Terrance McKnight

In Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida,” Princess Aida is torn between her homeland of Ethiopia (ruled by her father, King Amonasro) and her captor, the Egyptian leader Radamès who loves her and w...

As the one Black man in Shakespeare’s play and Verdi’s opera, Otello was not only tokenized, but villainized, criticized and minimized. With such an emphasis on Otello’s flaws, how is...

Giuseppe Verdi's Otello rose from enslavement to the ranks of army general and marries an aristocratic Venetian woman. It’s difficult  to imagine the rich cultural heritage of Otello’...

This week on Every Voice with Terrance McKnight, we go deeper into Giuseppe Verdi's character of the “Moor of Venice." Otello is a celebrated general in the Venetian army, and as a Bl...

“Otello” debuted in Milan in 1887, just two years after European nations gathered in Berlin to agree on a campaign to carve up and colonize the African continent for their own profit....

The use of blackface is a dying trend, but it was fundamental to one of the most popular operas of all time, Mozart’s hit comedic opera, “The Magic Flute“. Over the last few decades a...

In Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Monostatos is smitten by the white princess Pamina, whom he is supposed to be guarding under the orders of the high priest Sarastro. His desire to love ...

At over 200 years old, “The Magic Flute” remains a classic opera which continues to be taught, studied, and performed in sold-out venues around the world. But with more than two centu...

Monostatos the Moor in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” is one of the most famous representations of Blackness in opera - a genre with limited representation of characters of African descen...

Roland Hayes and the Lost Generation. This is the extraordinary story of the life of Roland Hayes, another great (and largely forgotten) creator of new cosmologies.

Our sister station WQXR will have an all day marathon on Juneteenth.

The Rise and Fall of Black Swan. It was Motown before Motown, FUBU before FUBU: Black Swan Records, the record company founded by Harry Pace.

Hear a re-creation of Beethoven’s famous marathon concert in Vienna, where many of his greatest works premiered on this very day in 1808

Terrance McKnight on WQXR's five-day radio festival marking Beethoven's 250th birthday. 

WQXR host Terrance McKnight joins us to discuss the Mostly Mozart Festival, which ran earlier this month.

WQXR’s Terrance McKnight hosts a conversation about the Black experience in the concert hall and the unique challenges people of color face in the classical music world.