Composer J.J. Wright combines sacred music with jazz for a project based on texts and melodies of Advent. NPR's Scott Simon speaks to him from Rome where he now interns with the Sistine Chapel Choir.
Saariaho isn't the first woman composer to stage an opera at New York's Metropolitan Opera — just the first in more than a century. Her opera, L'Amour de Loin, has its New York premiere this week.
There's a confessional quality to the songs of Pinegrove that feels reassuring. Watch the New Jersey band squeeze four songs into a scrappy, warmhearted 13-minute set.
Jazz Night in America host Christian McBride honors Bobby Hutcherson, Toots Thielemens and Victor Bailey, three prominent jazz musicians who passed away this year.
The Vampire Weekend drummer has a new solo project called Dams of the West. "Tell The Truth" is the second single off Youngish American, due out early next year.
"I didn't set out to write any of this stuff. It was kind of just what was eating at me," lead singer Patterson Hood says of the politically charged songs on the Truckers' latest album.