Music & Culture

Music & Culture

A Moment With Pulitzer-Winning Composer Caroline Shaw

1:57pm April 20, 2013

by NPR Staff

The violinist, vocalist and composer says that writing a piece like her prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices begins with "having a sound in your head that you really want to hear."

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Music & Culture

For Boston: A Dave McKenna Concert

9:58am April 20, 2013

Fresh Air pays tribute to Boston with a 1988 performance by the late jazz pianist Dave McKenna. From 1981 to 1991, McKenna had a standing gig at Boston's Grand Dame Copley Plaza Hotel. He was also a loyal Red Sox fan. He died in 2008.

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Musician Yo-Yo Ma performs during "Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service" dedicated to those who were gravely wounded or killed in the Boston Marathon bombing.

Music & Culture

Listen: Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach's 'Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor'

10:26pm April 18, 2013

by Eyder Peralta

Ma said he thought of the piece as "a struggle for hope," capturing the feeling in Boston perfectly.

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Music & Culture

Coachella's Hometown Aims To Cash In On Fest's Rising Tide

4:30pm April 18, 2013

by Ben Bergman

The highest-grossing music festival in the world happens in a city struggling to stay afloat.

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Public Enemy on stage in 1988. The group will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame Thursday.

Music & Culture

The Diverse Influence Of The 2013 Rock Hall Inductees

12:22pm April 18, 2013

by David C. Barnett

As the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts a new class, musicians and writers look at how influence — one of the Hall's criteria for induction — plays out in ways obvious (how Beyonce draws on Donna Summer) and not so much (jazz pianist Vijay Iyer explains how Public Enemy shaped his music).

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Brad Paisley's new album is titled Wheelhouse.

Music & Culture

Brad Paisley's 'Wheelhouse' Of Good Songs — And Intentions

2:15pm April 17, 2013

by Ken Tucker

"Accidental Racist" launched an Internet firestorm and threatened to overshadow everything else on the country singer's fine new album, Wheelhouse. Even in that polarizing song, Paisley's biggest sin is that he's well-meaning in a way that topples too easily into sentimentality.

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Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's debut album is titled Ripely Pine.

Music & Culture

Lady Lamb The Beekeeper Emerges From Behind The Counter

3:31pm April 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

On her first studio album, Ripely Pine, singer-songwriter Aly Spaltro transforms a batch of solo recordings into full-band arrangements that explore the juxtaposition between lyrical content and musical tone.

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The late Colin Davis conducting the last night of Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall in September 1968.

Music & Culture

Remembering Colin Davis, A Conductor Beloved Late In Life

2:59am April 16, 2013

by Anastasia Tsioulcas

The English conductor was knighted in 1980 and won three Grammys — but did not reach the real heights of his career until he was in his sixties and seventies. Famed for his interpretations of Berlioz, Sibelius and Mozart as well as contemporary composers, he died at age 85 on Sunday.

Korean American rap artist, Dumbfoundead performs at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., on March 26.

Music & Culture

Dumbfoundead: A Rising Star In A Genre In Transition

10:02pm April 15, 2013

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Despite the prominence of Asian artists in several aspects of hip-hop, they're still not the most visible performers in the genre. Dumbfoundead wants to be an exception.

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Music & Culture

Heavy Rotation: 10 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing

1:28pm April 15, 2013

Download new music from hip-hop veteran N.O.R.E., indie-rock favorites Telekinesis and Phosphorescent, soul man Charles Bradley, folksinger Samantha Crain and many more in this special edition of Heavy Rotation.

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