The Miro Quartet performs all around the world, filling iconic venues like the Carnegie Hall, but they also perform in elemtary schools, capturing the attention of a much younger audience. William Fedkenheuer: : You know, for me it's that the light in their eyes and the excitement that they get to experience. You never know exactly what that is, but you can feel it and you can see it and you can tell when it's happening. John Largess: A lot of times they've never seen a violin up close before, or seen how we make sounds, or gotten to really watch somebody a few feet away from them do what we do. While most kids probably don't have a poster of Yo-Yo Ma in their room, the timeless genre of music still surrounds us every day. Joshua Gindele: Classical music is actually in a really good place because movies, video games, and all of the media that we see usually includes some classical music. Daniel Ching: Yeah I think we're always gonna crave that. Hopefully humanity will always crave that connection with another human being and music is one way to do that. Daniel started studying the violin at age three.  In college, he met cellist Joshua Gindele and they started playing together. Joshua: And we formed the group to get credit for a class, to get credit for chamber music. But they needed two more musicians, so with the addition of John Largess and William Fedkenheur, they formed the Miro Quartet, named after the Spanish surrealist Joan Miro. Joshua: The group was founded and put together just to fill a requirement for our degree. But after that we realized we were really passionate about playing string quartets, classical music in general, and it was enough motivation for us to keep continuing on, rehearsing, practicing, and keep getting up on stage and playing concerts. This week, they're in Joplin MO, performing at schools and leaving kids mesmorized. John: Well we've always loved when we've come to Joplin. We love the feeling of community, you know it's a very close community, particularly the one supporting classical music here. WATCH THE VIDEO

Women Warriors: The Voices of Change multimedia concert performed by Orchestra Moderne NYC, under the direction of Amy Andersson, features the music of eight renowned female film composers and presents 800 years of women fighting for human rights and equality. This 80-minute interactive experience is a socially and culturally relevant world premiere concert which includes historical visuals from the past to present day. Women Warriors: The Voices of Change celebrates the strength and heroism of female global activists fighting for human, civil, and minority rights, environmental causes, and gender equality. Orchestra Moderne NYC and Conductor/Producer Amy Andersson team with composers Nathalie Bonin, Miriam Cutler, Anne-Kathrin Dern, Sharon Farber, Mandy Hoffman, Penka Kouneva, Starr Parodi, and Lolita Ritmanis, who together have created a rich and cinematic orchestral experience in seventeen world premiere pieces that inspire hope and courage for women and girls around the world. Special guest artists include; Afghan rapper/songwriter Sonita Alizadeh, fifteen year old singer/songwriter Isolde Fair, and violinist Nathalie Bonin. Iranian human rights activist and author Masih Alinejad is the honored guest speaker. Featured Podcast for today 9.19.2019 is Chapter 11, 'Hell Hath No Fury Like a Women Scorned' with music by Penka Kouneva The Me Too chapter highlights a painful subject for Penka Kouneva as the overwhelming majority of women bear scars of some form of sexual violence against them. Extremely intense and seething with anger, Kouneva's piece realizes a big breakthrough towards the end symbolizing that finally this issue has been brought out into the open. Women are the creators and nurturers of life itself and it was a great honor for Kouneva to compose music that underscores their battle. Join us at New York's Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center - September 20 2019 at 8:00pm for this historical and stunning concert experience which celebrates the strength and heroism of female global activists fighting for human and civil rights, environmental causes, and gender equality. Narration for this podcast by Max Horowitz. The opening theme music was provided by Penka Kouneva. This content, as well as the related podcast, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) for redistribution and adaptation.

Jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis writes about reconnecting with the Anglo-Celtic roots of Afro-American music in his Violin Concerto in D, written for Scottish violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti, and recorded with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Cristian Macelaru. The celebration of community and joining of different musical traditions also enriches his Fiddle Dance Suite for solo violin.  The WRTI: Philadelphia 'Classical Album of the Week' is Marsalis Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite. Nicola Benedetti talks with WRTI's Susan Lewis about how the Marsalis Violin Concerto came to be and what it means to her. LISTEN

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d; min-height: 14.0px} Women Warriors: The Voices of Change multimedia concert performed by Orchestra Moderne NYC, under the direction of Amy Andersson, features the music of eight renowned female film composers and presents 800 years of women fighting for human rights and equality. This 80-minute interactive experience is a socially and culturally relevant world premiere concert which includes historical visuals from the past to present day. Women Warriors: The Voices of Change celebrates the strength and heroism of female global activists fighting for human, civil, and minority rights, environmental causes, and gender equality. Orchestra Moderne NYC and Conductor/Producer Amy Andersson team with composers Nathalie Bonin, Miriam Cutler, Anne-Kathrin Dern, Sharon Farber, Mandy Hoffman, Penka Kouneva, Starr Parodi, and Lolita Ritmanis, who together have created a rich and cinematic orchestral experience in seventeen world premiere pieces that inspire hope and courage for women and girls around the world. Special guest artists include; Afghan rapper/songwriter Sonita Alizadeh, fifteen year old singer/songwriter Isolde Fair, and violinist Nathalie Bonin. Iranian human rights activist and author Masih Alinejad is the honored guest speaker. Featured Podcast for today 9.18.2019 is ‘Chapter 10: ‘Parkland' with music by Isolde Fair Chapter Ten "Parkland" Honors 3 activists who survived the Parkland shooting. Featuring fifteen year old singer/songwriter Isolde Fair, the song is a memoriam for those who were murdered. Isolde Fair has been writing and performing music since she can remember. She plays electric bass, has studied the violin since 5 years of age, and has played piano since she was a baby, thanks in part, to her mother, Starr Parodi. Isolde draws her inspiration from every day living like school and her peers as well as world events. Join us at New York's Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center - September 20 2019 at 8:00pm for this historical and stunning concert experience which celebrates the strength and heroism of female global activists fighting for human and civil rights, environmental causes, and gender equality. Narration for this podcast by Max Horowitz. The opening theme music was provided by Penka Kouneva. This content, as well as the related podcast, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) for redistribution and adaptation.

Sometimes, if you want to live the dream, you need to let the dream come to you. Just ask composer Rob Simonsen, who began playing the piano at a young age, picking out melodies he heard in his parents' record collection, before he began composing for himself. "I daydreamed a lot when I was young," he remembers. "I'd sit at the piano, and it was very much about escape: letting my mind wander, exploring." Nonetheless, Simonsen's deep habit of daydreaming is at last gratifyingly indulged on his long-awaited solo debut RÊVERIES, announced today for a September 6th release date on Sony Music Masterworks. It's an elegant, affecting collection which puts the piano – though not just any piano – in the spotlight, furnishing it with blissful embellishments, both electronic and analogue. The announcement of the album comes along with the new video for the album track "Coeur", directed by Simonsen himself and premiered via Stationary Travels. "It's quite the return to my roots," Simonsen says, "sitting and improvising, having it be emotive and cathartic. I didn't sketch anything in advance, nor come at it from an intellectual perspective. It started by chasing a feeling while recording." The album is now available for preorder.  Watch the new video for "Coeur" here. Simonsen recorded RÊVERIES with what he calls "this magical beast of a piano" in four 2-3-week sessions over the course of a year, letting his mind drift for up to an hour at a time, just as he had as a child, before using the most rewarding excursions as the foundations for more formal, complex pieces. As he composed for brass, for strings, for choir, he reveled simultaneously in Paris' picturesque winter or marveled at the studio's old school recording methodology, one Neff suggested had occasionally been "forgotten" amid the contemporary shift to digital recording. Nonetheless, Simonsen kept things simple: he stuck largely to traditional song forms and simple melodies, "but," he says, "rendered in a – hopefully – more unique, processed way. I wanted to keep it classic but forward-thinking."  That said, RÊVERIES' title is indicative of something more profound: of allowing things to unfold in their own time, and of their own nature. Not that Simonsen lacks ambition: since the early 2000s, he's worked on an expansive list of film soundtracks, among them Foxcatcher, Nerve, The Way, Way Back and most recently Jason Reitman's The Front Runner and Rupert Wyatt's Captive State. There have been collaborations, too, notably with Mychael Danna – including 500 Days Of Summer – and contributions to Life Of Pi and Moneyball, as well as, earlier, outings under the name Frozen Light, encouraged by Keith Kenniff (Helios, Goldmund). But Simonsen's been biding his time since an early age, quietly nursing the artistic flights of fancy in which he'd step out from behind the screen. When the stars finally aligned, he knew, these would seem rather less fanciful. CLICK HER FOR Echoes PAGE

Women Warriors: The Voices of Change multimedia concert performed by Orchestra Moderne NYC, under the direction of Amy Andersson, features the music of eight renowned female film composers and presents 800 years of women fighting for human rights and equality. This 80-minute interactive experience is a socially and culturally relevant world premiere concert which includes historical visuals from the past to present day. Women Warriors: The Voices of Change celebrates the strength and heroism of female global activists fighting for human, civil, and minority rights, environmental causes, and gender equality. Orchestra Moderne NYC and Conductor/Producer Amy Andersson team with composers Nathalie Bonin, Miriam Cutler, Anne-Kathrin Dern, Sharon Farber, Mandy Hoffman, Penka Kouneva, Starr Parodi, and Lolita Ritmanis, who together have created a rich and cinematic orchestral experience in seventeen world premiere pieces that inspire hope and courage for women and girls around the world. Special guest artists include; Afghan rapper/songwriter Sonita Alizadeh, fifteen year old singer/songwriter Isolde Fair, and violinist Nathalie Bonin. Iranian human rights activist and author Masih Alinejad is the honored guest speaker. CLICK HERE for today's 9.16.2019 featured Podcast via PRX ‘Chapter 9: ‘Seeking Justice and Equality' with music by Sharon Farber and Anne-Kathrin Dern. The opening theme music for this podcast was provided by Penka Kouneva Sharon Farber is a four time Emmy Award Nominated Film, TV and concert music composer. Farber is a true believer in Hans Christian Andersen's quote; "When words fail, music speaks" and she is honored to be a part of the Women Warriors, Voices of Change concert. Always drawn to human stories, she feels privileged to be able to musically communicate the teaching and moral of these narratives and shine light on the human experience. For Chapter Nine - ‘Seeking Justice and Equality, Farber wrote - "Say Their Names", which highlights the three founders of Black Lives Matter. Farber says that she cannot imagine the heartache of losing a child, and says from this experience, a new, strong and determined voice of change will emerge, with a call for human dignity and respect for all life. Join us at New York's Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center - September 20 2019 at 8:00pm for this historical and stunning concert experience which celebrates the strength and heroism of female global activists fighting for human and civil rights, environmental causes, and gender equality. Narration for this podcast by Max Horowitz. This content, as well as the related podcast, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) for redistribution and adaptation. CLICK HERE FOR Medium

New sounds and releases featuring Zuill Bailey, Nicola Benedetti, and Arcomusical in Brahms, Marsalis, and Eric Cole! 
Listen via PRX Released on Decca, Nicola Benedetti's new album, featuring the violin concertos of Glazunov and Shostakovich is a journey between two different, yet connected, concertos for the violin. Glazunov's glittering 1904 work is separated from his pupil Shostakovich's 1947 concerto, not only by 40 years, but also by several landmark events in history: the Russian Revolution, Stalin's Terror and the Second World War. Benedetti performs these two works with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Kirill Karabits. This is the second album that Nicola Benedetti has recorded with BSO and Kirill Karabits and follows the hugely successful The Silver Violin. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; color: #4d4d4d}