With John Shea. Featuring works by Adelbert Gyrowetz. 
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Richard Stoltzman
Two-time Grammy Award winning clarinettist Richard Stoltzman gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, and, in 1986, became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize. He has been a soloist with more than a hundred orchestras as well as a recitalist and chamber music performer, innovative jazz artist, and prolific recording artist.
Find out more about Richard Stoltzman
Tom meets Richard at his home and talks about his late start with classical music, how Brahms changed his life, and his faith in Mozart's ability to speak to today's youngest generation. -
Early Music in Boston
Boston’s historic significance is reflected in its musical heritage: it has long been a leading centre for composition, performance, and instrument manufacture. The earliest documented public concert in America took place in Boston on December 1731 and the US premieres of both Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Creation took place in the city in the early 19th Century. The home of the American period performance and early music movements, there are several acclaimed ensembles in the city.
Tom is joined by Joel Cohen of the Boston Camerata, Marie-Hélène Bernard of the Handel and Haydn Society, violinist Daniel Stepner, and instrument maker Ingeborg Von Huene at the Harvard Musical Association, to find out what 18th century music probably sounded like in the city, how New England's early music groups now compete with Europe's best, and how the past has much to offer the present in today’s Boston. -
El Sistema USA
Boston is also home to El Sistema USA, modelled on Venezuela’s now legendary music education system. Programmes inspired by El Sistema already exist in many U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, LA, New York, Pasadena and San Antonio but the movement began at Boston’s New England Conservatory.
Tom visits Conservatory Lab Charter School in the suburb of Brighton where the children, teachers, and El Sistema tutors explain the social and musical effects the scheme is having, and talk about the prospects more generally for music education in New England's schools.
Picture: copyright Diane Griliches -
Music at M.I.T
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab has recently celebrated 25 years of ‘inventing the future’ – researching and envisioning the impact of emerging technologies on all aspects of life – including music. Composer Tod Machover leads several of the music projects including Hyperinstruments, a technology that uses smart computers to augment virtuosity, and the Toy Symphony, an international music performance and education project. His research group is currently examining ways to use music in therapy for emotionally and physically challenged individuals. His newest opera, Death and the Powers, features a robotic, animatronic stage--the first of its kind--that gradually “comes alive” and becomes the opera’s main character.
Tod shows Tom round the Media Lab where he also meets the famed father of Artificial Intelligence Marvin Minsky (pictured), whose inventions include mechanical arms, hands and other robotic devices, the Confocal Scanning Microscope, and the "Muse" synthesizer for musical variations.
Broadcasts
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BBC Radio 3Sat 23 Apr 2011 12:15 BBC Radio 3
Free download
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Music Matters
The latest news on classical music. Interviews with key UK and international performers, composers,...
