Fishko Files from WNYC

This Fishko Files was produced in honor of the Woody Guthrie Centenary (Guthrie was born in 1912). His daughter Nora -- then the head of the family archive -- spent some time sharing some archival rarities with WNYC's Sara Fishko.

At the end of June, violinist Glenn Dicterow will end his long run as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. As WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us in this Fishko Files, Dicterow has navigated his way across a complex musical map...

Fifty years ago this summer, Andy Warhol's very long film -- featuring a great metropolitan icon -- was filmed in midtown Manhattan. WNYC's Sara Fishko has more in this Fishko Files...

Fifteen years ago, a contentious battle erupted over the presentation of a special Academy Award to director Elia Kazan –who had named the names of some his colleagues during the Blacklist years.  Just before that Oscar night, 1999, WNYC’s Sara Fishko spoke to writer Walter Bernstein, a victim of the Blacklist, to hear his side of the story.    

From the Fishko Files Archive: As the year 2000 approached, WNYC’s Sara Fishko listened to a new outpouring of recordings andfilms of some of the greatest pianists of the 20th century –and found much to re-discover.    

The music world has always had a special appeal to filmmakers, who've used musical fact and fiction to great advantage in countless movies; but, as WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us in this archival edition of Fishko Files, it's a particular image of the musician that they've created...

In 1999, there were numerous celebrations of the composer Frederic Chopin, who had died 150 years earlier in 1849.  WNYC's Sara Fishko took the moment to ponder, in this archival edition of Fishko Files, the question of what Chopin actually did for music.

Some very small things, says WNYC’s Sara Fishko, warrant a longer look. In this edition of Fishko Files, an extreme close-up of a piece of music that everyone seems to know…

Music Minus One became an institution after WWII in a different America.  In this Fishko files WNYC’s Sara Fishko explored MMO’s product ---music minus the solo instrument (“your cello here…”)—during its half-century celebration.  

As the current production of the Brecht-Kurt Weill “Threepenny Opera” continues at the Atlantic Theater Company, we offer this Fishko Files on Lotte Lenya (Weill’s wife and muse) and the many ways to sing Weill’s music.  

Hoagy Carmichael occupied a particular place in music and movie history.  WNYC's Sara Fishko and guests considered his legacy in this Fishko Files from 2002.  Note: both Mary Cleere Haran (1953-2011) and Richard Sudhalter (1938-2008) have died since the piece was produced.

It was right around this time seventy five years ago –as spring was finally kicking in—that workers were putting the finishing touches on the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens.  As WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us in this Fishko Files, its theme, “The World of Tomorrow,” held special promise for Depression-era Americans…

More than 90 years ago, the music world was changed by a remarkable musical instrument that still seems new. WNYC's Sara Fishko tells us about an electronic marvel that has its own sound, and its own bizarre story. Here's the next Fishko Files...

 In this edition of  Fishko Files, a story about music, politics and the U.S.A. 

A three day mini-film festival, “The Music of Morricone,” begins tonight at BAM.  The superstar film-composer Ennio Morricone is noted for mixing all kinds of sounds into his scores, including whistling--- which, As WNYC’s Sara Fishko tells us, has its own, colorful history.  Here is this Fishko Files.