The idea that we are all three steps removed from anyone is not an unfamiliar one, but I’ve always pictured those who I’m removed from to be alive and, well, not Gertrude Stein. But there is a string that weaves through time and if we tug on it every now and then it pulls us into history. Speaking with chief music critic of The New York Times and author Anthony Tommasini about his relationship with his mentor composer/critic Virgil Thomson, I found myself three steps away from Stein, Stravinsky, Picasso, Copland, Sibelius and many others who felt more alive to me speaking with Tony Tommasini than they ever have.

Is there a right way to listen to an album? How literally should a listener take the track layout of an album? Does learning the intended listening experience of the composer bring you closer to a work? What is innate to a work, what is perspective and how does listening order impact an interpretation? These are some of the questions rummaging through my mind after speaking with Du Yun about her album A Cockroach’s Tarantella, performed marvelously by JACK Quartet with Du Yun.

Legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica “Flicka” von Stade returned to the stage on July 30 and August 1 for Classical Tahoe’s adapted 2020 season to sing works by Offenbach, Mahler, and Heggie for an intimate 25-person audience. Classical Tahoe ensemble members include principal New York City Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians Nathan Hughes (oboe) and Milan Milisavljević (viola). Frederica von Stade joins Classical Post to discuss this moving experience, which young opera singers have the most star power, what she’s been watching on Netflix and more.

Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi is one of classical music’s most streamed artists. His music draws from rock, jazz, American minimalism and from his teachers, avant-garde European composers Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and Luciano Berio (1925-2003).

How do artists work within the parameters of the pandemic and how can organizations support artists in this moment of crisis? These are the questions that composer and National Sawdust’s artistic director, Paola Prestini, is asking. Prestini joined Classical Post for an interview on May 19 to discuss.

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins Classical Post in conversation to discuss her latest album the Bach Cello Suites, Pablo Casals, her #36DaysOfBach, gravitating towards the sixth Bach Suite in these surreal times and more.

Anthony Davis' opera The Central Park Five, with a libretto by Richard Wesley, has won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Davis joined Classical Post on a phone call from his home in San Diego to discuss the Pulitzer Prize, The Central Park Five, Donald Trump’s character in the opera, philosophy, and opera at large.

Acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee joins Classical Post for a conversation about creating community through online performances in the era of social-distancing.

It is an eerie and shocking moment in time to revisit Meredith Monk’s apocalyptic The Games: a science fiction opera (1983). Excerpts of the opera are included on MEMORY GAME, a new album set to release on March 27, 2020, featuring arrangements of Meredith Monk’s music performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble. However, excerpts of The Games do not stand alone; they are followed by three pieces alluding to dance, and Double Fiesta.