Anastasia Tsioulcas

Anastasia Tsioulcas appears in the following:

French Composer Pierre Boulez Dies At 90

Wednesday, January 06, 2016

The composer and conductor changed the way we hear music, not only through his own compositions but in the concerts he conducted. He died Tuesday at the age of 90.

Comment

Remembering Kurt Masur, The Conductor Who Rebuilt The New York Philharmonic

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Kurt Masur, a former music director of the New York Philharmonic, died Saturday from complications from Parkinson's disease at a hospital in Greenwich, Conn. His death was announced by the New York Philharmonic.

Masur was 88 years old; he had been suffering from Parkinson's disease

Comment

Latitudes: 10 Favorite Global Music Picks From 2015

Saturday, December 19, 2015

2015 was a year in which global music (whatever that term does or doesn't mean) overlapped even more than usual with other genres — and the results were dazzling.

Much of that broadening has evolved organically. Some of the "roots" artists I've selected for this year-end list, like ...

Comment

Our 10 Favorite Classical Albums Of 2015

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Say what you will about the demise of the CD and the battles between downloads and streams, in 2015 the flow of classical music recordings seemed as full and rich as ever.

Devising a list of just 10 was downright painful. We were forced to leave so many terrific albums ...

Comment

A New Music Journey From The U.S. To Havana

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

When you think of Cuban music, contemporary classical most likely isn't the first — or possibly even fifth — genre that springs to mind. But a group of American composers and musicians couldn't resist an opportunity to travel to the island to present their own music and seek out their ...

Comment

Kendrick Lamar And Taylor Swift Lead Grammy Nominations

Monday, December 07, 2015

A battle between upbeat, finely crafted pop and politically minded hip-hop seems to be what's shaping up for the biggest prizes at this year's Grammy Awards. The nominees were announced this morning, in advance of the awards ceremony on Feb. 15.

Leading the way with 11 total nominations is

Comment

Latitudes: Our Favorite Global Music Right Now

Tuesday, December 01, 2015

In mid-November, I was lucky enough to accompany a group of American composers and performers traveling to Cuba for the Havana Contemporary Music Festival.

Going to Cuba was a longtime dream for me, especially as it has been an incubator for incredible music and dance that draw upon ...

Comment

Remembering Cynthia Robinson, Co-Founder Of Sly & The Family Stone

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Groundbreaking trumpeter and singer Cynthia Robinson, a co-founder of the pivotal funk band Sly & The Family Stone, died Monday night at age 69. Her death was confirmed by her bandmate and friend Jerry Martini, another co-founder of the Family Stone.

In October, Robinson disclosed that she was ...

Comment

Artists Remember Allen Toussaint

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Over the course of a career that lasted some sixty years, pianist, producer and songwriter Allen Toussaint's music and sound became a hugely influential force for artists working in many different genres. Toussaint died on Monday night in Madrid, at the age of 77.

As the news ...

Comment

#NPRreads: White Privilege, FBI Director's Remarks On Policing, And Oyster Farming

Friday, October 30, 2015

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. On Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, we bring you four ...

Comment

Latitudes: Our Favorite Global Music In October

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Born Hanan Hamdi, Namika is a German singer from a Tamazight (Berber) Moroccan family. Her debut single, "Lieblingsmensch" (Favorite Person), went to No. 1 in Germany last month with its catchy tune and lighthearted feel.

Among the compliments Namika ladles on her guy is one that's endearing in any language: ...

Comment

Drake's 'Hotline Bling' Aims At No. 1, And Misses. Why?

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Getting "Hotline Bling" to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was something that Drake really, really wanted. He said so, very publicly, last week on Instagram:

The "Hotline Bling" video, which was originally only posted on Apple Music, proved to be endlessly remixable, ...

Comment

The Life And Death Of Tower Records, Revisited

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

A new documentary from Colin Hanks looks back on a business empire that helped shape the tastes of many music fanatics.

Comment

Paolo Angeli: Tiny Desk Concert

Monday, October 19, 2015

Paolo Angeli has a whole toy shop aboard his guitar: He's got hammers, pedals, propellers, springs, drone strings and even a couple of cell-phone ringers at his disposal.

The base of it all is a six-stringed instrument from his native island of Sardinia, and the seed of Angeli's ...

Comment

Latitudes: Our Favorite Global Music In September

Monday, September 28, 2015

Imagine the band Haim meeting the late Ofra Haza, with some EDM thrown in for good measure. That's the wave the fast-rising Israeli sister act A-WA — Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim — rides. (Yes, their last name is Haim, too.) They pull inspiration ...

Comment

Why Can't Artist Bios Be Better?

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Over in London, the Independent's arts editor, David Lister, recently published a scathing commentary about the paucity of valuable or even interesting information in artist biographies. He wrote it in a fury after paying £4 to obtain the program for a Proms concert he attended, featuring the excellent ...

Comment

A.R. Rahman Responds To Fatwa Issued For 'Muhammad' Biopic

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

A big-budget Iranian biopic depicting the childhood of the Prophet Muhammad has already faced a fair amount of backlash. But now the film's director and its composer — the hugely popular Indian musician A.R. Rahman — have had a fatwa, or religious edict, issued against them by ...

Comment

Sam Lee: Tiny Desk Concert

Friday, September 11, 2015

English vocalist Sam Lee has an amazing backstory: He found his way to singing professionally after stints as a wilderness survival expert and a burlesque dancer. But what really matters are his mesmerizing performances, as well as his incredible ability to connect with people — certainly with the ...

Comment

First Listen: Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott, 'Songs From The Arc Of Life'

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

When it comes to artistic partnerships, there's a lot to be said for the fireworks of musicians joining together for the first time. But there's another kind of collaboration that can yield profound pleasure: a recording with two artists who know each other deeply, in a relationship that has unfolded ...

Comment

An Unlikely Archivist For Armenian Aleppo: A Punk Drummer From D.C.

Sunday, September 06, 2015

An American punk drummer has become an unlikely historian of the Armenian community in Aleppo, Syria. And he's recently released a recording of their religious music — just as the city is crumbling during Syria's ongoing civil war.

Jason Hamacher doesn't seem like the kind of guy who ...

Comment