We all came to love classical music in different ways. Here are some of the musical first loves of our WFMT listeners, in their own words.

This week, Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti leads a program featuring Tchaikovsky’s Suites from The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, opening with Reznicek’s Overture to Donna Diana. Filling out the broadcast, Stephanie Jeong, So Young Bae, Lawrence Neuman, and Kenneth Olsen perform Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major.

This week, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the CSO in Ravel’s Mother Goose, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and Dessner’s Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Pekka Kuusisto. Rounding out the broadcast, Sir George Solti conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

The world premiere of a piece commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, with the composer as soloist! Soprano Kate Soper stars in a piece of her own creation: Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus. Also on the program is one of Stravinsky’s shorter symphonies, plus Symphony No. 11 by Philip Glass.

Gustavo Dudamel formally begins his duties as the Music and Artistic Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic this season. Tonight’s program features the decorated conductor leading the ensemble in a variety of works by Ravel, Gershwin, and Edgard Varèse.

Pull up a comfy chair and take a listen with the whole family.

With this wealth of allegorical associations, these elegant creatures have captured composers’ imaginations for centuries.

Masterworks of Italy and France are paired with a moving Chinese piano concerto featuring soloist Haochen Zhang in this program from Beijing. The program’s finale is the beautiful Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns, titled the “Organ Symphony”.

The orchestra — fueled by a mission to make classical music more accessible and diverse — will share five programs between October and May.

Humans across cultures have played percussion instruments to accompany music and dance or for ritual, religious, or military purposes. But percussion’s rise in prominence within the context of the Western symphony orchestra only really began in the 20th century.

This week, Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti leads a program featuring Tchaikovsky’s Suites from The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, opening with Reznicek’s Overture to Donna Diana. Filling out the broadcast, Stephanie Jeong, So Young Bae, Lawrence Neuman, and Kenneth Olsen perform Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Ravel’s opera with a performance from February 28, 1981.

Ravel’s inspired genius and quirky personality comes vibrantly to life in a mix of musical highlights and commentary from acclaimed artists with unique interpretations of the French composer’s music.

Among the composer’s lesser known works are pieces inspired by ticking clocks, talking animals, and Madagascar folk songs!

This week, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the CSO in Ravel’s Mother Goose, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and Dessner’s Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Pekka Kuusisto. Rounding out the program, Sir George Solti conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Alan Gilbert conducts works by Ravel, Nielsen, and Tchaikovsky.

Works by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Maurice Ravel.

Curated celebratory classical music, and the exact second to press play so the music crescendos with the changing of the New Year.

Music by three French composers captivated by the music of Spain: Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Maurice Ravel. Plus music by Spanish composers Manuel de Falla and Pablo de Sarasate.

A retrospective on Leonard Bernstein’s revolutionary concert series, which introduced countless listeners to classical music. And Jamie Bernstein, daughter of the influential conductor-composer, reflect on her father’s legacy.

The Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko take the Waldbühne stage in a program pairing Maurice Ravel with music by Modest Mussorgsky and Sergei Prokofiev and featuring pianist Yuja Wang.

André de Ridder leads the CSO in a suite from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, along with Rhapsody in Blue and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with Inon Barnatan. Next, seventh music director Jean Martinon conducts selections from Bizet’s L’arlésienne and second music director Frederick Stock’s arrangement of Paganini’s “Moto Perpetuo”.

Pianist Rieko Tsuchida performs works by J.S. Bach, Maurice Ravel, Sato Matsui, and Isaac Albéniz live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Music Director Louis Langrée teams up again with acclaimed composer Jonathan Bailey Holland for a world premiere symphony.

In this broadcast, we hear Pierre Boulez conduct three French works: the score to the ballet La Péri by Paul Dukas, the Symphony No. 3 by Roussel, and the Mother Goose suite by Ravel. We’ll also hear Leonard Bernstein lead a performance of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto from the keyboard.