Jun 17 Blog ‘Requiem for the Enslaved’ holds a major university’s truths up to the light Carlos Simon is a young composer on the rise, with an ear for social justice. His best known work so far, Elegy, is a string quartet in honor of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Next year, a large-scale tribute to George Floyd will premiere with the Minnesota Orchestra, and Simon’s new album, Requiem […] By Tom Huizenga Jun 17 Blog ‘Requiem for the Enslaved’ holds a major university’s truths up to the light By Tom Huizenga
May 12 Blog ARC Ensemble: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. The conflicts between Russia and Ukraine reach far and wide, even deep […] By Tom Huizenga May 12 Blog ARC Ensemble: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert By Tom Huizenga
May 11 Blog Meet Raven Chacon, the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass received its world premiere Nov. 21, 2021 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, Wis. Far from any kind of traditional Catholic mass, the piece was written by Chacon, a Diné composer, performer and installation artist from the Navajo Nation, for chamber orchestra and pipe organ — specifically […] By Tom Huizenga May 11 Blog Meet Raven Chacon, the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music By Tom Huizenga
Apr 28 Blog Can classical music really be inclusive? Composer Jessie Montgomery thinks so Jessie Montgomery is having a moment. Several moments at once, actually. In the past several years, the 40-year-old composer and violinist has rapidly become a poster child for the shifting classical music canon — an artist who aims to overcome an institutional dependence on old dead white men by leveling the field for women and […] By Tom Huizenga Apr 28 Blog Can classical music really be inclusive? Composer Jessie Montgomery thinks so By Tom Huizenga
Apr 26 Blog Leif Ove Andsnes: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music’s Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space. The Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes is binging Mozart. He’s just released […] By Tom Huizenga Apr 26 Blog Leif Ove Andsnes: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert By Tom Huizenga
Dec 01 Blog Julia Bullock: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert From her home in Germany, the provocative American soprano delivers songs of introspection and freedom from Franz Schubert's mountaintop epiphany to Billy Taylor's wish for equality and justice. By Tom Huizenga Dec 01 Blog Julia Bullock: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert By Tom Huizenga
Aug 18 Blog Víkingur Ólafsson: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert Watch the rising young pianist, in a final performance from his Berlin home, make the case for two seemingly disparate French composers born nearly 200 years apart. By Tom Huizenga Aug 18 Blog Víkingur Ólafsson: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert By Tom Huizenga