New Releases Mar. 24: A Kanneh-Mason Debut, Ravel x2, Rare Birds, and More Composers
Composer-specific recordings are front-and-center this week, with two foregrounding works by Maurice Ravel, as well as album-length explorations dedicated to Telemann, Franz Schubert, and Georges Bizet. And two debut recordings: by Jeneba Kanneh-Mason and idiosyncratic chamber collective Owls.
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How One Chord Changed the World: “Tristan” at 150
If you’re a music lover, you may have heard of the so-called “Tristan chord” from Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. Audiences were stunned to hear this infamous harmony when the opera premiered on June 10, 1865 in Munich, Germany. As Tristan turns 150, let’s take a look at what makes the Tristan chord so unique. The “Vorspiel,” or Prelude, to Tristan begins with with a “dissonant” chord. The terms “consonance” ...
What If Nina Simone Had Been a Classical Pianist?
Before Nina Simone became one of America’s most iconic jazz musicians, she wanted to have a career as a classical pianist.
Minnesota Orchestra To Perform Historic Concerts in Cuba
WFMT will join American Public Media for a live broadcast from the Teatro Nacional in Havana, Cuba, featuring the Minnesota Orchestra.
Listen: Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Piece of Music that Changed His Life
A conversation with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Finnish composer-conductor widely considered to be one of the most important in his field.
Star Soprano Kate Royal on the Joys and Difficulties of Singing Rare French Works
Soprano Kate Royal has made her name singing in some of the oldest and most beloved operas in the repertoire by Monteverdi and Mozart, but the London native is also drawn to and sought-after to perform in more modern operas.
Playlist: 5 Mexican Composers You Should Know
Learn more about Mexico’s most celebrated composers of the past and present. Here are 5 Mexican composers you should know because of their incredible contributions to the world of music.
Playlist: 6 Songs to Welcome the Merry Month of May
“April is the cruelest month,” T.S. Eliot famously wrote. But May is here, and what better way to welcome this merry month than with music? Here are six songs to help you say goodbye to April showers and say hello to May flowers.
Mezzo Jamie Barton Receives $50K Richard Tucker Award
Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton was just named the recipient of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award, a prestigious honor conferred annually and informally dubbed the “Heisman Trophy of Opera."
WFMT’s Top 10 Reads on World Book Day
Today is World Book Day, a yearly event celebrated worldwide on April 23rd and organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. Looking for a good read to celebrate World Book Day? We at WFMT have picked some of our favorite reads to share with you.
Julia Wolfe Wins 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music
Judges described Wolfe’s work, Anthracite Fields, as a “powerful oratorio for chorus and sextet evoking Pennsylvania coal-mining life around the turn of the 20th Century.”
