Classical Communiqué Classical blog

Discussing the way classical music touches the mind and the heart.

Classical Music Playlist, March 28, 2023

CapRadio Classical and Jazz celebrates women in music every weekday in March. Today's spotlight is on Nadia and Lili Boulanger with Pulitzer Prize winning by one of Nadia's composition students, Virgil Thomson, for today's Midday Masterpiece.

Connections

The Orpheus Connection

CapRadio celebrates women in music

A Music of Their Own

Women in Music: Deborah Pittman

March 17, 2023

CapRadio Classical and Jazz is celebrating Women in Music all month long. Jennifer Reason spoke with clarinetist, ceramicist and performance artist Deborah Pittman about carrying her passion for music through life.

Women in Music: Natsuki Fukasawa

March 10, 2023 | Jennifer Reason | Avery Jeffry

CapRadio Classical and Jazz is celebrating Women in Music all month long including four spotlights on local musicians. Jennifer Reason spoke with pianist, professor and Steinway Artist Natsuki Fukasawa about how music can make us whole.

Caroline Tompkins/courtesy of the artist

Missy Mazzoli is a symphonic composer with a photographer's eye

March 7, 2023

On her new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, the vibrant, young composer coaxes unusual sounds from a symphony orchestra.

Jessie Montgomery, composing from a place of self-honor

March 1, 2023

Watch Lara Downes' conversation with the composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about balancing her roots, her craft and the shifting field of classical music.

Gustavo Dudamel's new musical home is the New York Philharmonic

February 8, 2023

The New York Philharmonic announced Tuesday afternoon that the charismatic 42-year-old conductor will be taking on the music director designate post at the start of the 2025-26 concert season.

Lara Downes' season 3 of 'Amplify' launches with a theme of renaissance

February 2, 2023

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to pianist Lara Downes about her interview series Amplify, which examines how Black artists today might find themselves in a new cultural renaissance.

For Missy Mazzoli, composing is the hard work of making life easier

January 26, 2023

The composer of Breaking the Waves speaks candidly about equity in her field, the importance of role models and the unglamorous side of writing music every day.

Ned Rorem, major American composer and diarist, has died at age 99

November 18, 2022

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.