Explore new recordings with top performers and host Julie Amacher
With Leonard Bernstein's centenary and her parents' 50th anniversary approaching, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers wanted to create an 'album that's based on love and all its dimensions.'
The latest album by Kirk Elliot and the Orchestra of Unmitigated Gaul is inspired by mediaeval stories and songs -- even the instruments have stories behind them.
Pianist Orli Shaham thinks her new album of Brahms works will stir your soul -- probably because that's what it did for her. 'I think it's changed probably everything I do as a pianist,' Shaham says. 'I think Brahms just has so much to teach us.'
Venezuelan pianist and composer Gabriela Montero brings creativity, compassion and awareness to her new recording of original works and a piece by Rachmaninoff.
On the week of Itzhak Perlman's 70th birthday, New Classical Tracks takes a look at 'The Perlman Sound,' a three-CD, career-retrospective set. 'I'm a very firm believer in the audience,' Perlman says. 'They know when something comes across the stage that's electric.'
Violinist Angele Dubeau's 39th recording is another in her series of musical portraits of living composers, and celebrates Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi.
Members of the Catalyst Quartet describe their new recording by using the words Bach himself used: 'Composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits.' Find out more about the album.
Arranger Steve Barta accepted the challenge of creating a symphonic arrangement of Claude Bolling's Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio. He found the experience both challenging and eye-opening.
Stephen Hough and Steven Isserlis worked together on an album that showcases cello sonatas by composer pianists. Hear more about these Mendelssohn-Grieg-Hough Cello Sonatas.
To record the music of Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi, mandolinist Avi Avital recruited the Venice Baroque Orchestra. "Recording this Venetian music with an orchestra that's actually all from Venice just added this extra spice to it," Avital explains.
Host Julie Amacher provides an in-depth exploration of a new classical music release each week.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Radio Public, or RSS.
Julie Amacher's desire to introduce others to great music is what led her to radio. She began her professional broadcast career at a station in Sun Prairie, Wis. She went from rock 'n' roll to the Rocky Mountains, where she found her niche in public radio at KUNC in Greeley, Colo. Julie spent 13 years at KUNC, where she managed the announcers and their eclectic music format. During that time, she earned four national awards for best announcer. She joined Minnesota Public Radio in 1997 as an on-air host and also produces New Classical Tracks, a weekly podcast critiquing a new release each week. It airs locally at 7:15 a.m. Wednesdays and 5:15 p.m. Fridays.
