music, soft and bizarre and surging, was an emotional compass for the uncanny creations of director David Lynch.
(Image credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
After VAN magazine published accusations against Robert Beaser, a former head of The Juilliard School's composition department, hundreds of composers, educators and presenters are demanding change.
(Image credit: Noam Galai/Getty Images)
Three people have accused two teachers at the world-renowned music school — composers Robert Beaser and the late Christopher Rouse — of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s and 2000s.
(Image credit: Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images)
The velvet-voiced soprano with a career on the rise chooses her projects, and the music on her debut solo album, with consummate intention.
(Image credit: Grant Legan/Nonesuch Records)
Discover a broad spectrum of this year's most compelling classical music, from booby-trapped string quartets and chilled-out piano to full-throttle percussion, electric guitars and high-flying vocals.
(Image credit: Photo illustration: Jackie Lay/NPR / Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and diarist died Friday at age 99. Although he won the Pulitzer for an orchestral work, he was most celebrated for his huge body of art songs — over 500 in all.
As the new concert season gets underway, composers and orchestra administrators say they are feeling a shift in whose music gets heard.
Collecting traditional tunes from all over the British Isles, Vaughan Williams famously produced gently modal folksong fantasies evoking England's "green and pleasant land."
The new David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center, home of the New York Philharmonic, opens this week. And while the outside is the same, everything inside has changed.
In 2014, a study found that only 1.4% of orchestra musicians were Black. In 2022, it's hard to know if that number is better or worse.
The Scottish guitarist defies expectations, ditching his traditional nylon-strung instrument for a Fender Stratocaster to play a startling range of music – from Meredith Monk to Chick Corea.
The new record label La Boîte à Pépites is dedicated to raising the profile of female composers whose works have been neglected.
Hear the towering – and polarizing – author in conversation about his 4,000-page book, The Oxford History of Western Music.
Vijay Gupta was a 19-year-old violin prodigy when he joined the LA Philharmonic. Now he runs Street Symphony, an organization bringing music to clinics, jails and homeless shelters on Skid Row.
Georgetown University owes its survival to slavery. A new album by Carlos Simon, an assistant professor at the school, unflinchingly confronts that legacy.
Ukraine's National Opera was built to celebrate Russian opera at the height of the imperial era. Performances were suspended after the war began but have recently re-started.
On a new album, the classical stars revisit the concerto Williams composed specifically for Ma, as well as some of Williams' most affecting film scores.
On a new album, the most accessible so far, the Grammy-winning group reaches out to an EDM wizard, a famous film score composer and Philip Glass.
A composer, performer and installation artist from the Navajo Nation, Chacon's winning piece, Voiceless Mass, was composed for chamber orchestra and a specific Milwaukee pipe organ.
A pianist widely admired by his fellow artists, Radu Lupu was known for his interpretations of Brahms, Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven, among others. Lupu retired from performing in 2019.
Known for his sonic brashness and unyielding artistic vision, Birtwistle was awarded a British knighthood in 1988. He was one of the U.K.'s most prominent composers for decades.
In "A Knee on the Neck," composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin pay tribute to Floyd's memory and offer hope for the future – while wrestling with the realities of the present day.
While the creators of a a new opera about Emmett Till hope it will inspire white people to confront racism, others worry it depicts Black trauma for white entertainment while masquerading as activism.
The ebullient nonagenarian's new recording features music she's been playing for nearly a century.
While Russian artists and institutions grapple with how they are viewed internationally, American cultural organizations make what amounts to foreign policy decisions.