Traditionally, #ClassicalChristmas has been the December theme for Classics a Day. This year, it’s changed slightly — #ClassicalHoliday. The idea was always to encourage folks to share works composed for performance in December. The pieces could be either sacred or secular. But the hashtag #ClassicalChristmas suggested music only for one faith tradition. So new hashtag, […]

I recently found a Reader’s Digest collection at my parent’s home. It was too good not to share. So Wednesday, December 6, 2021, be sure to tune in for “A Festival of Light Classical Music.” From 7 am to 9 am I’ll be playing sections from these LPs and having some fun. You might not know the […]

Vienna, circa 1800. Many music lovers picture that city at that time dominated by three musical giants. There was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, recently deceased, whose music was still in demand. Franz Joseph Haydn, the father of the symphony and string quartet, was now an international celebrity. And Ludwig van Beethoven, the young composer, and pianist […]

Members of Irish group We Banjo 3 will stop by Sunset Road this Friday afternoon to go track by track through their first ever holiday album, A Winter Wonderful, out that very day. The Galway Ireland band has toured the USA several times a year in recent years, building a passionate and loyal following, though […]

Roanoke-based pianist Erica Sipes joins Ralph Graves to present a selection of works composed by women. Erica’s discovered many of these composers through her project  Piano Music She Wrote. She’s also found — and performed — even more music by women composers as a member of the  Alma Ensemble. We’ll present a mostly piano-based program […]

Caspar Othmayr was a theologian and composer of the early Protestant church. His 1549 Tricinia in pias offers a selection of musical virtues that address eight vices. The Dryades Consort uses this for a program celebrating both the vices and virtues. While Othmayr’s music provides the foundation, the consort pulls from other contemporary sources. There’s a significant […]