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The Two-Way
7:08 am
Thu May 2, 2013

Rapper Chris Kelly Dies, 'Jump' Was Hit For Duo Kris Kross

Credit KrisKrossVEVO
Chris Kelly, left, and Chris Smith in 1992's "Jump" video, which was a hit for their rap duo Kris Kross.
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Originally published on Fri May 3, 2013 8:11 am

  • LISTEN: A clip from "Jump"

Update at 8:10 a.m. ET, May 3. A New Post:

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Deceptive Cadence
5:51 pm
Wed May 1, 2013

Coaxing The Baby To Sleep: A Violinist's Hand-Picked Lullabies

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Credit Andrew Eccles / Courtesy of the artist
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine says she had her infant daughter in mind when she decided to record an album of lullabies.
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By NPR Staff

Originally published on Wed May 1, 2013 7:48 pm

In German, it's wiegenlied; in French, berceuse; in Norwegian, vuggevise. In any language, the universal effect of what we know as the lullaby is, of course, to coax a baby to sleep.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine had her own baby in mind when she decided to record a collection of lullabies. Her infant daughter appears on the cover of the new album Violin Lullabies — all folded up, fast asleep, so tiny she just about fits in her dad's hands.

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Classics in Concert
11:22 am
Wed May 1, 2013

Spring For Music: Detroit Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

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Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Leonard Slatkin leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Spring for Music festival at Carnegie Hall.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
The second half of the Spring for Music concert was dominated by Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins, originally conceived as a kind of sung ballet, with words by Bertold Brecht. The Portland-based rock and Pink Martini singer Storm Large took the stage to sing the role of Anna.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
After her performance, Storm Large said she felt like she just did a sporting event. Asked about her diverse repertoire, she said, "I just do stuff that makes me feel good. Whether I'm smashing glasses [in a rock band] or I'm in a gown singing the lovely music of Kurt Weill."
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
A barbershop-style quartet of singers — from left tenors Jorge Garza and Carl Moe, with baritones Anton Belov and Richard Zeller — played the collective role of Anna's family in Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Tonight was Storm Large's Carnegie Hall debut. She had never even been inside the building before. "I'm not going there unless I can play there," she said.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Detroit Symphony Orchestra pride backstage at Carnegie Hall. The orchestra has come through a rough period in its history. Two years ago a bitter labor dispute cost the DSO and its fans most of the 2011-12 concert season and the departure of a few key musicians.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Playing Carnegie Hall, often called the temple of classical music, is a point of pride for any orchestra, especially the Detroit Symphony which has not performed here in 17 years.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Leonard Slatkin is in his 5th season as music director in Detroit. And he's no stranger to Carnegie Hall, having conducted about 50 performances here, with orchestras such as the St. Louis Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Orchestras from around the country, chosen for their creative programming, show up for the Spring for Music festival. And fans from their hometowns show up as well, each with their own color-coded bandanas. Detroit waves red!
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
Conductor Leonard Slatkin and his Detroit Symphony Orchestra offered a Spring for Music concert featuring 20th-century composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Maurice Ravel and Kurt Weill — composers Slatkin says in some ways seemed more comfortable with their 19th century roots.
Credit Torsten Kjellstrand / for NPR
A Detroit Symphony violinist savors a moment in music by Rachmaninov. Leonard Slatkin began the concert with two lesser-known Rachmaninov symphonic poems: The glittering Caprice bohemian and the eerie Isle of the Dead.
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By editor

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 9:08 pm

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra's performances at the 2013 Spring for Music festival represent a dramatic reversal of fortunes, and one that can only happen among modern-day American orchestras.

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Music Documentaries
12:23 pm
Tue April 30, 2013

Tristan Perich On Q2 Music's 'Spaces'

Credit courtesy of Q2
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By Alex Ambrose

Originally published on Tue April 30, 2013 1:11 pm

For the third installment of Q2 Spaces, we visited the home and work space of Tristan Perich — a New York-based sound, visual and installation artist whose music blends a composer's interest in acoustic classical instruments and electronic manipulation with an inventor's exploration into circuitry and computer code.

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Deceptive Cadence
4:20 pm
Mon April 29, 2013

Remembering Janos Starker, The Cellist 'Born To Be A Teacher'

Credit Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Cellist Janos Starker with one of his classes at Indiana University. He said he was "put on this earth to be a teacher."
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By Sara Wittmeyer

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 5:48 pm

Renowned concert soloist and prolific, Grammy-winning cellist Janos Starker died Sunday. He was 88.

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The Two-Way
5:09 pm
Sun April 28, 2013

Janos Starker, A Master Of The Cello, Dies At 88

Credit Erich Auerbach / Getty Images
Hungarian-born American cellist Janos Starker died Sunday at 88. Starker's career included more than 165 recordings, as well as decades of teaching.
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Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 10:24 am

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Music News
5:28 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

When Clarence Thomas Wrote To George Jones

Credit Brendan Banaszak / NPR
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Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 5:55 pm

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The Record
2:44 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

The Tyler Interview: Silly, But With A Purpose

Credit Johnny Nunez / WireImage
Elliott Wilson (left) and Tyler The Creator Tuesday night at the Highline Ballroom.
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By Charlie Kaplan

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 3:42 pm

Interviewing Odd Future visionary Tyler, the Creator is a crapshoot.

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Deceptive Cadence
2:25 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Explore Madame Mao's Hollywood Fantasies

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Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see+ Gallery, Beijing, and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
A Chinese and a North Korean embrace in a pledge of everlasting (political) love. From Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The "model works" engineered by Jiang Qing combine elements of 1930s Hollywood fantasy, Peking opera and classical ballet with heaping doses of political dogma.The Red Detachment of Women, 1973.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The aesthetics of classical Peking opera, with its stylized performing techniques and facial gestures, was an important element of the "model works" that Jiang Qing and her collaborators created. Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, 1969.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Another Zhang still from Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of see+ Gallery, Beijing, and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto
Photographer Zhang Yaxin created incredible and indelible images as stills from the array of "model" operas and ballets planned and sanctioned by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution.A Chinese and North Korean solider embrace in Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Some of the model works were expanded into a range of theatrical, politically acceptable iterations. First composed as an opera in 1964, The White-Haired Girl was also adapted into an opera-ballet and a film. The White Haired Girl, 1974.
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By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 4:56 pm

During the chaos and oppression of China's Cultural Revolution, one curious new theatrical genre was born — and it was the child of the Communist Party. Jiang Qing (a.ka. Madame Mao), a former stage and screen actress and the notorious wife of Mao Zedong, led the creation of yang ban xi: "model works" that were meant, in words attributed to Chairman Mao, to "serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and [conforming] to proletarian ideology."

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