Classical 101 Podcasts

Mary Rousculp Hoffman was Program Director at WOSU radio through the early 1980s. During her tenure Mary sought out and spoke to some of the world's greatest artists. In future posts we'll hear Mary's visits with Vladimir Horowitz, Igor Stravinsky, Maria von Trapp and Yehudi Menuhin.

Continuing our series of podcasts on the African American conductor, I've asked Columbus based conductor Antoine Clark to join me in talking about Henry Lewis (1932-1996).

I've asked Columbus based conductor Antoine Clark to join me for a series of conversations about African-American conductors. Antoine is finishing a doctorate at OSU, and is the founder and music director of the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra.

The Metropolitan Opera presents Puccini's Turandot live in HD in movie theaters worldwide on Saturday, January 30th at 1:00 PM. Don't miss Franco Zeffirelli's magnificent production!

Mary Hoffman became program director of WOSU-FM in 1966. Before her retirement thirty years later, Mary interviewed at length some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.

As 2015 comes to a close, Unmute will explore the music of two of the year's top games. In this episode, we'll have a conversation with Fallout 4's Inon Zur about his dynamic and thoughtful music for the game.

The history of music, much like the early history of beer, centers around people who were passionate about improving their craft and making it accessible. In this podcast, I take a look at a bit of the history of early chant repertoire and how it relates to the development of everyone's favorite malt beverage. 

The Metropolitan's Opera's new production of Lulu, by Alban Berg will be shown live from New York in movie theaters world-wide, as part of the Met's Live in HD Series, on Saturday, November 21 at 12.30 p.m. Locally, Lulu may be seen at AMC Lenox, Crosswoods Theaters, or Polaris.

It's fair to say that in opera, there is Lulu and there is everything else.

Mozart wrote the opening chords of his so-called "Paris" Symphony (Symphony No. 31) specifically to pander to French expectations, which is not to say to pander to French taste. Mozart didn't think the French had any taste. He also thought they were ridiculous for thinking that symphonies that begin this way were especially French.

Think the price of stocks and bonds fluctuates wildly? Imagine the price of a genius composer's brand-new set of piano concertos. 

The Metropolitan Opera presents Richard Wagner's Tannhauser, live in HD from the Met in New York, in movie theaters worldwide on Saturday, October 31 at 1 pm.

Mozart's 1778 stay in Paris was pretty much a total washout. Instead of making his name there as a composer, he was rebuffed and ignored. His mother died. He was cold and starving. And people kept stiffing him for his work.

While in France, Mozart had to take on private students to pay the bills. One of those students was the daughter of Adrien-Louis de Bonnières, the Duc de Guînes. The duke was nonchalant about compensating the struggling Mozart for his work. On July 31, 1778, Mozart wrote his father of one such unsavory episode.

This week on the final episode of Unmute, the video game music podcast, we’re listening to music of the Mass Effect trilogy.

Today on our video game music podcast, we’re listening to music of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.