Classical Classroom

"Classical music is relaxing." "I listen to classical music because it's soothing." "I turn on classical music when I want to concentrate."

These are all things we're guessing very few people have said about the composer you're going to learn about in this episode. Elliott Carter's music is about something much more vast and complex than chillaxing: it's about the full range of human experience. If you've been alive for long enough to read this, you know that being a person is not always easy - that, in fact, ease can't exist without difficulty. It's a thing that we expect other art forms to reflect. And in this episode, Austin Wulliman and Christopher Otto of the JACK Quartet teach all about a composer who used this music to convey It All, too.

PS, You can go see the JACK Quartet perform the music of Elliott Carter, or go check them out at the Ojai Festival this summer. Find out more here.

Music in this episode:

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

In the beautiful San Jacinto Mountains, southeast of Los Angeles, is a place that is basically the ultimate experience in music and arts education: Idyllwild Arts Academy. It's a residential arts high school where young people are immersed in their chosen practice every day. Here, music students learn alongside peers studying visual arts, dance, and more, and collaborate with them. One hundred per cent of Idyllwild grads go off to college. What does the dream of music education look like? What could music education be like? And how does it impact young people? President and head of the school Pamela Jordan and faculty piano instructor Doug Ashcraft tell all in this episode.

Music in this episode:

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

Neither Sarah Perkins nor Michael Barber ever intended to become music and arts educators. No, they both had their sights set on the Big Time - performance and Broadway. But life presented each with opportunities to teach music to young people, and before they knew it, they Sarah and Michael were hooked. Now they're both staffers at a unique school in Houston, Texas called the Village School. In this episode, learn about what makes teaching music and the arts so rewarding, and about a school so amazing that even the dazzling lights and dizzying heights of Broadway can't lure educators away.

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

March is Music Education Month on the Classical Classroom, but it's also Bach's birthday month. So, it's obviously the perfect time to revisit this episode with Simone Dinnerstein in which we discuss a music education program she started about the music of Bach. (Bam. Venn diagram intersection = achieved!) Learn about the music of Bach, and perhaps, take some cues from Simone on bringing music ed to your own community.

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

People are pretty much never just one thing. Each person is made of the stuff in their individual history, including the music. That includes Grammy-winning opera singers. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato recently completed a project that brought the disparate parts of her own musical history together. And because she's Joyce DiDonato, this meant bringing top notch performers from across the musical spectrum into the studio to work together. In this episode, she talks about the fascinating process of bringing jazz and Baroque together, and the surprising connections between the two.

Music in this episode:

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

March is Music Education Month! This month, we'll look at a range of people and institutions throughout the music education world in search of the real scoop: Is music ed, along with the rest of arts education, being eaten alive by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), thereby creating robotic, soulless drone humans instead of people? Or is music ed experiencing a renaissance, reaching populations who've never had it before and providing an essential dimension to the educational experience with innovative programs? Listen and learn, peeps!

In this episode, Michelle Hoffmann, Director of Education and Community Engagement at Washington Performing Arts in DC, gives her perspective on music ed and talks about the amazing things the WPA does.

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

Grammy-nominated composer Mason Bates is also a bona fide DJ. As DJ Masonic, he brings classical music and electronica together on the dance floor. As a composer, he brings the sounds of electronica to classical music in places like the Kennedy Center. So it's fitting that Bates' first opera is about tech guru Steve Jobs. But can it really work to tell a decidedly 21st century story using a 400-year-old medium? Turns out, yes. In this Seattle Opera Podcast crossover episode, Bates explains why Jobs' story and opera go together like iPhones and jelly. Wait...

Music in this episode:

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

To get ready for Bach's March birthday, we bring you the fascinating story of a man on a mission to bring Bach to the people. Bach's music changed cellist Dale Henderson's life. Though the concert hall was a fab venue for sharing this music, Dale wasn't satisfied to stop there. Bach's music, he felt, was for everyone - not just classical music fans. So he schlepped his cello down into a New York City subway, and started playing "pop-up" concerts (for free). And thus, Bach in the Subways was born. The ongoing project now spans more than 40 countries where hundreds of musicians participate in their own cities' public spaces.

Check out a video of Dale playing Bach at Classical KING FM (home of the Classical Classroom)!

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo make up the classical music comedy duo, Igudesman and Joo. And though they will crack you up with their performances (which you can watch on their YouTube channel along with millions of other viewers), when they talk about why they do what they do, the two musicians become surprisingly serious. They firmly believe that classical music was always meant to be fun. In this episode, they talk about the history of humor in classical music (even Beethoven was funny!), the forces that conspired to make it stuffy, and what they're doing to change that, including their upcoming performance, The Clone, with Yuja Wang.

Music in this episode:

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.

Violinist (and veteran Classical Classroom guest) Rachel Barton Pine talks all about her Music by Black Composers initiative, a project that's been in the works for 15 years, and the companion album she recently released called Blues Dialogues, Vol. 1. She discusses why projects like this are important, especially in the classical music world, advocacy vs. cultural appropriation, and talks about the great music on the album.

Music in this episode:

Special thanks to Todd Reynolds for his music, Taskforce: Farmlab from Outerbourough.