Classical Classroom

Masterpiece's Downton Abbey came to an end last night after six seasons. In this tell-all exposé, Scottish composer John Lunn talks about his years with the Crawley family, what Lord Grantham really thought of Branson, and his thoughts on Thomas Barrow's perpetual bad attitude. Okay, okay — not exactly. But Lunn does talk about how he got into writing for TV, how it's different than writing operas and violin concertos, and about being part of the Downton team for six... Read More

  Hugh Sung is a modern classical music renaissance man: He's a podcaster, a techie, a pianist who's collaborated with people like Jennifer Higdon and Hillary Hahn, an author, an inventor, a former Curtis Institute Professor who now teaches online. Sung has crafted a life — and a career — that keeps him close to his passion and that constantly engages his busy mind. In this MusicWorks episode, learn how and why Hugh does it, and... Read More

 Beyond Pluck is a harp duo, comprised of Paula Bressman and Rachel Miller. In addition to the classical repertoire, they also like arranging pop songs for the harp, working with scientists and artists, touring clubs as well as concert halls, and long walks on the beach. In this episode, Paula and Rachel talk about the history of the harp and how it works, its repertoire, conjuring fairies, and why anyone would want to play something so... Read More

  In honor of Presidents Day, we are rerunning not one, but TWO very presidential episodes of Classical Classroom. Originally, our discussion with AFA’s ‎executive and artistic director Michael Remson was so epic — spanning John Adams’ entire Nixon in China opera — that we divided it into two episodes. For your listening pleasure, we’ve merged the two episodes into one here. So, go get some apple pie, your whittling tools, and a glass of whiskey... Read More

  Start your Valentine's Day week with cellist Alisa Weilerstein's introduction to the music of Sergey Rachmaninov. Who was this romantic man, and what makes him different from all the other guys - I mean, composers? Weilerstein walks us through Rachmaninov's Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano. Plus, she talks about her musical relationship with performing partner, pianist Inon Barnatan, and what it's like to be part of a long-term creative duo. Music in this... Read More

 This week, Dacia Clay has the Dover String Quartet; violinists, Joel Link, Bryan Lee; violist, Milena Pajaro-Van De Stadt; and cellist, Camden Shaw into the studio. They listen to a recording of their own concert from the night before when they played Alban Berg's String Quartet Opus 3 for the Chamber Music Houston series.  They introduce Dacia to the twelve-tone system of music composition, and she lives to talk about it. They also discuss serialism, Schoenberg,... Read More

 In December of last year, pop singer Taylor Swift donated $50,000 to the Seattle Symphony because she loved their recording of John Luther Adams' 42-minute work, Become Ocean. In this episode, Adams reveals his own pop culture roots, and credits Frank Zappa for getting him into classical music. He talks about his work as an environmentalist, what led him to write Ocean, and swims us through a piece so awesome that critic Alex Ross called it, "the loveliest apocalypse... Read More

This episode is full of spoilers - not just spoilers about The Force Awakens, but about future Star Wars episodes. Okay - they could be future spoilers. Right now, they're just our attempts at trying to find the Easter eggs hidden in John Williams' new score. This may be the nerdiest and most epic episode of Classical Classroom to date. Brett Mitchell, Associate Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, is your guide through the... Read More

When oboist, journalist, and author Blair Tindall wrote her memoir, Mozart in the Jungle, she tells us, she didn't necessarily not think it would become a TV show. But she did stop to marvel at the fact that playing the oboe could lead to buying a dress for the Golden Globes. Last night, the Amazon series based on her book won two Golden Globes: One for Best TV Comedy or Musical, and one Best Actor in a TV Comedy or... Read More

Happy New Year, everybody! Get ready for an astonishing onslaught of awesome, a veritable juggernaut of wow, from Classical Classroom in 2016 (John Luther Adams! The Force Awakens! Alisa Weilerstein!), starting with this episode featuring Rufus Wainwright. You may know Rufus Wainwright as a singer-songwriter, a piano man, a dude who hangs out with Elton John and Joni Mitchell. But as it turns out, he also writes classical music and opera. In this episode, he talks... Read More

Team Classroom is taking a little holiday break this week, so we present one of our favorite episodes from the wayback machine. Hope your holiday season is full of the good stuff. We'll be back next week with new episodes! --------------------- In this episode, independent producer, author, documentary filmmaker, Peabody Award-winner (et cetera, et cetera…), Wesley Horner chats with Dacia about Bach's B Minor Mass and bringing classical music to people who hate wearing tuxedos.... Read More

It's four days until Christmas. Chances are, you've heard a lot of beautiful music. If you're looking for more of that, you've come to the wrong place. Welcome to Jingle Hell, where bad songs are born, and good songs come to die. Alecia Lawyer, founder, artistic director, and principal oboist of River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO) talks about the worst musical offerings of the season, and what makes them so bad. Songs that include entire... Read More

2013 was - I think we can all agree - a magical year. It was the year of the arthouse film Sharknado, the year of the Harlem Shake, and the year that Justin Bieber was separated from his pet monkey. But more important than any of those moments? Thanksgivukkah happened. Learn all about this phenomenon, about the history of Hanukkah, and about the music of the holiday in this Classical Classroom episode from the vault.-------------------------------------------------Happy... Read More

Chances are, unless you happen to be a cellist, you've probably never heard of Auguste Franchomme. But back in the day, he was one of the most celebrated musicians in Paris, he was besties with Chopin, and he hung out with people like Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, and the Rothschilds. He was a teenager when he won the Premier Prix at the Paris Conservatoire, and he was solo cellist in King Louis-Philippe’s Musique du Roi. So,... Read More

 Hope all of you in the States enjoyed your Thanksgiving. We took some time off to enjoy ours, so this week, we're giving you old gold. Øystein was recently in Houston, and because our stars didn't align, we weren't able to record a new episode with him. (Øystein, come back anytime, buddy!) To make up for that, we give you this rerun. Learn 100% more about the tuba in this episode than you've ever known! Norwegian... Read More