The Open Ears Project

New York City art teacher Justin Jackson talks about how Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King inspired him as a child to march around the living room, and how he shares that excitement with his young students as he passes on his love of creativity, imagination, and the arts.

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WNYC host Alison Stewart talks about how she gave up learning the piano when she was young after the sudden death of her piano teacher, and how the rocking ebbs and flows of Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 helped her come back to the instrument as an adult — and learn to let go.

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Architect Daniel Libeskind reflects on the healing power of music and architecture and reveals his lifelong obsession with the dazzling Toccata and Fugue by JS Bach.

Digital strategist Jacqui Cheng shares how she discovered the music of Bach via her 1980s Atari 2600 habit, but it’s the Violin Sonata No. 1 that helps walk her through a period of grief.

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Jazz Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis discusses how Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 helped him understand the role of music — and musician — in connecting the past and the future.

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Instagram’s Eva Chen talks about how Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 helps her switch between gears as she moves from a busy life in fashion to being a working mother to writing a successful series of children’s books.

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Comedian and actor Eddie Izzard talks about how Debussy’s Clair de Lune became “comfort music” after her mother died when she was a child, and still elevates her from the noise and chaos of everyday life.

Opera singer J'Nai Bridges discusses what she learned about forgiveness, memory and legacy from Henry Purcell's heartbreaking Dido's Lament.

US Army reservist Joe Young talks about how Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians helped him through a period of deep depression when he was stationed in Texas and required to perform funeral rites for his fallen soldier colleagues.

Writer Robert Macfarlane reflects on the transporting fragility and beauty of Frédéric Chopin's Berceuse heard in a time of war.

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