Simon Woods brings more than 30 years of experience working with orchestras to his leadership role as president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras. Simon is known throughout the world of classical music as a highly trusted mentor and advisor to orchestra management professionals. His leadership includes regular columns in professional periodicals about the future of orchestras, as well as lectures and speaking engagements at conferences and orchestra boardrooms around the country. I wa...
Jun 08, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 117
Marc A. Scorca joined OPERA America as president and CEO in 1990. Under his leadership, OPERA America has become one of the most respected arts service organizations in North America. Its membership has grown from 120 opera companies to nearly 4,000 organizations and individuals, and its reach extends to 80,000 annual visitors at the National Opera Center and over 83,000 subscribers across digital channels worldwide. Marc has administered over $20 million in grants and prizes to opera companies ...
May 23, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 116
Philippe Quint, violinist, was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg today) and trained in the United States at the The Juilliard School, earning both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. He made his solo debut at age nine while studying at Moscow’s Special Music school for the Gifted. He earned top prizes in music competitions around the world, and his recording of Korngold’s Violin Concerto ranked in the top 20 on Billboard’s Classical Chart in its first week of sales. He benefited from coaching sess...
May 12, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 115
Ann Morrison was Mary Flynn in the original 1981 production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along , directed by Harold Prince, for which she won the 1982 Theatre World Award. More than 40 years later she remains remembered for that role, but she has done so much more since then, including her one-person show she is currently revising, to take on the road.
Apr 21, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 114
Stephen Hamilton, the “concert touring organist,” has been prominent on the American organ scene for over 40 years. The New York Times wrote of Hamilton’s performance of the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor: “Hamilton, as organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) obviously knew the instrument’s sonorous capabilities and brought them powerfully to bear in a rousing account.” Throughout his distinguished career, such consistent critical reviews have earned Hamilton acclaim as a t...
Apr 09, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 113
GRAMMY® Award winning Classical Producer of the Year, Michael Fine is one of the top classical recording producers in the world. But he also has been active in artistic planning for major orchestras world-wide. He formerly was vice president of artists and repertoire at Deutsche Grammophon, the first American to hold the post of artistic director of the 100 year-old label. Michael remains active as clarinetist with engagements at Festival Mozaic in California and the Tongyeong Music Festival in ...
Mar 26, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 112
The Met: Live in HD is a series of live opera performances transmitted to selected venues, primarily movie theaters around the world, in high-definition video, via satellite from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The first transmission was the Julie Taymor production of a condensed English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute , on December 30, 2006. Veteran TV director Gary Halvorson, an accomplished classical pianist, has been the primary director of these telecasts from the begi...
Mar 16, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 111
Michael Stephen Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” His artistry is shaped by his creative voice as a pianist and composer, praised for his “fearless performances” ( The New York Times ) and “exceptionally beautiful” compositions ( The Washington Post ). He was the winner of the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant. He regularly performs recitals with his long...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 110
Robert Neu is known for his highly theatrical and musically sensitive work He has directed over 100 productions of operas, musicals and plays throughout the country. Bob’s productions include everything from T he Music Man to St. John Passion, plus Bernstein’s Mass , Peer Gynt (for which he also did the adaptation), L a Traviata, The Magic Flute and Carousel, Hansel and Gretel, Don Giovanni a nd La Bohème, Bob Neu teaches masterclasses in audition techniques for the University of Minnesota’s ope...
Feb 18, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Richard Kogan has a distinguished career as a psychiatrist and a concert pianist. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and Artistic Director of the Weill Cornell Music and Medicine Program, he has been praised for his “exquisite playing” by The New York Times , and the Boston Globe wrote, “Kogan has somehow managed to excel at the world’s two most demanding professions.” Dr. Kogan has gained renown for his lecture/concerts that explore the role of music in healing an...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 108
Justin Lucero is artistic director of Theater Latté Da, in Minneapolis. In addition to nearly a dozen works directed for El Paso Opera, Justin enjoys a robust freelance directing career for professional and academic stages, including past work with Abingdon Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, City Theatre (Pittsburgh), Creede Repertory Theatre, University of Texas El Paso, UTEP Dinner Theatre, the University of Houston, and Scaffolding Theatre, of which he was also Co-Founding Artistic D...
Jan 20, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Conductor John DeMain is noted for his dynamic performances on concert and opera stages throughout the world. In January 2023, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Opera Association, the association’s highest award. During his three decades as the Madison Symphony Orchestra music director, John has consistently raised the quality of the orchestra by introducing blind auditions and continuously expanding the repertoire to encompass ever more challenging and virtuosic works. ...
Jan 07, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 106
Andrew Arceci has developed a varied career as performer, composer/arranger, and scholar. He performs regularly on the viola da gamba (viol), violone, and double bass throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. As viol soloist with orchestra, Andrew has performed historical and/or contemporary works with Oxford Baroque (UK), and numerous ensembles throughout the United States. Recent recording projects include the upcoming Love & Lust with Elizabeth Hungerford, soundtrack work for the BBC-On...
Dec 27, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 105
What a pleasure it was talking to Danish conductor Thomas Sondegard as he began his journey as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. Bringing broad experience in both orchestral and opera repertoires, he has been music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra since 2018. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and he has appeared with all the major orchestras in Europe. He is also a familiar figure in Scandinavia, working with...
Dec 13, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 104
D. T. Max first contributed to the New Yorker in 1997 and has been a staff writer since 2010. He is the author of “The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery,” a cultural and scientific study of fatal familial insomnia disease; “Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace,” and the topic of our conversation, “Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim.” He has been the books editor of the New York Observer , a writer for the Times Magazine , and a pseudonymous ...
Nov 26, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 103
Singer, rapper, and writer, Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—her résumé as a musician includes performances at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, co-compositions for 100-voice choir, performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, and top-200 entries on the Billboard charts. Dessa has delivered keynote speeches and presentations on art, science, and entrepreneurship; guest lectures at universities and colleges across the US; and a TED Talk about her science experiment on ...
Nov 15, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 102
Lee Mills is internationally recognized as a passionate, multifaceted and energetic conductor. In naming Mills as the ‘New Artist of the Month’ for March 2022, Musical America praised his ‘omnivorous musical temperament eager to try out highly contrasting musical styles and approaches.’ As you’ll hear, Lee left his mark wit the Seattle Symphony during the COVID pandemic, stepping in at crucial times. The League of American Orchestras selected Lee Mills for the 2018 Bruno Walter National Conducto...
Nov 01, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 101
Since 2015, the Beo String Quartet has created a niche for itself as a daring, genre-defying ensemble. Trained in the classical tradition, violinists Jason Neukom and Andrew Giordano, violist Sean Neukom, and cellist Ryan Ash also know their way around contemporary expression, including the use of electronics, live sound processing, and spatial audio manipulation. Their performances of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, or Shostakovich have been compared to those of the best among 21st centur...
Oct 21, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 100
With “a prodigious clarity of diction” ( Scherzo ) and “a moving tendresse” ( BBC Music Magazine ), Esther Yoo has been described as “the model of a violin soloist in the modern age.” ( The Strad ). In 2010, she became the youngest prizewinner of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, and of the Queen Elisabeth Competition two years later. She talks about both. In 2014, she became a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and in 2018 she was selected as one of Classic FM’s Top 30 Artists ...
Oct 08, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 99
Now-retired opera stage director Sonja Frisell capped her astounding career in 2017, when at age 80 in Muscat, Oman, with the touring Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro, she restaged Jean Pierre-Ponnelle’s 1987 production of a little known one-act opera, L’Occasione fa il Ladro (“Opportunity makes the thief”). She had been a protégé of Ponnelle, so who better? But it was in 1989 when the Metropolitan Opera debuted her production of Verdi’s Aida with its hieroglyphics and torchlight temples designe...
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 98
Paul Jacobs is chair of the organ department at Juilliard School. An extraordinarily expressive performer and an intensely intelligent musician, Grammy Award-winning organist, he is helping the “King of Instruments” retake its rightful place in classical music. Charming to speak with and passionate about the instrument, this hour with Paul is sheer delight.
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 97
Described by The New York Times as “one of America’s finest artists and singers,” Frederica von Stade continues to be extolled as one of the music world’s most beloved figures. She has enriched the world of classical music for three decades. Her career has taken her to the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. She began at the top, when she received a contract from Rudolf Bing during the Metropolitan Opera auditions, and since her debut in 1970 she has sung nearly all of he...
Sep 04, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 96
Ira Siff is a native New Yorker, who grew up on the standing room line of the old Metropolitan Opera, worshiping the famous singers of the 60s. A graduate of the Cooper Union, with a degree in Fine Arts, Ira studied voice, and made his debut as a tenor in 1970. For the next decade, he performed roles in opera, operetta and musicals in New York, at The New York Shakespeare Festival, Circle in the Square, Playwrights Horizons, and other venues. Turning to cabaret, Ira created an act using vocal pa...
Aug 24, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 95
Anna Clyne was described as “fearless” by NPR. After sampling her works you'll know why. She is one of the most in-demand composers today, working with orchestras, choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists around the world. Anna was named the 8th most performed contemporary composer in the world and the most performed living female British composer, in 2022....
Aug 14, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 94
Mattias Schulstad is a Swedish classical guitarist, whose playing is described by Gramophone magazine as “refined, intelligent and highly musical.” He has made recordings, performed as soloist with orchestra, and developed the guitar’s repertoire. Mattias’s recent single, Johann Sebastian Bach's prelude BWV 999 features, according to Pulitzer-winner Tim Page, “immaculate and sensitive playing that takes a listener to the heart of Bach's music.” His full-length recording debut Invocación introduc...
Aug 03, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 93
With his last-minute stand-in in the acclaimed new production of Salome at the Berlin State Opera, Thomas Guggeis caused a sensation internationally. As Staatskapellmeister of the Staatsoper Berlin since 2020/21 has conducted, or is due to conduct, Falstaff, Lohengrin, Samson et Dalila, Hansel and Gretel, Don Giovanni, Jenufa, T he Merry Wives of Windsor and Elektra . His debut at the Vienna State Opera were Salome and Die tote Stadt . He will soon give symphony concerts around the world, includ...
Jul 24, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 92
Based in Brooklyn, New York and Minneapolis, Minnesota, David has performed off-broadway and around the country at American Conservatory Theatre, The Guthrie, Baltimore Center Stage, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Florida Repertory Theatre, Theatre Latte Da, and many others. He is the author of several musicals including The Passage, which has been developed at the NAMT Festival, Village Theatre, and beyond. He is also studying at New York University Tisch School of the Arts....
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 91
Richard Russell is general director of Sarasota Opera. He performed with the company for four seasons beginning in 1989 as an apprentice artist, studio artist, and principal. During his tenure as general director, Sarasota Opera increased individual giving by over 50%, more than doubled its endowment, and completed its world-renowned Verdi Cycle. Richard managed the construction and fundraising for the new Steinwachs Artist Residences for Sarasota Opera, which encompasses 30 units housing up to ...
Jul 02, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 90
David is a Canadian psychiatrist, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, author, lecturer and mental health advocate. He most recently served from 2003-2022 as the Senior Medical Advisor of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and a psychiatric consultant. Beyond his mental health work, he is a member of the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He has also chaired the board of governors of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada as well as chairing the board...
Jun 17, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 89
Beautiful Sarasota, Florida offers more than sun and beaches. It’s the home of opera, orchestra and ballet organizations, and fine arts museums and galleries. Listen, as the area’s arts critics discuss their roles in the arts and the future of criticism generally. Carrie Seidman, Jay Handelman and Marty Fugate are our panelists. Courtesy of The Education Center at Temple Beth Israel, Longboat Key, Florida
Jun 03, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 88
