Music & Culture

Music & Culture

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past

10:26am December 05, 2012

by NPR Staff

The celebrated young American cellist walks us through her recording of this "devastating" concerto written just after the end of World War I. She collaborated with conductor Daniel Barenboim, whose late wife, Jacqueline du Pre, was the standard-bearer for this work.

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The $100 guitar proves once again that it's not just the instrument, it's what you do with it.

Music & Culture

A $100 Guitar Makes A 30,000-Mile Odyssey

8:20pm December 04, 2012

by Joel Rose

The $100 Guitar Project started when two friends bought a cheap guitar on a whim. They invited some other friends to compose and record an original piece on the instrument. Nels Cline, Fred Frith and Elliott Sharp are among the 65 guitarists who recorded for the project that went viral.

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Malian guitarist Lobi Traore died in 2010, at just 49. His last album is called Bwati Kono.

Music & Culture

Two Malian Guitar Greats, Gone But Still Wailing

6:50pm December 04, 2012

by Banning Eyre

The West African nation of Mali is a hotbed of blazing electric guitar players. In recent years, two of the best — Zani Diabate and Lobi Traore — died suddenly while in the prime of their creative lives. Both have posthumous releases out this year worth tracking down.

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A garden serves as the stage in the opera.

The Peony Pavilion: A Vivid Dream In A Garden

9:43pm November 30, 2012

by Jeff Lunden

Peony Pavilion is one of China's most famous operas, but uncut performances of this romantic 16th century work can take more than 22 hours. An adapted version of the dream-like opera will take place at the Metropolitan Museum.

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Music & Culture

Gabriel Alegria And Gerald Clayton On JazzSet

4:10pm August 09, 2012

by Becca Pulliam

Two unique emerging artists step out at the Litchfield Jazz Festival, the climax of a three-week jazz camp in Kent, Conn. Hear Gabriel Alegria's Afro-Peruvian jazz sextet and Gerald Clayton's piano trio in concert.

Wade Mainer's sons of the Mountaineers, the South's "Leading Hillbillies."

Music & Culture

Country Music Pioneer Wade Mainer Dies At 104

1:09pm September 14, 2011

by Paul Brown

There might be no bluegrass music as we know it without Wade Mainer.

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Music & Culture

Beethoven And Beer At The Happy Dog

11:22am October 16, 2010

by David C. Barnett

Ever hear the one about the cellist who walked into a bar? No joke, he and several colleagues from the Cleveland Orchestra have been playing pickup gigs at a local watering hole. It's standing room only at the Happy Dog, a neighborhood bar on Cleveland's near-west side.

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President Barack Obama and Bettye Lavette

Bettye LaVette's Journey To The National Stage

5:46pm January 23, 2009

If you've never heard of Bettye LaVette, the soul singer who belted out "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Jon Bon Jovi at the Inauguration Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Jan 18., you may be wondering why.

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