When British saxophonist Jess Gillam refers to her Carnegie Hall debut as "a real dream come true," she's being literal. Since the age of 12, she's dreamt of taking to New York City's fabled stage and sharing her passion for the saxophone with the audience.

Few careers in classical music read as illustriously as that of pianist Wu Han. For more than 50 years, her life has centered around the concert stage, delivering performances of the highest caliber in nearly every corner of the globe.

1983 proved a pivotal year in violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky's life. That was the year the Azerbaijan-born musician became a U.S. citizen, married his wife, and bought the Stradivarius violin he still plays to this day. It was also the year he discovered Glenn Gould's final recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations.

From dinosaurs dancing to The Rite of Spring in Disney's Fantasia to a tuxedoed Bugs Bunny performing Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody, classic cartoons have long been a delightful entry point for kids of all ages to get to know classical music.

That's a tradition composer and jazz pianist Joel Pierson is breathing new life into as artistic director of The Queen's Cartoonists. Working at the crossroads of classical music, jazz, and the golden age of animation, The Queen's Cartoonists perform the scores of classic animated films from around the world, perfectly synchronizing their brilliant jazz-band arrangements with the films projected on stage.

The Spanish pianist Javier Perianes is racking up quite a lot of frequent flyer miles these days.

This season alone, his concert schedule has him zigzagging the globe to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Dallas Symphony here in the States, Europe's Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic, and a whirlwind trip to Australia for concerts with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, among many other engagements.

In early 2012, the coloratura soprano Marie-Eve Munger received an offer every opera singer dreams of — a lead role in a Mozart opera.

But there was a catch. It wasn't a role in Don Giovanni, or The Marriage of Figaro, or any of the popular Mozart operas performed every season across the globe. The opera was Il sogno di Scipione, which Mozart wrote when he was just 16 years old.

For violinist Hilary Hahn, finding success as an international soloist has never been about sticking to the same menu of concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Sibelius. Now in the fourth decade of her storied career, the three-time Grammy Award winner has consistently worked to expand the scope of the violin canon — commissioning a slate of new works from composers like Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, and Lera Auerbach.

This fall, AVIE Records released Upon Further Reflection, the solo album debut by American pianist John Wilson featuring the world-premiere recording of the title track written by Wilson’s friend and mentor, Michael Tilson Thomas. Aaron Copland’s Piano Sonata and Earl Wild’s virtuoso arrangements of iconic George Gershwin tunes complete the Americana-themed program.

Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has often found inspiration for his music-making in the visual arts. But a recent visit to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gave Wedow, a specialist in Baroque opera, an altogether new view of ancient Greek and Roman art — and early music.

Many classical music ensembles have only recently begun to prioritize programming works by underrepresented composers who've been unjustly lost to the sands of time. But for 20 years and counting, that's been the sole focus and mission of the ARC Ensemble and its artistic director, Simon Wynberg.

French-Canadian baritone Etienne Dupuis is a big fan of television, especially Ted Lasso. So much so that he's adapted a key phrase from the comedy-meets-philosophy series — "Football is life!" — as a mantra to stoke people's interest in opera.

The opening of Klaudia Kudełko's music video for Chopin's "Revolutionary" Etude — the second single off of the Los Angeles-based pianist's debut album, Time — tells us so much about who she is as an artist.

The life of composer Robert Koch is a study in contrasts.

Raised in the same area of Germany as the Brothers Grimm — with its foggy forests and medieval castles — he now lives among the sunny splendor of Los Angeles. And although Koch leads a monk-like spiritual practice of yoga, meditation, and pranayama breathwork, he relies on digital technologies to produce the lush, atmospheric sounds of his electronic music.

Icelandic composer Gabríel Ólafs has become a poster child for the German term wunderkind. At age 14, he wrote the song that landed him his first record deal. At 19, he released his debut album, Absent Minded, which has been streamed millions of times.

The idea of preservation is on tenor Timothy Fallon's mind a lot lately. He recently bought a house in New England that dates to 1740 — which, he's quick to point out, means Bach was still alive when the house was built.

When most musicians join me to record the Classical Post podcast, they need a few minutes to settle in. This makes sense — whether they're an instrumentalist, singer, or composer, they're used to communicating through a medium outside of their speaking voice. So it can take some time to shake off the nerves.

But the moment I sat down with pianist Klaudia Kudełko to discuss her stunning debut album, Time, she was fired up and ready to dive into her personal artistic mission: to connect people with classical music.

With composition titles like In the Cause of the Free, Ellis Island: The Dream of America, and Balance of Power, it's easy to tell Peter Boyer has more than a casual interest in American history. In fact, it's something that's inspired him throughout his career.

In June 2021, James Gaffigan was appointed as Music Director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain, for four seasons. Less than a year later, in February 2022, it was announced that beginning in the 2023/24 season, the in-demand conductor would serve as Music Director of the Komische Open Berlin in Germany for four years until the summer of 2027.

Ahead of an alfresco evening of Mozart at the Hollywood Bowl, conductor Nicholas McGegan and Los Angeles Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour discuss the joy of performing Mozart and how today's listeners can find meaning in the composer's music.

More than 1,200 miles separate the vibrant cosmopolitanism of Palm Beach County, Florida, and the tranquil natural beauty of New York's Hudson Valley. But these far-flung locales have three things in common: a history of grand Gilded Age architecture, a taste for fine dining — and now, a fabulous chamber music series.