Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchFrédéric Chopin: Exile, George Sand, and Weapons Hidden in Flowers
Episode 10287
At 21, Frédéric Chopin arrived in France with a transit visa stamped for passage to England. He joked for years that his stay in Paris was temporary,…
1 week, 1 day ago
Caroline Shaw: Pulitzer Winner Bridging Baroque, Code, and Pop
Episode 10286
As a child in the late 1980s, Caroline Shaw would sit before a boombox waiting to record a Mozart duet from the classical radio station, and if the D…
1 week, 1 day ago
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana and the Compromises of Survival
Episode 10285
The thundering opening of Carmina Burana is among the most recognizable sounds in global pop culture, yet Carl Orff remains a figure of deep contradi…
1 week, 1 day ago
Béla Bartók: Wax Cylinders, Folk Music, and Defying Fascism
Episode 10284
Picture a world-class composer trudging through mud in a remote mountain village, lugging a fragile wax cylinder recording machine to capture the raw…
1 week, 1 day ago
Beverly Sills: The Brooklyn Soprano Who Brought Opera to the People
Episode 10283
In 1979, one of the world's most decorated operatic sopranos stood on the set of The Muppet Show in a sparkling gown, laughing through a high-note co…
1 week, 1 day ago
Bernard Herrmann: Psycho, Hitchcock, and the Cost of Never Compromising
Episode 10282
In late December 1975, Bernard Herrmann conducted the final notes of his smoky jazz score for Taxi Driver, returned to his hotel, and died in his sle…
1 week, 1 day ago
Benjamin Britten: Pacifist, Outsider, and Voice of British Opera
Episode 10281
Born on the feast day of St. Cecilia and nearly killed by pneumonia at three months old, Benjamin Britten grew from a fragile child in Lowestoft into…
1 week, 1 day ago
Barbara Strozzi: The Unwed Mother Who Out-Published Venice's Composers
Episode 10280
Barbara Strozzi was born out of wedlock in 1619 Venice, raised a family without ever marrying, and had no church or court backing. Yet she published …
1 week, 1 day ago
Arnold Schoenberg: Atonality, the 12-Tone System, and Friday the 13th
Episode 10279
Arnold Schoenberg possessed one of the most mathematically rigorous minds in modern music, yet he was paralyzed by a fear of the number 13 and died o…
1 week, 1 day ago
Arcangelo Corelli: The Violinist Who Wrote Music's Operating System
Episode 10278
Arcangelo Corelli's admirers invented a family tree tracing him back to Noah, yet the real man was so grounded and disciplined that he died wealthy, …
1 week, 1 day ago