Rapper RZA, who helped launch the Wu-Tang Clan hip-hop group in the 1990s, tries his hand in classical music by composing for a ballet inspired by Greek musical scales during the pandemic.


Wu-Tang Clan's RZA goes classical with ballet score

A box set featuring previously unreleased recordings sheds new light on the life and legacy of Paul Robeson, a bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player and activist.


Paul Robeson's many faces get new spotlight in recording premiere

Faliks draws from her Ukrainian-Jewish heritage and Mikhail Bulgakov's anti-censorship novel The Master and Margarita for a new album.


Pianist Inna Faliks traces musical odyssey from Soviet Ukraine via Faustian fantasy

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Alicia Graf Mack about how she's reshaping Juilliard's prestigious Dance Division to make it more relevant than ever.


West African dance and hip-hop play a key role in a revamped Juilliard track

Poet Amanda Gorman and German cellist Jan Vogler combine poetry and Bach's cello suites at New York's Carnegie Hall to share the "lows and highs" of human experience.


Amanda Gorman's poetry and Bach's music offer joint message of hope

The Takács Quartet is on a 13-city tour to premiere Nokuthula Ngwenyama's "Flow." We look at how music can express natural phenomena.


Composer expresses the origins of the universe using string instruments

The same day musician Jon Batiste got 11 Grammy nominations, his partner, writer Suleika Jaouad, began chemotherapy. The new documentary American Symphony recounts their journey. 


Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad share journey of 'two extremes' in American Symphony

On Philanthropy, the artist's 14th studio album, Volker Bertelmann, also known as Hauschka, returns to his signature prepared piano sound in music he hopes will strengthen connections between people.


Hauschka's prepared piano is a layered canvas of sounds in new album

Polish countertenor and breakdancer Jakub Józef Orliński talks about his new album with Il Pomo d'Oro orchestra.


From opera to breakdancing and back again: Jakub Józef Orliński fuses two worlds

American cellist Katie Tertell is seeking to recover from Japan forgotten manuscripts by Spanish composer Gaspar Cassadó.


Olivia Hampton

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