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The Medical Arts Symphony of Kansas City community orchestra has given amateur musicians in the health care profession a place to perform since 1959. For the doctors, nurses, dentists, medical students, and more who take part, the music can be therapeutic.
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A slate of superstars will appear in Kansas City this month, including Bad Bunny, Drake, Sleater-Kinney and Jenny Lewis. Easter Sunday features a performance by R&B evangelist Anthony Hamilton to end the month on a high note.
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Thomas Bangalter, formerly of French electronic music duo Daft Punk, has released a classical music album: the score to a ballet titled Mythologies that draws on American minimalism and Baroque works.
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Scientists have sequenced the genome of Ludwig van Beethoven from two-century-old locks of hair, and found clues about the ailments that plagued him in life.
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A new collection of recordings finally freed from the vaults offers a chance to hear one of opera's greatest artists sing Wagner, Strauss, Berlioz and more.
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Two musical worlds collide as jazz pianist Dan Tepfer finds inspiration, and room for improvisation, in J.S. Bach's Two-Part Inventions.
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Kansas City has no shortage of great concerts coming through the metro. Whether you're paying out big for stadium tours or catching up-and-coming acts at the smallest punk club, here's where to get started in exploring the local music scene.
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On her new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, the vibrant, young composer coaxes unusual sounds from a symphony orchestra.
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Watch Lara Downes' conversation with the composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about balancing her roots, her craft and the shifting field of classical music.
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What do great conductors listen to when they're not on the podium? Nézet-Séguin made a playlist, specifically for Fresh Air, of music that inspires him (plus one of his cats' favorite songs).
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Multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes has explored mass incarceration for the last eight years. With this sizeable grant, he hopes to sustain "The Healing Project" for decades to come.
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NPR's Leila Fadel talks to pianist Lara Downes about her interview series Amplify, which examines how Black artists today might find themselves in a new cultural renaissance.
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The Exilarte Center in Vienna is the world's leading research institution devoted to preserving the work of composers such as Walter Arlen and others, who were exiled or killed during the Holocaust.
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The composer of Breaking the Waves speaks candidly about equity in her field, the importance of role models and the unglamorous side of writing music every day.