Pulitzer Prize and three-time Grammy-winner Jennifer Higdon joins us on Classical Post this month for an insightful convo with pianist Natalia Kazaryan. As one of the most frequently performed composers, Dr. Higdon transcends today’s classical scene with radiance. Here’s her take on leading at this level.

Fascinating composer Sarah Kirkland Snider recently released her Mass for the Endangered as a type of call for action or consciousness about the environmental crisis the world faces. In a very special interview, pianist and scholar Natalia Kazaryan chats with Ms. Snider to gain greater clarity on this new recording and her life as a highly-respected female composer.

It’s late October as I write this, and Annick Odom’s hauntingly beautiful new work “Seven Bones” sets the scene for a crisp fall day. Equally inspired by Appalachian and contemporary classical music, this West Virginian ghost story deserves an immediate listen. Annick Odom and Federico Forla join Classical Post to discuss.

Cellist Isidora Nojkovic and violinist Aliyata Foon-Dancoes comprise the new cross-continental duo to pay attention to. They premiered works by Olivia Shortt and Cris Derksen who join me to discuss these exciting new works.

Known as “Classical Bae” and revered for her collaborations with artists including Beyoncé and Yo-Yo Ma, Ezinma utilizes her classical training to create music that marries music of opposite worlds. Her latest single, “Vivaldi Springs Forth” is out now.

Prolific composer Missy Mazzoli’s opera Proving Up, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, was released as an album this August 2020. Pianist Natalia Kazaryan interviews Missy Mazzoli to discuss Proving Up, the future of opera, Luna Composition Lab, upcoming projects and more.

American trumpet soloist Andy Kozar’s recent New Focus Recordings release A Few Kites has been called ‘entrancing’ by Alex Ross (The New Yorker, The Rest Is Noise) and that ‘trumpeters around the world owe Kozar…a debt of gratitude…the variety here is simply astonishing. realms of expressiveness not heard since Luciano Berio turned his attention to the instrument in 1984 for Sequenza X' by anearful. Here Andy Kozar interviews composers Eve Beglarian and Paula Matthusen about their featured works on the record as well as their music’s relationship to physical space as an inspiration, or creative starting point.

Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out Of Time for Silkroad Ensemble is a masterpiece as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally gripping. It cracks open how we experience time and how this experience is disrupted by grief and eventually dismantled by death. Based on David Grossman’s novel/fable on parental grief of the same name, which puts words to the wordless, Golijov’s Falling Out of Time puts sounds to the wordless with a deep sensitivity to language. This work inspired a lot of admittedly difficult questions from me, as the best works do, and here are Osvaldo Golijov’s illuminating answers . Falling Out Of Time will be released on October 9.

Adrianne Munden-Dixon’s debut EP patterns and cycles, featuring her own compositions and improvisations, uses electronics to heighten the shape-shifting qualities of the violin. She joins Classical Post to discuss the space in between composition and improvisation, the role of location in this album, the influence of fiddle playing on her work and more. Patterns and cycles will be released on October 2.

Pianist Natalia Kazaryan interviews Composer/Pianist Gabriela Lena Frank to discuss her latest album Her Own Wings, compositional language, and career at-large . Both artists studied under Logan Skelton at University of Michigan, where each received a DMA (in different eras).

Contemporary music duo New Morse Code, comprised of Hannah Collins (cello) and Michael Compitello (percussion) joins Classical Post for a special video premiere of composer Thomas Kotcheff’s “then and then and then this”. They discuss the collaborative process, filming, matching timbre and what’s coming up next.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja has long been one of my favorite musicians. It somehow seems off the mark, not quite enough, to call her a violinist (not only because she has frequently performed the role of singer/speaker in Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire) though her capabilities on the instrument—technical, sonic, coloristic—are virtually matchless. Yes, she most often appears on stage with violin in hand, but her musical spirit reaches far beyond the scope of the instrument itself: she digs new tunnels into familiar repertoire and makes a striking, often bold case for each piece she brings into her sphere. The resulting performances, both live and on record, brim with electricity, risk, and an aliveness the scope of which words can only communicate a small part.

Conductor Marlon Daniel is the leading scholar on the music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. He joins Classical Post to discuss premiering “Anonymous Lover”, documenting Saint-Georges works, The Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges and more.

On April 26, 2020 the Emruz Festival: Virtual Series presented “Iranian Female Composers Association Meet Up: Conversation & Music Performance” via Zoom. Around 30 members of the Iranian Female Composers Association (IFCA) joined Bridgid Bergin (panel moderator) for an hour-long conversation. The conversation led to a longer form piece, showcasing how composers have been navigating quarantine life, interrogating gender identity and societal issues in Iran (as well as the broader new music scene), and highlights how IFCA has cultivated a community all within the digital realm, becoming an organization that truly amplifies and celebrates Iranian female-identifying composer voices.

Pulitzer Prize finalist composer Chris Cerrone and triple-Grammy-winning flutist Tim Munro discuss collaborating on Cerrone’s latest work, “Liminal Highway”.

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.

“Sad, moody, happy, funny or none of it,“ Lambert, German songwriter and musician describes the freedom to be “everything at the same time.” Releasing lovely works for several years, eliciting tranquility, many who know and love the music “see the visual part as the perfect description,“ despite some contradictions as darkness and loneliness are portrayed in accompanied videos such as one of our favorites “Sweet Apocalypse.” We were lucky enough to have a few questions answered by Lambert and look forward to following and listening closely as the Lambiverse evolves.

New Music Gathering, an annual three-day conference dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support and creation of new concert music, has gone digital for the June 2020 conference. Two of its five organizers, composers Mary Kouyoumdjian and Angélica Negrón, join CP to discuss moving to an online format, making space within the community and balancing their own creative practices with their commitment to NMG.

Renowned soprano Karen Slack joins Classical Post to discuss her new series Konversations, building her career, how roles should be cast with ears instead of eyes, how fewer Black women have international careers these days and more.

Classical music venues are wondering how to make it through to the other side of COVID-19. National Sawdust’s Managing Director Brian Berkopec joins Classical Post to discuss National Sawdust plans on emerging as a leader in their field.