Classically Speaking
Go behind the scenes of classical music in Nashville. Musician Colleen Phelps takes you backstage for interviews with composers, conductors, and instrumentalists to give you an in-depth look at life in the orchestra, on the stage, and behind an instrument. Get closer to the music and musicians behind classical music in Music City.
Episodes
Music is visibly at the heart of the Ukrainian people, as can easily be seen during the ongoing Russian invasion of the country. Piano duo Anna and Dmitri Shelest have taken to heart the encouragement to use their talents for their fellow Ukrainian people and re-released their 2018 album Ukrainian Rhapsody.
Hear from Anna and Dmitri why the cultural front in this war is so important, as well as the joys of putting four h...
This is the re-release of an episode from 2019.
When you've been playing in a rock band for your whole career the way Ben Folds has, getting in front of a huge symphony orchestra feels completely different.
In writing his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Folds was composing a piece for the dancers of Nashville Ballet, while at the same time telling hThe concerto was released as part of Folds's album So There, which also...
While thoughts of love, sex and power dominate Nashville Ballet's Lucy Negro Redux, for Rhiannon Giddens the work is about uncovering a hidden part of history.
For Nashville Symphony Principal Oboist Titus Underwood, the pandemic has been a fairly prolific time. It’s also been a successful year - with a regional Emmy Award and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, as well as a viral sensation on YouTube. And while he looks forward to a return to the Schermerhorn stage, he also has a lot of goals for the future of orchestral music - including equity in auditions, and a new broader focus...
Nashville’s chamber orchestra Intersection has commissioned new works from 25 female-identifying composers for a project titled “Listen.” So, we did just that - assembling a panel of the composing participants. Their diverse life experiences are reflected in their music, and also in the misconceptions they face on a daily basis.
There's nothing more wild yet utterly predictable than a child's tantrum. But in Maurice Ravel's opera L’enfant et les sortilèges, the consequences take the child completely by surprise. Vanderbilt Opera Theater's production of the piece is Nashville's latest example of how performing arts have pivoted to create new and interesting projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of Classically Speaking hear from dir...
The newest “Call of Duty” game hit the market in late 2020. In” Black Ops - Cold War” it’s composer Jack Wall’s job to transport you to the turbulence of the 1980s. From green computer screens to hidden messages in Russian lyrics, Wall’s scores are epic thanks to their use of a full orchestra – recorded right here in Nashville. Hear all about building the game’s story scene by scene.
While this episode of Classically Speaking was prepared in a tumultuous time, we never could have predicted how many more shocking things would happen before its release. That being said, Leila Adu's Mahakala Oratorio is still the right piece of music for this exact moment. The piece itself is well-timed invocation to a deity whose charge is to protect the good in all of us. Adu describes how meditation informs her music m...
From the archive:
Perennial holiday favorite The Nutcracker has a special local treatment from Nashville Ballet. This year, as the work makes its local television debut, get behind the scenes with Artistic Director Paul Vasterling.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, singing in large groups has been an off-limits activity. But, King’s College Cambridge has gone to extraordinary lengths to continue its Christmas services safely. Hear from Director of Music Daniel Hyde on how King’s is carrying on through this challenging time. Woven with the choral music that for many of us, has heralded the beginning of Christmas for nearly a century.
As composer Ludwig van Beethoven approaches his semiquincentennial birthday, we’re taking you through all nine of his symphonies. Nashville Symphony conductor Giancarlo Guerrero joins host Colleen Phelps for a quick look at each one, focused on the history and the music itself.
Birthday or not, Beethoven has come up quite often in Classically Speaking. So, in this episode we featured clips from previous conversations. In what turned out to be one of composer Christopher Rouse's last interviews before he died in 2019, Rouse connected the opening of his 5th symphony to Beethoven's 5th. That same short-short-short-long also started Mahler's 5th, a parallel drawn by Nashville Symphony conductor Gianc...
Since they were composed in 1741 JS Bach’s set of pieces known as the Goldberg Variations have been a favored musical puzzle for keyboardists of all varieties. Now musician Parker Ramsay has taken them on as a harpist on his debut album. From rising above the skepticism behind historically informed performance, to his hopes for the future of the instrument itself, and what we can bring from the past into today’s musical ex...
If you’ve been riding a wave of insomnia for the last few months, you’re not alone. That’s why pianist Lara Downes put together The Bedtime Sessions, an album of lullabies. This collection of soothing music includes Downes’s signature expansion of the pianistic canon. Including music by Florence Price, William Grant Still, and Leonard Bernstein, all performed by Downes herself, as well as a piece by Margaret Bonds performe...
With a post-coronavirus return to music-making on the horizon for American orchestras, these institutions are bringing a renewed commitment to a healthier and more representative environment. We assembled three of the orchestra world’s superheroes to show us how it’s done. Jeri Lynne Johnson, JoAnn Falletta, and Mei-Ann Chen discussed their hopes and their priorities as their ensembles face the rest of 2020.
Composer Jennifer Higdon has music for just about any ensemble – orchestra, band, opera, choir… you name it. And her catalog of concerti is just as varied. Including her Concerto for Low Brass and Orchestra, the origin of which she describes in this episode of Classically Speaking. She also tells the story behind “Blue Cathedral,” and how she now feels that particular piece “belongs to the world.” Plus, why she’s helped ma...
“Romeo and Juliet” is a tale of woe. And actually, so is “La Valse.” Conductor Joann Falletta paired these pieces together for a program of music by Sergei Prokofiev and Maurice Ravel. Two pieces with fascinating history and devastating stories are the subject of this Classically Speaking. Musical performances are by the Buffalo Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, and the Nashville Symphony.
The biblical Seven Last Words of Christ are vulnerable and humanizing. That’s the same effect the seven last words of unarmed Black men who were killed in the last decade had on composer Joel Thompson. So, he set them to music. And performances of the piece have been starting conversations ever since. Hear from the Thompson and a panel of musicians, administrators, and clergy, on Classically Speaking. Find it wherever yo...
While protests overnight in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, Garrett McQueen and Scott Blankenship had the task of getting to work and hosting overnight classical music on the radio in nearby St. Paul. The story of that night, plus music for the historic time where we find ourselves, and a look at Trilloquy – the podcast where Garrett and Scott challenge the definition of classical music.
Featuring: “Five ...
Doors are locked, auditoriums are empty, and no tickets have been sold. In the middle of an unprecedented concert hall closure, virtual music making is the only path forward for a while. Virtual choirs are putting forth the image of what they would do in person, while some of Nashville’s youngest musicians are making digital connections to senior citizens. Meanwhile, protests continue across the country. Classically Speaki...
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