%2Cresize(0%2C390))
105.9 WQXR
New York's Classical Music Station
105.9 WQXR Podcasts
Join renowned pianist and host Emanuel Ax for Classical Music Happy Hour: a new podcast full of music, merriment, and conversation. Manny (Emanuel) talks with an eclectic lineup of composers, performers, and creative voices from the world of classical music and beyond. Each episode explores the guest’s life and career, dives into their favorite classical gems, includes music-inspired games, and folds in questions from listeners. The result is a podcast that feels like a relaxed gathering of friends who love classical music and want others to join the party. Grab a cocktail and press play on a podcast celebrating our love of all things classical music!
Aria Code is a podcast that pulls back the curtain on some of the most famous arias in opera history, with insight from the biggest voices of our time, including Roberto Alagna, Diana Damrau, Sondra Radvanovsky, and many others. Hosted by Grammy Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Aria Code is produced in partnership with The Metropolitan Opera. Each episode dives into one aria — a feature for a single singer — and explores how and why these brief musical moments have imprinted themselves in our collective consciousness and what it takes to stand on the Met stage and sing them. A wealth of guests—from artists like Rufus Wainwright and Ruben Santiago-Hudson to non-musicians like Dame Judi Dench and Dr. Brooke Magnanti, author of The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl—join Rhiannon and the Met Opera’s singers to understand why these arias touch us at such a human level, well over a century after they were written. Each episode ends with the aria, uninterrupted and in full, recorded from the Met Opera stage. Aria Code is produced in partnership with WQXR, The Metropolitan Opera and WNYC Studios.
The Best of Classical Music from The City for Everyone
If This Hall Could Talk is a new podcast series created by Carnegie Hall in collaboration with WQXR and Sound Made Public. Across eight episodes hosted by Broadway star Jessica Vosk, the series takes listeners behind the scenes for a look at the unforgettable performances, fascinating figures, and shaping of American culture as witnessed at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. For more than 130 years, Carnegie Hall has been the destination for top musical talents, entertainers, speakers, activists, and distinguished leaders from around the world. Each episode of If This Hall Could Talk focuses on a unique object selected from Carnegie Hall’s Rose Archives—including Judy Garland’s signed 1961 album recorded live at Carnegie Hall, Benny Goodman’s clarinet, Ella Fitzgerald’s glasses, a Women’s Suffrage Party Convention booklet, and a T-shirt made solely for the ushers to wear at rock and popular music concerts by such acts as The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell, and Chicago. These artifacts illuminate the Hall’s rich (and sometimes quirky) history, while also serving as a fascinating framing device for stories of broader musical, cultural, and political significance. Alongside host Jessica Vosk, each episode features voices that range from marquee musical talents to historical experts—including members of Carnegie Hall’s own Rose Archives team—guiding listeners on a journey through incredible moments that have helped shape the culture in which we live today.
He Sang/She Sang is a new podcast from WQXR for the opera-curious and opera superfans who want to know what all those big voices are really singing about. The podcast follows the radio broadcast season of the Metropolitan Opera with a weekly roundtable chat that discusses the plots, characters, music, productions, social significance and great performances of that week's opera. Following the Met's radio broadcast season, He Sang/She Sang will dive into the new productions of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Rossini’s William Tell, the Met premiere of an opera by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho and fan favorites by Verdi, Puccini and Mozart. He Sang/She Sang is hosted by Merrin Lazyan and Michael Shobe, with appearances by superstar soprano Anna Netrebko, Met Opera tenor Stuart Skelton, WQXR hosts Jeff Spurgeon and Nimet Habachy, BBC 3 host Clemency Burton Hill and others.