Piano

icarus Quartet pianist and Wake Forest University assistant professor of music Larry Weng discusses the collaborative process between performers and composers, highlighting the unique aspects of working with living composers like Jennifer Higdon. The Pulitzer Prize-winner then discusses her composition for icarus titled "Turbo Shift," inspired by Béla Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. In her homage to the great Hungarian master, Higdon incorporates prepared piano techniques including hand crafted mutes and wedges for the piano strings that alter the instrument's timbre and mimic the sounds of a busy mechanical workshop, expanding her compositional palette.

The innovative Ibach baby grand, brought from Germany in the 1930s by a Jewish family fleeing the Nazis, sat unplayable for decades. That's about to change, thanks to the family's grandchildren.

The turn of the year is a time when we set the old aside and welcomed the new into our lives. When one chapter ends, another begins.

Greta Pane had a musical "missed connection" in a practice room years ago. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with her and with the mystery pianist, Noah Farber, who was on the other side of the wall.

The National Black Theatre Festival kicks off this week in Winston-Salem, and this year it features a locally written play about musician Nina Simone.