The harmonies of a string quartet come from the score and the players of course, but also from the instruments themselves. Sara Fishko talked to the Miro Quartet, whose members are experimenting with the sounds that can be created from one old maple tree.

Back in the 1970s, on a routine visit to a record store in New York City, Allan Evans bought an LP recorded by a Hungarian pianist whose name meant nothing to him. But the moment he heard the music, he felt like he'd discovered a "musical Tutankhamen." Sara Fishko tells ...

Tony Kushner's Angels in America was a sprawling, epic 2-part play that burst onto the Broadway stage in 1993. Kushner, along with his director George C. Wolfe and a stellar cast, crafted a monumental response to the 1980's. The play created a world populated by ghosts, angels, ...

Sviatoslav Richter, considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th Century, would have celebrated his 90th birthday last month. In a field full of eccentrics, Richter was still regarded as particularly unpredictable and moody — and one of the most enthralling performers who has set foot on a stage. ...

Back in the day, there was one thing every entertainer had to know how to do: tap dance. Sara Fishko explains how a generation of dancers learned how to speak with their feet.

If there’s one piece in the cannon of classical music that would win an award for Most Transcribed, Most Beloved and Most Mysterious, Bach’s Chaconne would be a shoo-in. Sara Fishko explains how so many musicians have spun so much music out of this one piece.

Beeee-de-be-de-be-pode-e-ba-da-bah. No one’s sure exactly how scatting — the art of singing improvised gibberish — began. But as Sarah Fishko reports, this purely American musical device took on a life of its own as each of the great jazz vocalists took a shot at singing free-for-all.

How do you bring music lovers back to live concerts when they have a multitude of technological choices available to them in the 21st century? One solution is to turn concert halls into architectural wonders that demand to be experienced. Sara Fishko reports on the new Frederick P. Rose ...

It is a cliché to say that an orchestra is an example of the “whole being greater than the sum of its parts.” And it would be only a cliché, if it weren’t so true. Each of 100 or so instruments plays a part that may sound obscure or just ...

Also by Sara Fishko: The Jazz Loft Project Radio Series

"An Hour with Dave Brubeck" is another in Sara Fishko's series of conversations with musical figures. The interview for the program was taped in Brubeck's studio in Connecticut, in 2004. In the program, Brubeck discusses his childhood, musical ...

It is a cliché to say that an orchestra is an example of the “whole being greater than the sum of its parts.” And it would be only a cliché, if it weren’t so true. Each of 100 or so instruments plays a part that may sound obscure or just ...

In 1956 Leonard Bernstein and Lillian Hellman staged a musical out of Voltaire’s Candide — the satiric French novel from 1759 that made a laughingstock of optimism. The Bernstein/Hellman musical was one of the most esteemed failures in American theatre. Over the years, Candide has been revived many times. The ...

Doris Eaton is over 100 years old and she's about to have her Broadway comeback. Eaton will perform in New York next week for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS on the same stage where she made her debut 80-odd years ago as a Ziegfeld Follies dancer. Sara Fishko talked to ...

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck and his wife Lola are being honored this week by the University of the Pacific for their lifelong commitment to social justice. Brubeck established himself early on with the jazz mega-hit, "Take 5." He's gone on to write many other kinds of music since, including ...

For a moment during the Cold War — in the decade between Josef Stalin's death until the Cuban Missile Crisis — something called "Cultural Exchange" formed a warm glow in US-Soviet relations. It started with one pianist in 1955, named Emil Gilels, and led to a sudden mutual discovery of ...

Frank Gehry's new orchestra hall in Los Angeles is more than a showpiece for a celebrated architect. It's also a grand musical space for the pop culture capital of the world. Sarah Fishko looks at how the long-awaited Disney Hall puts modern forms in the service of classical sounds.

"You want to send a message? Call Western Union," said Sam Goldwyn.

Right now, as "loyalty" and "treason" are being redefined by world events, so are cultural expressions of patriotism and dissent. From "message" pictures in the old Hollywood, to morale-building songs, to satirists' comic visions, politics and mass ...

In classical music, the music can give us the grandeur and gravity we crave, and the words can bring it down to earth, closer to the specifics of what we're trying to recall. Sara Fishko looks at memory, music and the art of capturing a profound moment in time.

Violinist Louis Kaufman went to Hollywood in 1934. He became a fixture in movie orchestras and played the soaring violin of Hollywood’s golden age. Kaufman’s memoir, A Fiddler's Tale, is about to see the light of day, thanks to the efforts of his frequent accompanist and wife of 62 years, ...

It used to be that poetry was an entirely spoken form. But then, thanks to the printing press, poetry became a mostly silent literary form. Sara Fishko discovers how disconcerting it can be to hear the words you're used to only seeing on the page.