This week will showcase the diverse and exciting world of the percussion section. We will hear music by Tchaikovsky, Carlos Chávez, George Gershwin — including his famous taxi horns — and John Corigliano, the last piece featuring an electric performance by master percussion soloist Martin Grubinger.

In the first of a new periodic series, we explore great music inspired by the immortal bard. The works of Shakespeare have inspired composers for centuries, and there’s a wealth of great music as a result. In this show we’ll feature music by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Raff, and Walton. We will hear how these great literary works were imagined in sound.

KC VITAS is a local "project based" vocal ensemble dedicated to expanding what is possible for a choir and the human voice. Host Stephen Steigman speaks with Founder and Director Jackson Thomas, as well as performer, and composer-in-residence Leslee Wood. We'll hear a diverse selection of modern vocal works.

This week pianist Alon Goldstein joins hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies for a program of concertos by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Avner Dorman — a world premiere — that starts with Alon sneaking on stage in darkness. We'll also learn about the personal connection between Alon and the Stern family via the America Israel Cultural Foundation.

This week we have two marvelous works by Johannes Brahms not originally composed for orchestra. But when reimagined for a full symphony orchestra, they are even more glorious. One was transformed by Brahms himself, and the other by composer Bright Sheng. With the resources and colors of a full symphony orchestra, we hear Brahms at his most magnificent.

Classical KC speaks with the director of The Kansas City Youth Percussion Ensemble, Kevin Clarke, plus two talented young members of the group. We'll hear performances of eclectic music that explores the large world of percussive sound.

In an episode called “Surprise Symphonies” we have a Haydn symphony, but not the one you might expect, plus the one and only symphony by French composer Ernest Chausson. These works are two symphonies in B-flat, by two composers who were both 35 years old at the time.

We are proud to once again share a recent Harriman-Jewell Series Livestream Discovery Concert. This time, we’ll hear a performance by pianist Zhu Wang, winner of the 2020 Harriman-Jewell Series prize, as well as First Prize in the 2020 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.