Jeeyoon Kim aims to play classical music for everyone. That’s a goal shared by a lot of musicians and projects, to extend the reach of classical music to listeners who don’t normally go to concert halls for symphony concerts or chamber music recitals. It usually means the kind of crossover thing that has an orchestra playing movie music, or an operatic vocalist recording Christmas songs.

On his new album Klangland, Henrik Lindstrand delivers an achingly beautiful set of miniature mood pieces that capture vast landscapes of emotion. Out now on One Little Independent Records.

The opening of Klaudia Kudełko's music video for Chopin's "Revolutionary" Etude — the second single off of the Los Angeles-based pianist's debut album, Time — tells us so much about who she is as an artist.

In June 2021, James Gaffigan was appointed as Music Director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain, for four seasons. Less than a year later, in February 2022, it was announced that beginning in the 2023/24 season, the in-demand conductor would serve as Music Director of the Komische Open Berlin in Germany for four years until the summer of 2027.

Ahead of an alfresco evening of Mozart at the Hollywood Bowl, conductor Nicholas McGegan and Los Angeles Philharmonic concertmaster Martin Chalifour discuss the joy of performing Mozart and how today's listeners can find meaning in the composer's music.

More than 1,200 miles separate the vibrant cosmopolitanism of Palm Beach County, Florida, and the tranquil natural beauty of New York's Hudson Valley. But these far-flung locales have three things in common: a history of grand Gilded Age architecture, a taste for fine dining — and now, a fabulous chamber music series.

Classical music always holds the power to metaphorically transport the listener, helping us to embark upon whatever spiritual or emotional journey we seek. But every year as the calendar turns to summer, it begins transporting us in a very literal way — trading in the urban concert hall for more relaxed, pastoral settings for music-making.

Low voice ensemble Cantus celebrates its 25th Anniversary this summer with a concert and gala at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, MN; marking this milestone belatedly in its 27th season due to a two-year pandemic postponement. One of the nation’s few full-time vocal ensembles, Cantus was founded in 1995 by a group of four undergraduates at St. Olaf College: Brian Arreola, Kjell Stenberg, Albert Jordan, and Erick Lichte. The four were eating dinner after a rehearsal of the Viking Chorus – a choir made up of St. Olaf’s first year tenors and basses that has been in existence since 1935 – and lamenting that their days as a low-voiced vocal ensemble were coming to a close. They pledged to come together in the fall and find enough singers to perform Franz Biebl’s iconic double-male-chorus "Ave Maria.”

“We thought this is the time, it's counterintuitive, but it really felt like the public needed something to come back to the halls.” That is pianist Natalia Kazaryan talking this month about Washington Arts Ensemble, a chamber music organization which she and fellow pianist Christopher Schmitt launched a year ago. The idea of the Ensemble is older, “a few years ago,” Kazaryan mentions, but like so many other things since the end of 2019, its gestation was slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic—it slowed down but didn’t go away.

Born into the warm embrace of a Cuban-American family in sun-drenched Miami, cellist Thomas Mesa was drawn to both the world of sport and the world of music. His decision to pursue the career of a musician has proven to be the profoundly correct one.

Dani Howard is the newly appointed Composer-In-Residence with London Chamber Orchestra for the 2022/23 season. Sarah Baker caught up with her about her plans with the orchestra.

Brittany Lasch is the Principal Trombone at the Detroit Opera Orchestra (formerly Michigan Opera Theatre) at the Detroit Opera House and an Assistant Professor of Trombone at Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts in Bowling Green, Ohio. She’s performed as a soloist with the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own”, the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, and symphonies around the country. A winner of the 2019 S&R Foundation Washington Award, and a skilled trombonist with performances and workshops filling up summer 2022, Lasch finds a still moment to catch up with Classical Post.

Music Kitchen – Food for the Soul commemorates its fifteenth anniversary with Forgotten Voices – a composite song cycle with text created by those experiencing homelessness set to music by fifteen award-winning composers. The full work had its world premiere in March 2022 at Carnegie Hall.

There’s music on the page, where it’s preserved for later use, and then there’s music when it’s played, traveling through the air. On each end of that is a body, musician reaching out to listener and touching them via sound. For Augusta Read Thomas too, that’s where the music starts, in the body. Her method of composing—creating new material, shaping it and building it into larger structures and forms—is grounded in the physical sensations of music, especially singing and movement. Sounds from the body become elements in a larger mosaic. That is the subtle, but fundamental connection between her artistry and the subject of her new piece, MAGIC GARDENS, which the Rolston String Quartet will play in its American premiere May 1, at a concert celebrating the bicentennial of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.

Ronaldo Rolim is as sunny as his native Brazil. The pianist positively exudes joy and love for life, especially when talking about music. Trained as a pianist by his mother when he was very young, Rolim would eventually make his way to the United States where he would study with some of the world’s finest pianists. Now he is at the cusp of a brilliant career, performing the European classics and championing the rich musical legacy of Brazil.

For 40 years, innova Recordings, the label of the American Composers Forum, has celebrated new music–whether classical, jazz, world, electronic and other genres, concepts, and approaches. Earlier this year, the label announced its first national call for new artists, which marked what Director of Recordings Chris Campbell has called a “paradigm shift” in how they approach and conduct business with the goals of making the recording process more collaborative, inclusive, equitable, and transparent.

Rachel O’Brien’s musical artistry is worthy of her harp. Having studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, O’Brien is now settled in her beloved Appalachia, teaching her own students both locally and around the world on Zoom. She has also written a book to inspire young musicians and she regularly performs herself. On April 10, O'Brien will give a recital in Philadelphia which will celebrate her Appalachian heritage.

JoAnn Falletta, the internationally acclaimed musical conductor, director, and ambassador, serves as the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. A prolific recording artist for Naxos Records, she has led over 120 titles and received four GRAMMY Awards. Renowned as a “demonstrative, kinetic conductor” (The New York Times), Falletta has conducted over 100 orchestras across the world.

The name Jessie Montgomery is becoming more and more familiar to classical music lovers. The 40-year-old is making her mark as a composer with a unique voice. Her music reflects her own life as an African American woman, but also draws on various other cultures and influences, including Zimbabwean dance, swing and techno.

Emily Levin, principal harp at Dallas Symphony Orchestra, is also the Artistic Director of Fine Arts Chamber Players in Dallas. The Bronze Medal Winner of the 9th USA International Harp Competition, Levin teaches as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Harp in Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Charming and elfin in person, her playing is likewise ethereal–both grounded and soaring, creating new magical soundscapes to explore. Classical Recording Foundation named her their 2017 Young Artist of the Year after the release of her debut album Something Borrowed.