Arts Feature of the Week:
Rediscovering Norman Zammitt what’s playing now
Carl's Morning Quiz
Carl's Morning Quiz: Who am I? I was born on this date in 1779 in Carroll Country, Maryland. I was a lawyer, an author, and an amateur poet. My poem "The Defense of Fort McHenry" has achieved great fame as a song--set to a tune by John Stafford Smith. Who am I and what is the title of the song based on my poem? Answer >>
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CSO Principal talks Elgar and Muti
Anyone who has seen Riccardo Muti catch air on the podium, might be hard-pressed to think of him as an old dog. Last spring, the youthful, now 73-year-old conductor demonstrated his willingness to learn new tricks: he led the CSO in his first-ever performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto. more...
Spanish Fever at Grant Park
February-March 1875, Paris – Within the span of one month, the Parisians saw the premieres of Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and Bizet's Carmen. For the audience, there was something different, something exotic about those pieces – eventually people would be whistling them in the streets. more...
Ongoing Debate: Does Music Have Meaning or Not?
Do you think music has meaning? Music can move you; music can make you want to move. For most listeners, it's a simple transaction. There are those who look deeper into our relationship to music, however, and wonder why it affects us so. Igor Stravinsky was one of them. Not always inclined to subtlety more...
David Robertson Puts Youth in Spotlight
On Monday evening, David Robertson returns to the Chicago stage, this time with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. There is the notion that some conductors work with youth orchestras while hoping to move on to professional orchestras – not so with David Robertson. He has the big career more...
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A Foreign Field review inaudible run through Torsten Rasch's WW1 elegy
Worcester Cathedral
An ambitiously elegiac work, which came nowhere near fulfilling its ambitions
Centenary commemorations of the outbreak of the first world war have been threaded through this year's Three Choirs Festival. Their focus was the first performance of A Foreign Field, a cantata by Torsten Rasch that was a joint commission between the festival and the Städtische theater in Chemnitz, eastern Germany.
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International concert pianist Piers Lane: 'Townsville is in my blood'
From concert crawls to on-stage conversations, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music is as intimate as its setting, says longstanding artistic director
Piers Lane is a concert pianist with an eclectic taste in socks and an intense passion for the people he works with. He has inoculated himself from the often lonely life of a solo artist by collaborating with a fabulous array of people, most recently actor Patricia Routledge.
Having just completed a whirlwind tour of Australia with their show Admission One Shilling, about wartime pianist Myra Hess, Lane is now back in Queensland for the Australian Festival of Chamber Music as artistic director for the eighth time. The local and international musicians he has handpicked will descend on Townsville for the next nine days to perform more than 100 scheduled works.
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Prom 13: CBeebies Prom - review
The first prom pitched at the under-fives keeps its young audience entertained with its mix of CBeebies favourites and rousing tunes.
Royal Albert Hall, London
Towards the end of the CBeebies Prom, Bernard Cribbins famous to his young audience as the eponymous hero of Old Jacks Boat announces that his on-screen dog Salty will go down in history: it is the first time in its 120 years that an animal has taken part in the Proms. It is probably also the first time an audience member has invaded the stage almost making it to the string section before being wrestled down by his mother - but then this is the first Prom pitched at the under-fives.
CBeebies favourites, including Mr Bloom and Swashbucklers Gem, pop up among the crowd at the Royal Albert Hall, eliciting excited gasps and waves from surrounding toddlers. Then the BBC Philharmonic kicks off with an Overture on Cbeebies Themes and the children, for the most part, fall surprisingly quiet.
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meet the hosts
Read the biography of host Peter Van De Graaff and find out more about all WFMT hosts.
travel with wfmt
Join Peter Van De Graaff for a trip to Montreal & Quebec City this September!
Join Lisa Flynn for a tour of Scotland.
Join Peter Van De Graaff this October for the treasures of Cuba's rich culture of music, dance, art, and history!
