classical

Classical KC's Brooke Knoll speaks with multi-instrumentalist and improviser Gerald Trimble about his eclectic instruments and musical influences. Hear him perform in our studio and learn more about his upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Candlelight Ceilidh.

Famed mezzo-soprano and Kansas native Joyce DiDonato joins co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies for a look back at some of her favorite performances with the Kansas City Symphony. We'll hear her perform music by Rossini, Berlioz, Ravel, Jake Heggie and Leonard Bernstein. Hear Joyce open up about what it means to perform in Kansas City, and Michael shares what he thinks Leonard Bernstein would say about Joyce's performance of his work.

This week, hear more recent Kansas City Symphony performances including world premieres by Joel Thompson and Stuart Murray Turnbull, and a co-commission from Jessie Montgomery. We'll also hear Steven Stucky's "Second Concerto for Orchestra," Dvořák's "Othello Overture" and Handel's "Zadok the Priest."

Discover the diverse musical influences of trumpeter, composer, traveler and radio host Hermon Mehari. Brooke Knoll speaks with Mehari about his own music, his love for opera and his path from Jefferson City to Kansas City, and now Paris.

This week, hear recent Kansas City Symphony performances, including Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 from 2022 featuring Conrad Tao, and Max Bruch's Concerto No. 1 for Violin featuring Randall Goosby. We'll also hear Tim Higgins' brass feature "Sinfonietta," James Lee III's picturesque "Amer'ican" and a fun overture from Rossini.

In this varied program, co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies kick off Black History Month by highlighting the work of composer Adolphus Hailstork. We'll also celebrate Felix Mendelssohn's birthday and hear emotional music written for the stage by Gioachino Rossini and Samuel Barber.

Bach Aria Soloists — Kansas City's all-star, all female chamber ensemble — is releasing a brand new album. Classical KC welcomes founder, artistic director and violinist Elizabeth Suh Lane and soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson to talk about the new release and what they're working on next. We'll hear selections from the album including music from Bach, Handel and a new work from contemporary British composer Cecilia McDowall.

In the spirit of a new year, co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies highlight five works never before heard on these broadcasts. We'll hear Mozart's "Serenade No. 11 for Winds," Haydn's "Symphony No. 64," "Rainbow Body" by Christopher Theofanidis, Carlos Simon's "Warmth From Other Suns," and the "Burlesque in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra" by a young Richard Strauss.

It's poetry in motion as co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies explore a wonderfully dramatic set of music including Beethoven's "Leonore Overture No. 3," William Grant Still's "Poem for Orchestra," Alexander Scriabin's "The Poem of Ecstasy," Hector Berlioz's "Le Corsaire Overture," and a recent performance by the Kansas City Symphony of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's sweeping symphonic poem: "Scheherazade."

Trombone Christmas Kansas City is scheduled to take place this weekend with more than 100 trombone players outdoors at Union Station.

Join co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies for a varied program of four masterworks. We'll hear Arvo Pärt's "Fratres," Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, Bohuslav Martinů's "Les fresques de Piero della Francesca" and Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra.

Listen to performances of "The Oak," a piece by Florence Price that was only recently discovered, and Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, one of the 20th century's towering choral masterpieces.