Travel, jazz, springtime, and a creepy puppet show... What could go wrong?!

George Frederick Handel's Messiah is an epic masterwork with tons of beloved bangers. Read, watch, and learn!

Music about place, both geographical and cultural. Smetana's Moldau, Piazzolla's Seasons of Buenos Aires, and Brahms' 2nd Symphony. Yum.

W. A. Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn had a lot in common - both young talents with an affinity for the music of Bach, and a thirst for self expression through music composition. Learn about Mozart's 4th violin concerto and Mendelssohn's "Lobgesang"!

All of Living and Dying in one symphonic work? Must be Mahler! His "cursed" 9th symphony really is all that and a bag of chips.

I chatted with violinist Megan Prokes about preparing to rehearse and perform the music of Gustav Mahler.

I chatted with Carolyn Kunicki about the french horn and performing Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony.

I chatted with percussionist John Kinzie about Respighi's Pines of Rome and all the cool percussion stuff in it, plus got some fun stories from past performances!

Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche celebrates a legendary prankster from fourteenth century Germany, composed by Richard Strauss.

Don Juan is a tone poem – a story told in music – for large orchestra written by the German composer Richard Strauss in 1888 when he was 24.

Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway.  He completed his only concerto for piano in 1868 at just 25 years old! 

Florence Price’s tone poem for orchestra, The Oak, is a deliciously dark and thoughtful expression.

Jessie Montgomery (1981- ) began sketching ideas for Strum as a string quintet in 2006 and revised it for string orchestra in 2012.

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) was an American composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist who operated across multiple genres.

Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in Switzerland in 1934 and premiered it himself at the piano!

It’s hard to imagine a more generally well known composer or piece of classical music than Ludwig van Beethoven and his Symphony No. 5.

Dmitri Shostakovich is one of the most influential and revered composers of the 20th century, and his Symphony No. 5 holds a similar place o

Tchaikovsky’s sudden death at the age of 53 just 9 days after the premiere of his Symphony No. 6 is surrounded in controversy to this day!

Gustav Mahler's (1860-1911) Symphony No. 1 is one of his best known works, even though it got off to a rocky start...

Claude Debussy composed Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun in 1894.  It was premiered that same year in Paris!