Posts by Ryan McMaken

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1601 – Charles McPherson Quintet / Joe Alterman Trio, Part Two On this first episode of the 16h season of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we’ll listen to part two of a 2023 festival co-bill that featured two elder statesmen of jazz saxophone: Charles McPherson and Houston Person. McPherson led…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1552 – Charles McPherson Quintet & Joe Alterman Trio, Part One On this episode, we’ll listen to part one of a 2023 festival co-bill that featured two elder statesmen of jazz saxophone: Charles McPherson and Houston Person. McPherson led his quintet featuring trumpeter Sean Jones, while Person was featured…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1547 – Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio / Medeski's Mad Skillet On this episode, we’ll listen back to two distinctive keyboard driven ensembles presented during our 2019 festival season: the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio and Medeski’s Mad Skillet, a band fronted by John Medeski and Will Bernard.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1540 – 2022 Guitar Special On this episode, rather than listening in on only two past performances, we’ll focus on some of the fantastic guitar playing that occurred at our 2022 festival. we’ll hear a range of instrumentalists and styles, including bluegrass flatpicker Bryan Sutton, jazz greats John Jorgenson…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1536 – Jorge Glem & Sam Reider On this episode, we listen to a concert at our 2022 festival given by Venezuelan cuatro player and composer Jorge Glem and American accordionist, pianist and composer Sam Reider.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1535 – John Jorgenson Quintet 2022 On this episode, we’ll listen to highlights from a concert at our 2022 festival given by the renowned John Jorgenson Quintet.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1534 – True Blues / Les Filles de Illighadad On this episode, we’ll listen to highlights from our 2022 festival. Stylistically, this co-bill spanned the Delta and Piedmont blues of the American South along with the desert blues and Tende music of Niger. The artists involved were Corey Harris,…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival 1531 – Sebastian Knauer's Mozart/Nyman Concert This program featured new music composed by Michael Nyman for pianist Sebastian Knauer, which was intertwined with Mozart Sonatas. We begin with the third movement from Mozart’s Piano Sonata in F Major K. 332, performed by Sebastian Knauer.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1529 – Olga Kern / Sebastian Knauer On this episode we listen to portions of two magnificent piano recitals given at our festival in 2022 – one by Russian-American pianist Olga Kern in her Savannah debut, and the other by German pianist Sebastian Knauer, a longtime participant in the…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1525 – Emmet Cohen Trio / Samara Joy & the Pasquale Grasso Trio On this episode we listen to performances by two exceptional young jazz musicians recorded at our 2022 festival: pianist Emmet Cohen with his trio and vocalist Samara Joy with the Pasquale Grasso Trio.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1524 – Mr. Sun / Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves On this episode we’ll listen to two exceptional acoustic music projects: one fiddle and banjo duo that explores and enlivens the old-time tradition, and the other that turns the stringband ensemble format on its head, incorporating elements of…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1523 – Delebration / Balsam Range On this episode, we’ll listen to the a 2019 performance given by the Del McCoury Band, on an evening that we dubbed Del’s 80th birthday “Delebration.” In the second half, we’ll keep the bluegrass going with a segment of a 2015 concert given…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1520 – Sean Jones Quartet / Kittel & Co. On this two-part episode we’ll hear excerpts from trumpeter Sean Jones and his quartet, along with a segment of a performance by fiddle player and composer Jeremy Kittel’s ensemble Kittel & Co., all recorded live at the 2022 Savannah Music…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1517 – Kenny Barron / Cecile McLorin Salvant Part Two On this episode we hear segments of performances by the great jazz pianist Kenny Barron along with more from the 2016 Cecile Mclorin Salvant concert.

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1515 – Cecile McLorin Salvant Part One / Julian Lage Listen back to festival sets given by two jazz luminaries, singer Cecile Mclorin Salvant and guitarist Julian Lage.

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1512 – Charlie Hunter & Scott Amendola / Charles McPherson On this episode, we go back in time to our 2013 festival for a two-part show. In the first half, we’ll hear seven string guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Scott Amendola from a concert they gave that season. And after the…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1511 – Brahms & Béla On this episode we listen to excerpts from two concerts given at our 2022 festival: one from the Philip Dukes & Friends chamber music series, followed by two songs from Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart. We begin with a performance of Brahms’ Piano Quintet…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1510 – Celebrating Ray Brown II feat. Dee Dee Bridgewater In a prior episode, we listened to highlights from the first half of a concert entitled Celebrating Ray Brown, which featured a trio consisting of Christian McBride on bass, Eric Reed on piano and Jeff Hamilton on drums. Today…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1509 – Celebrating Ray Brown / David Finckel & Wu Han In this episode, we begin with highlights from a show celebrating the inimitable bassist, composer and bandleader Ray Brown. The trio consisted of Eric Reed on piano, Christian McBride on bass, and Jeff Hamilton on drums. In the…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1507 – Sullivan Fortner / Chris Pattishall In this episode, we listen to portions of two wonderful solo piano performances given at the 2018 Savannah Music Festival. We start with a selection of works played by New Orleans native Sullivan Fortner, followed by a handful of tunes by Willie…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1506 – Titans of the B-3 The use of the organ in jazz was shuffled to the side of the stage beginning in the late 1960s when lightweight electric keyboards and synthesizers became standard operating equipment. In this episode we listen to Savannah performances given by two titans of…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1505 – Lee Fields / William Bell In this episode we listen to the old school soul of Lee Fields & the Expressions and Stax Records pioneer William Bell, recorded live in Savannah in April of 2018 and November of 2019.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1504 – Hallelujah Train / The Spanish Tinge In this episode, we go back in the archives to hear segments of two powerful performances: The Hallelujah Train feat. Pastor Brady Blade, Sr. and Shreveport’s Zion Baptist Mass Choir under the direction of Sereca Henderson with a band including drummers…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1503 – Vijay Iyer Trio / Cedric Burnside In this episode, we’ll get a window into the worlds of two very different artists: jazz pianist Vijay Iyer and Mississippi hill country bluesman Cedric Burnside. Iyer brought his trio featuring bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Jeremy Dutton to…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1502 – Schumann & Beethoven In this episode, we listen to Robert Schumann’s great Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Opus 44, performed during the Philip Dukes & Friends chamber music series. It will be followed by the lesser known sonatinas for mandolin, composed by Beethoven and performed here by…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1501 – Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart / Lúnasa This and future episodes of Savannah Music Festival LIVE will attempt to recreate the festival experience through its multi-hued lens, with the idea that we each have something to discover through every new interaction with music. This episode begins with…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1448 – Escher String Quartet 2021 In October of 2021, the Escher String Quartet appeared in four concerts over three nights in Savannah, performing Mozart viola quintets with Savannah Music Festival Associate Artistic Director Philip Dukes, and on a program featuring musicians from the Savannah Philharmonic under maestro Keitaro…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1419 – Dr. Lonnie Smith 2018 September 28, 2021 saw the passing of 79-year old jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, NEA Jazz Master and one of the most revered and soulful musicians to ever sit behind a Hammond B3. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we’ll listen to highlights…

savannahmusicfestival · SMFLive1416_HopeandDukes2014 From 2004-2019, violinist Daniel Hope assembled a group of American and European musicians and programmed our annual chamber music series. Now that Associate Artistic Director chair is held by British violist Philip Dukes, a longtime series participant, and friend and collaborator of Hope’s. Philip Dukes is recognized as one of the world’s…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1404 – Joey DeFrancesco & the People The use of the organ in jazz was shuffled to the side of the stage beginning in the late 1960s when lightweight electric keyboards and synthesizers became standard operating equipment. Joey DeFrancesco saw this development as an unfair disengagement. By advocating for a reevaluation…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1402 – Crawford, Doyle, Vallely, Wickel In early April of 2014, an assembly of some of the finest traditional musicians in Scottish and Irish music took up residence at the Charles H Morris Center during the Savannah Music Festival. The Irish side of that equation was made up of Kevin Crawford,…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1351 – Steep Canyon Rangers 2019 The North Carolina-based sextet Steep Canyon Rangers has spent two decades bending the bluegrass aesthetic and combining it to elements of pop, country and folk rock. The Grammy Award-winning band, which toured and collaborated extensively with comedian and banjo player Steve Martin, is made up…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1349 – Jon Cleary A world-renowned keyboardist and vocalist, Jon Cleary draws upon 35 years of immersion in the New Orleans music scene to produce an eclectic style steeped in ‘70s soul, gospel, funk and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. In this Savannah Music Festival debut, Jon Cleary and his trio played…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1347 – Kat Edmonson Critically acclaimed vocalist and songwriter, actor and dancer, Kat Edmonson has played major stages across the United States, Europe and Japan. This episode features highlights from her Savannah Music Festival debut in 2019 at the Charles H. Morris Center in Trustees’ Garden, when she was…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1321 – Fatoumata Diawara 2019 Widely praised as one of the most vital artists in modern African music, singer, songwriter, guitarist and celebrated actor Fatoumata Diawara returned to Savannah in 2019 following a 2014 festival debut on a co-bill with Bombino. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we’ll listen…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1312 – John Doyle Born into an extended family of musicians in Dublin, John Doyle honed his signature left-hand finger-picking style on the guitar at a young age. His powerful playing later provided the signature rhythmic backbone for Irish-American supergroup Solas, which he co-founded with Seamus Egan, John Williams, Karan Casey…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1310 – Goodbye Girls The Goodbye Girls are an acoustic quartet founded in Boston with musicians from the US, Canada and Sweden. Formed out of a common love for old-time, bluegrass and Swedish traditional music, the Goodbye Girls are Lena Jonsson on fiddle, Allison de Groot on clawhammer banjo, Brittany Karlson…

savannahmusicfestival · SMF Live 1308 – Dayme Arocena Cuban singer Daymé Arocena grew up in a two-bed house with 21 other people where every available surface was scuffed from the rumba rhythms played out on them. Her music is infused with an eclectic mix of Cuban styles from the fast-paced changüí of Guantanamo to guaguancó…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE – Charlie Hunter Trio feat. Lucy Woodward With a career spanning 25 years, Charlie Hunter consistently ups his game as an innovative composer, imaginative bandleader and all-around great guitarist. He has worked with Norah Jones, Mos Def, John Mayer, D’Angelo and numerous other artists, and is widely considered the…

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE – Roby Lakatos 2019 Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos is not only a scorching virtuoso, but a musician of extraordinary stylistic versatility who defies definition. Described as everything from gypsy violinist or “devil’s fiddler” to classical virtuoso to jazz improviser to arranger, he is the kind of universal musician so…

The acoustic quartet Hawktail features Brittany Haas on fiddle, Dominick Leslie on mandolin, Jordan Tice on guitar, and Paul Kowert on bass. On this episode, we listen to an April 4, 2018 performance given by Hawktail at the Charles H. Morris Center in Trustees’ Garden.

Acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Darrell Scott first performed at the Savannah Music Festival in 2014 in collaboration with Tim O’Brien. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we’ll listen to highlights from Darrell Scott’s 2019 solo performance at the Charles H. Morris Center in Trustees’ Garden.

savannahmusicfestival · Savannah Music Festival LIVE 1247 – Dafnis Prieto Big Band Cuban-born drummer, composer, bandleader and 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Dafnis Prieto honors his musical heroes and mentors with his 17-piece orchestra. On this episode, we listen to the 2019 Savannah debut of the Dafnis Prieto Big Band, performing repertoire from the Grammy-winning album…

A decade after their Savannah Music Festival debut, the acclaimed acoustic quintet Punch Brothers returned to our festival to play for a packed house at the Trustees Theater. On this episode we’ll listen to highlights from that concert, given on Saturday, March 30, 2019.

Born in 1957 into a musical family in New Orleans, Herlin Riley began playing drums at age 3. He studied trumpet through high school and two years of college before focusing his attention fully on the drums. He spent 17 years with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and four years with Ahmad…

Entering his sixth decade of performing and recording, soul singer Lee Fields is one of the hardest-working and most prolific artists in the genre. He performs with every ounce of energy and passion that he can tap, fronting the acclaimed Truth & Soul Records house band. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE we…

Delano Floyd McCoury is a living link to the days when bluegrass was made only in honky-tonks, schoolhouse shows and on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to the a 2019 performance given by the Del McCoury Band, on a co-bill with the Steep…

Born in 1993 in San Francisco’s Bay Area, Molly Tuttle was 8 years old when she began playing guitar. By age 11 she was performing on stage with The Tuttles, the family band led by her father, Jack, a well-respected bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and instructor. She picked up the banjo and mandolin, but mainly concentrated on…

On a Monday night in April of 2019, we presented a one-time double bill at the Savannah Music Festival: Mike Marshall & Darol Anger alongside guitarists Bryan Sutton and David Grier. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to highlights of the Mike Marshall & Darol Anger set, which includes a handful…

Whether sonically reinventing chamber music or applying electric improvisation to traditional songs, early rock or jazz, guitar pioneer Bill Frisell maintains incredible musical versatility while also having a singular playing style. On this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to highlights from Bill Frisell’s second festival appearance: a 2018 performance with his trio…

Anda Union’s captivating combination of Mongolian musical styles is a reflection of their roots. Hailing from different ethnic nomadic cultures, the nine-member band unites tribal music traditions from all over Inner Mongolia, a semi-autonomous region of China. On this episode, we listen to the 2019 Savannah Music Festival debut of Anda Union.

The Jerusalem Quartet formed in the early 1990s while its members were students at the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music and Dance. In its debut year, the quartet was awarded first prize in the chamber music category by the Jerusalem Academy followed by two prizes at the Graz International Competition the following year. On this episode…

Guitarists Bryan Sutton and David Grier are both central to the evolution of flatpicking. With 13 guitarist of the year awards from the IBMA between them, both men started playing at a young age, influenced greatly by the playing and repertoire of Doc Watson, Tony Rice and Clarence White, among others. On this episode, we’ll…

As a performer, jazz pianist Marcus Roberts has played in settings ranging from solo, trio, and jazz orchestra to symphony orchestra, always bringing a remarkably fresh approach to each moment. As a composer, he has been commissioned for new work by Chamber Music America, Jazz at Lincoln Center, that Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Ozawa Music…

At 33-years of age, pianist Aaron Diehl is not only remarkable for his own generation of musicians, but he has already left an indelible mark on the jazz world through his meticulously conceived and refreshing performances, collaborations, compositions and interpretations. On this episode, we listen to a performance given by the Aaron Diehl Trio on…

To launch the Savannah Music Festival’s 30th season, we produced a concert entitled Georgia Soul & Blues in November of 2018 at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts. The bill featured soul man and Georgia Music hall of famer William Bell, whose Stax Records debut was released some 57 years earlier, alongside the 22-year old…

Sam Reider and the Human Hands are a Brooklyn-based collective of jazz and bluegrass musicians, led by San Francisco born pianist/accordionist/composer Sam Reider. On this episode of savannah music festival live we listen to the 2018 festival debut performance by Sam Reider and the Human Hands, which consisted of Reider on accordion and piano, Alex…

On April 2nd, 2017, Daniel Hope & Friends featuring Edgar Meyer and the Dover Quartet gave a stirring performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major, Opus 48. Hear it, along with Mozart’s Divertimento for Strings in D Major, K. 136, on this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE.

The innovative British trio LAU has been at the forefront of the new folk boom in the UK since their formation in 2004. Consisting of master fiddler Aidan O’Rourke from Oban, accordion innovator Martin Green from East Anglia, England, and guitarist-singer Kris Drever from Orkney, LAU’s traditional music foundation is woven throughout inventive compositions. Hear…

In the spring of 2012, we produced an event that blended the power of southern gospel music with modern Americana called The Hallelujah Train, featuring Shreveport’s Zion Baptist Mass Choir led by Pastor Brady Blade, Sr. along with his sons Brady Jr. and Brian. The band was an all-star cast of American musicians, including Greg…

In this episode, we listen to highlights from the SMF debut of Molsky’s Mountain Drifters, an old-time trio consisting of Bruce Molsky on fiddle and vocals, Alison de Groot on clawhammer banjo, and Stash Wyslouch on guitar and vocals.

In the spring of 2018, Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn returned to the Savannah Music Festival to play this stirring set of Appalachian murder ballads, gospel, chamber, bluegrass and blues. After a day-of-show rehearsal, they also welcomed members of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra to the stage for two songs.

In 2017, Lúnasa and Tim O’Brien joined forces to embark on a transatlantic musical expedition, exploring the interplay and mutual influences at the heart of American and Irish traditional music. In this episode, we listen to highlights from a concert featuring Tim O’Brien and Lúnasa at the 2018 savannah music festival.

Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms are one half of the acclaimed old-time group the Foghorn Stringband. As a duo, they delve into the honky-tonk and classic country sounds of pre-war dance halls, with exceptional musicianship and earnest delivery. In this episode, we listen to a 2017 performance given by Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms at…

Portugal’s António Zambujo has been a leading voice in the resurrection of male fado singers. A nearly 200 year-old tradition, this expressive style of Portuguese song is associated with pubs, cafes and restaurants, and is often deeply melancholic. While Zambujo can deftly project the sorrow and longing of fado music, his performances are balanced with…

Sam Reider and the Human Hands are a Brooklyn-based collective of jazz and bluegrass musicians who made their SMF debut in the spring of 2018 on a co-bill with Mike Block & Sandeep Das. The San Francisco born accordionist-pianist-composer Sam Reider leads this ensemble in a performance of music from their most recent release, Too…

In 2018, Trinidadian jazz trumpeter and composer Etienne Charles was commissioned by Rob Gibson for the Savannah Music Festival to compose a work that explored the Afro-Caribbean connections to Gullah music and the Gullah connections to American music. In this episode, we listen to the premiere of that work, live from the 2018 Savannah Music…

Trumpeter Lee Morgan was an American jazz musician known mainly as one of the key hard bop players of the 1960s. Morgan came to prominence in his late teens after recording with saxophonist John Coltrane and drummer Art Blakey before launching his own solo career. Trumpeter Terell Stafford was only six years old when Lee…

Trumpeter Lee Morgan was an American jazz musician known mainly as one of the key hard bop players of the 1960s. Morgan came to prominence in his late teens after recording with saxophonist John Coltrane and drummer Art Blakey before launching his own solo career. Trumpeter Terell Stafford was only six years old when Lee…

Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions from Northern Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries. In this episode, we listen to highlights from a 2016 SMF program called “When the Danes Met the Swedes” – combining the Swedish trio Väsen with the Danish String Quartet on a unique double bill.

Julian Lage is the sort of musician who makes every gesture feel both easeful and essential. The 30 year-old guitarist was a prodigy before he was 10, and has performed and taught at SMF in a wide variety of projects over the past decade. In this episode, we listen to Lage’s trio, featuring Jorge Roeder…

Gold medalist of the 15th Van Cliburn International piano competition, 28 year-old pianist Yekwon Sunwoo is a powerful and virtuosic performer, who, in his own words, “strives to reach for the truth and pure beauty in music.” In this episode, we listen to his SMF debut in a recital given during the 2018 festival at…

In the spring of 2018, Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel made his Savannah debut at our festival, where he wowed the crowd with two completely different solo sets. Emmanuel’s playing incorporates a multitude of musical influences and styles, including jazz, blues, bluegrass, folk and rock, with the finger-style playing he absorbed from mentor Chet Atkins at…

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire. This episode features highlights from his 2018 recital at the Savannah Music Festival.

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over their career, and some have even played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 of them in one day, spread across three concerts. This is the ninth installment of…

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over their career, and some have even played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 of them in one day, spread across three concerts. This is the eighth installment of…

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over their career, and some have even played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 of them in one day, spread across three concerts. This is the seventh installment of…

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over their career, and some have even played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 of them in one day, spread across three concerts. This is the sixth installment of…

The music of Haiti combines a wide range of influences drawn from the many people who have settled on the island of Hispaniola. It reflects French, African rhythms, Spanish elements and others. “Rasin” is a musical style that began in the 1970s when musicians started combining elements of traditional Haitian vodou ceremonial and folkloric music…

The music of Flatt & Scruggs has been given new life by dobro player Jerry Douglas’ award-winning ensemble the Earls of Leicester. In this episode, we listen to the Earls’ second SMF performance, given in 2017 at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts.

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over their career, and some have even played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 of them in one day, spread across three concerts. This is the fifth installment of…

With compelling interpretations that draw deeply from one of the worlds great music traditions, Sanam Marvi is Pakistan’s young and brilliant vocal interpreter of South Asian spiritual, folk and classical poetry. A vocal warrior for peace, this contemporary daughter of interior sindh believes that there is comfort to be found in the wisdom of Sufis…

Individually, Ry Cooder, Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White are acclaimed veterans of the roots music scene. But when they decided to join forces in concert as Cooder-White-Skaggs, they became an Americana supergroup steeped in traditional roots music. In this episode, we listen to their 2017 Savannah Music Festival performance at the Lucas Theatre for the…

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over the course of their career, and some have played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 in one day. In this episode, we listen to excerpts from Stewart Goodyear’s…

For those who care deeply about jazz music and hope for future generations to keep the music alive and well, they recognize that to ensure the torch gets passed, there must be writing, education and performance continually made available to young audiences. Trumpeter Marcus Printup not only adheres to this philosophy, but he also believes…

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over the course of their career, and some have played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 in one day. In this episode, we listen to excerpts from Stewart Goodyear’s…

In the words of Irish-American singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, “performing alone is a very solitary experience. Aoife makes the claim that “when you’re in a band and something amazing happens on stage, you look at each other, ‘Yeah! We’re so locked in.’ Or if something goes wrong, you can look at each other and shrug and…

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven sonatas over the course of their career, and some have played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall. But almost no one has ever attempted to play all 32 in one day. In this episode, we listen to excerpts from Stewart Goodyear’s…

Leyla McCalla is an American musician of Haitian descent, who first became known for her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Since leaving that group in 2012, she has been working to develop her own personal approach to music that encompasses her Haitian roots, American folk, Louisiana roots and gospel, along with jazz and classical…

German Lopez is an esteemed timple player from the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa that belongs to the nation of Spain. In this episode, we listen to German Lopez’s SMF debut in 2017 alongside his musical partner, guitarist Antonio Toledo.

Many pianists have played all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas over their career, and some have even played all of them over the course of a season in a concert hall, but almost nobody has ever attempted to play all 32 of them in one day. Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, in a program he calls Sonatathon,…

By the early 1880s, Johann Hummel’s father recognized that he had a child prodigy who had outstripped his own ability to teach him, so he jumped at the chance to move his family to Vienna where Mozart was then at his peak. When Mozart learned of this extraordinary young man, he invited him to his…

Though he rejects the label “child prodigy,” Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki started playing at age 5 and made his orchestral debut at age 9. His approach to music is a refreshing combination of dedication, skill and enthusiasm. In this episode, we listen to Jan Lisiecki’s Savannah debut from the 2017 Savannah Music Festival, recorded live…

Since 2004, Daniel Hope has been Associate Artistic Director of the Savannah Music Festival. During this time, his meteoric rise in the world of classical music has resulted from his all-out passion for connecting his music to audiences. He has also helped create original chamber music programs built around visiting artists from North America and…

Foghorn Stringband made their Savannah Music Festival debut in 2017 on a double-bill with the Dom Flemons Trio. With eight albums, thousands of shows, fifteen years of touring under their belts and an entirely new generation of roots musicians following their lead, Foghorn is comprised of Caleb Klauder (mandolin, vocals), Sammy Lind (fiddle, vocals), Reeb…

Richard Thompson is constantly ranked among rock n’ roll’s greatest guitarists and finest songwriters by the music press and fellow musicians. His return to the Savannah Music Festival in 2017 spotlighted his abilities as a solo performer, including material from his earliest days with Fairport Convention through his latest solo album.

Mandolinist Mike Marshall and bassist Edgar Meyer first began playing together in the early 1980s, and their genre blending musical projects over the years have been nothing short of remarkable. In this episode, we hear their 2017 Savannah Music Festival performance at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, where they were joined by Edgar’s son…

Singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz continues to build a career that includes an exceptional catalog of original songs, an impressive array of performing projects, and most recently a flurry of commendations including two Grammy Awards. In this episode, we listen to Sarah Jarosz’ 2017 return to the Savannah Music Festival, where she shared a…

In a memorable Library of Congress interview with folklorist Alan Lomax, Jelly Roll Morton described the “Spanish Tinge” as tresillo and habanera rhythms of Afro-Cuban music that were an essential ingredient to jazz music. In this episode, we listen to a 2017 concert exploring that phenomenon with three acclaimed jazz pianists, Marcus Roberts, Danilo Perez…

The jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk was born in Rocky Mount North Carolina in 1917 and is the second most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. During SMF 2017, we focused on two of jazz music’s most pivotal figures born 100 years ago: Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. In this episode, we listen to Rodney…

Guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge craft songs that sound familiar but are never easily classified. Percolating with tinges of bluegrass and folk, insinuations of jazz and pop, hints of classical and avant-garde composition, they rarely settle into any one category. Rather, their music dances around the territory between genres, never announcing its innovations and…

Joel Savoy, the son of Cajun musician/accordion builder Marc and musician/historian Ann Savoy, has been at the forefront of the Louisiana music revival of the past two decades. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer and record label (Valcour) founder who has won the Cajun French Music Association’s “Fiddler of the Year” Award twice, and was…

The ultimate goal of every jazz musician is to achieve his or her personal sound, an unmistakable voice whereby they blend expression, emotion and technique through mastery of their instrument. Tenor saxophonist Stephen Riley has one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, and this episode features his 2016 appearance leading a quartet backed…

As an instrumentalist of prodigious technique, a session musician and producer, a selfless and devoted sideman, a contemporary master of 1920s and ’30s jazz styles and an ardent student of American folk traditions, Matt Munisteri’s journey through 20th century American music yields a vision that feels intrinsically whole. This 2016 SMF performance by Munisteri features…

The history of the mandolin goes back to 17th and 18th century Italy, when the instrument evolved from the lute family. Over time, the mandolin developed into primarily three types: the Neopolitan or round-backed mandolin, the carved top mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. Whether it is used in western classical music, Brazilian music, bluegrass and…

He calls it a machine, but it’s actually a band — a quintet to be precise, rooted in folk, country, blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Dave Rawlings’ longtime musical partner is Gillian Welch, and she joins him along with Willie Watson, Brittany Haas and Paul Kowert on this Savannah debut performance. This is part two…

Though he’s a guitarist, producer and singer, Dave Rawlings is probably best known as the longtime musical partner of singer-songwriter Gillian Welch. Together they have created an original body of work and an Americana roots sound whose beauty and brilliance is unique even ina city as musical as Nashville. In this episode, we listen to…

While generally acknowledged as one of the finest jazz drummers in the world, Brian Blade is also a singer-songwriter, a session man for Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and the son of a singing preacher man from Louisiana. In this episode, we listen to his signature group, Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band, in their…

When you’re born into a renowned musical family, there’s generally a better chance of you understanding music not simply as a job, but as a way of life. Such was the case for Catherine Russell, whose father Luis Russell was Louis Armstrong’s long-time musical director. Her mother was Carline Ray, a singer with degrees from…

The Persian Empire was any of a series of imperial dynasties centered in Persia, an area that is now modern-day Iran. One of the most famous instruments in traditional Persian music is the kamancheh, a four-stringed, upright fiddle. Kayhan Kalhor is a master of the kamancheh, and in this episode, we listen to his SMF…

In this episode, we listen to part two of a two-part show from SMF 2016 with the Time Jumpers featuring Vince Gill.

While American country music originated in the late 1920s in the southern United States, an important subgenre of the style was called western swing. As dance music, often with an uptempo beat, western swing attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 40s, until a federal…

The Brazilian born pianist Arnaldo Cohen, now living in the U.S., has long had a reputation for astonishing his audiences with the musical authority and blistering virtuosity of his performances. His grateful and unaffected platform manner belies playing of white-hot intensity, intellectual probity and glittering bravura technique bordering on sheer wizardry. In this episode, we…

Every once in a while, a performer seems to transcend the experience of giving a recital for an audience into something vastly fulfilling for themselves. When it happens, the result is powerful and revelatory, and it usually leaves the audience hungry for more. In the 40+ years that Murray Perahia has been performing on the…

The word “concerto” is derived from the Italian concertare, which means “to reach an agreement.” Concertos have been written for all the instruments of the orchestra, but the vast majority are written for violin cello or piano, as these three instruments feature a wide dynamic and expressive range. In this episode, we feature several masterpieces…

In this episode, we listen to the SMF debut of the trio Haas Kowert Tice, made up of Brittany Haas (Dave Rawlings Machine, Crooked Still) on fiddle, Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers) on bass and Jordan Tice (Tony Trischka Band) on guitar. These three young acoustic musicians have already covered a lot of territory in their…

Stories of child prodigies in the world of music have a long history, going back to such luminaries as Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn. Jazz pianist Joey Alexander was discovered in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2012 around the age of eight. Joey might be the most talked-about young musician that jazz has seen in decades. He…

Balsam Range is an award-winning bluegrass band named after the majestic mountain range in their home of Haywood County, where the Smokies meet the Blue Ridge. They perform finely crafted songs with tightly woven harmonies, and have established themselves as one of the most in-demand ensembles in bluegrass. This episode features their 2015 performance at…

Composer Franz Schubert is perhaps the single instance of a great artist whose outer life had no affinity or connection with art. His career was simple and uneventful, so out of all proportion with the works which he created like a heaven-sent genius, that we must at last turn to them mainly if we would…

As with the symphony and the string quartet, the piano trio was inherited by Beethoven and transformed into a vehicle for the most deeply felt musical expression. In this episode, we listen to the second half of the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Trios, performed by David Finckel, Wu Han and Philip Setzer at the…

In the mid-1870s when Johannes Brahms served on the jury of the Austrian state stipendium, he encountered a submission from an obscure Czech composer whose mastery and talent overwhelmed him. Brahms immediately became a huge supporter of Antonin Dvorák, and also arranged for some of Dvorák’s work to be given to his own publisher. The…

Flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo made his southeastern U.S. debut at the 2016 Savannah Music Festival. This episode is part two of two.

As with the symphony and the string quartet, the piano trio was inherited by Beethoven and transformed into a vehicle for the most deeply felt musical expression. In this episode, we listen to the first half of the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Trios, performed by David Finckel, Wu Han and Philip Setzer at the…

The flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo, from Seville, Spain, has called his engagement with his instrument “beloved torture.” You can imagine why when you hear him play: he reachers for depth of expression within ultimate precision, and sometimes at breathtaking speed. In this episode, we listen to Vicente Amigo’s Savannah debut. Part one of two.

She’s been called the finest jazz singer to emerge in this century, with a voice often compared to Sarah Vaughan. She draws from a range of sources, and she collects songs like some people collect coins. In March of 2016, we brought Cecile McLorin Salvant for a return appearance at our festival along with the…

At our 2016 festival, the Danish String Quartet made their debut appearance with three separate concert performances and a master class for young string players. They played with the Swedish trio Väsen, as part of the Daniel Hope & Friends chamber music series, and on their own independent chamber music program. In this episode, we…

The very finest musicians always seem to effortlessly deliver jazz standards and originals to audiences, making it clear that a great artist can also be an entertainer. Such is the case with the 70-year old Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander, who grew up in Kingston, where performances by Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole left a…

Since her breakout win at the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition at the age of 21 in 2010, Cecile McLorin Salvant has emerged as one of the great jazz singers of the past 40 years. In style and voice, she has been compared with Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, all of whom…

Nearly every year during the Savannah Music Festival, a highlight of our Swing Central Jazz high school jazz band workshop and competition is a jam session featuring the faculty and clinicians in attendance. The event typically serves as a wrap party, and a house band occupies the bandstand while inviting guest musicians on stage throughout…

When tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander made his debut recording as a leader in 1992 at the age of 25, many jazz writers dubbed him a “young lion” and a musician on his way up. That was nearly 25 years and more than 20 years ago. In the spring of 2016, Alexander brought his longtime quartet…

As an anthropologist of traditional songwriting, Rhiannon Giddens aims to take listeners on a journey of American roots music. She earned her college degree at Oberlin and trained to be an opera singer, but the North Carolina native sings blues, folk, field hollers and other styles of Americana music with deeply felt authenticity. In this…

In the Spring of 2016, jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon was at our festival premiering “He Said, She Said” featuring jazz singers Freddy Cole and Rene Marie. As the guitarist and musical director of Freddy Cole’s group, Randy was an essential component for the project, along with rhythm section mates Quentin Baxter and Elias Bailey. Having…

Irish traditional music has been around for centuries and has always included an array of drinking songs, ballads and laments, as well as traditional dance tunes including reels, hornpipes and jigs. The past century has seen a great blend of musicians drawn to the sounds of Irish music from both sides of the Atlantic. In…

With one hundred and forty-five collective years between them, Del McCoury and David Grisman have both become masters of Americana music. While each of these men have performed at SMF on numerous occasions, this was the first time they ever took the stage as the duo “Del & Dawg.” In this episode, we listen to…

Aaron Diehl is a 30-year-old jazz pianist whose broad aesthetic palette ranges from ragtime to stride piano to the works of George Gershwin and Phillip Glass. In responding to an interviewer about styles in jazz, Aaron Diehl once stated, “a lot of times we look at jazz in eras, but how can we not keep…

A griot is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet or musician. The griot, referred to as a djeli in some countries, is a repository of oral tradition. The griot is also a living archive of the people’s traditions, and the virtuoso talents of the griots command universal admiration. In this episode, we listen…

The name DakhaBrakha means “give/take” in the old Ukranian language. Reflecting the fundamental elements of sound and soul, the Ukranian “ethnic chaos” band DakhaBrakha creates a world of unexpected new music, like nothing you’ve ever heard before. In this episode, we listen to their SMF debut, a closing night concert from the 2015 Savannah Music…

While Franz Schubert is the only major composer of the 18th and 19th centuries who was actually born in Vienna, the First Viennese School is the name that commonly refers to the main composers of the Classical Period in western art music that resided there. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, represent as the name says…

While many fans of bluegrass music date the genre to 1939, when Bill Monroe first formed his blue grass boys band, most believe that the classic bluegrass sound came together in late 1945, shortly after North Carolina banjo player Earl Scruggs joined the band at age 21. Seven decades later, there are many excellent bluegrass…

The vibraphone, also known as the vibraharp, or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family. Jazz is the only genre of music that uses the vibraphone as a lead or improvisational instrument, which has helped make it one of the most beautiful and versatile choices in…

Ellis and Delores Marsalis began to cultivate their youngest son’s interest in music at age three, after buying him a toy drum set. They played a game with him and introduced him to an imaginary crowd by saying “ladies and gentlemen, introducing the fabulous Jason!” The young boy would come out and start banging away…

Most singers begin their careers in childhood, developing their voice and style through training, practice and performance. It’s unusual to hear a singer who didn’t begin performing professionally until the age of 42, and even more rare when they are talented, unpretentious and original. In the Spring of 2013, jazz singer René Marie brought her…

The great musician, bandleader, composer and arranger Benny Carter was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who simply called him “king.” In the Spring of 2015, jazz cornetist Warren Vache brought an all-star quintet to Savannah to perform the music of…

The Band Courtbouillon is a Cajun band featuring Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and Wilson Savoy. What began as a project by three of Southwest Louisiana’s preeminent accordion players became a widely-praised traditional Cajun music album that won them a Grammy Award. At the 2015 Savannah Music Festival, The Band Courtbouillon played two spirited sets at…

It all started when Ray Benson and some of his buddies joined forces in the early 1970s and created a band with one simple goal: to play and help revive American roots music. The band that Benson founded over 40 years ago is called Asleep at the Wheel, and they are still going strong today….

Within the space of two years, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash lost her mother, her father Johnny Cash, and her stepmother June Carter – deaths that she wrestled with through recordings made in 2008 and 2010. In 2014, she took a longer view of life with a recording called The River & the Thread. Through these deeply…

It didn’t take long after Tim O’Brien, Pete Wernick, Nick Forster and Charles Sawtelle first appeared on stage together in 1978 for the bluegrass music world to realize that Hot Rize was something special. Steeped in bluegrass tradition, Hot Rize’s music was equally informed by a taste for the music of Leadbelly and Freddie King,…

Though they only met on one occasion, French composer Camille Saint-Saëns and German composer Max Bruch were born two years apart in the 1830s and died only one year apart in the early 1920s. Each man had a prominent musical career and composed prolifically in a wide range of instrumental and vocal genres, including some…

Gustav Mahler was a student in Vienna when he wrote his first piano quartet at age 16, showing remarkable technical ingenuity and emotional passion. Mahler assimilated the influences of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms to create a work of distinctive profile, only 15 years after Brahms created two of the greatest piano quartets in the literature….

In the late 19th century, Paris was an incredibly vibrant musical city. Alongside its nearly unrivaled musical scene, composers such as Saint-Saëns, Franck, Massenet, Faure, Debussy and Ravel had developed a veritable renaissance of French music. In this second part of a two-hour program featuring chamber music performances from the 2015 Savannah Music Festival, we…

Although Paris remained one of the paramount musical centers of Europe, French music during the 19th century was eclipsed by German and Austrian music, and by Italian opera. However, by the mid to late 19th century, the foundations for a renaissance of French music started taking place with such composers as Franck, Saint-Saëns, Massenet and…

By the close of the 18th century, Ludwig van Beethoven had established himself as one of Vienna’s most important pianists and composers. But in the early 1800s, Beethoven was forced to confront the onset of deafness. Though he responded by producing some of his greatest works over the next ten years, as the second decade…

As a banjoist, Bela Fleck is hard to define, so far-reaching are his influences and his musical excursions. After writing his first orchestral work, entitled “Impostor Concerto,” and getting a record deal for it, the immediate question was what else would he go on to record? He decided to write a piece for banjo quartet,…

For a composer who wrote every piece with a prominent piano part, Chopin’s genius is still completely remarkable. He was able, by the sheer quality and originality of his work, to be identified with his instrument in a consuming way. It is a marriage, and the two truly become one. When anyone plays Chopin, it…

While it’s common knowledge that Mozart was a young genius of music, he certainly wasn’t born that way. Mozart was a brilliant musician and composer, but he became that way because of how much training he received in his youth and because he worked hard at it for years. Like Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn was a…

There are few types of music that can lift you to a higher plane, that can get you close to an out-of-body moment, than Qawwali. Qawwali music is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in south Asia, primarily in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, as well as parts of north India and…

Two of the foremost exponents of old-time music today are multi-instrumentalists Dirk Powell and Riley Baugus, who formed bonds with their grandparents to discover their musical roots stretching back to Scots-Irish ancestors that came to the mountains in the middle of the 18th century. These two men display a vibrant creative energy that crosses a…

It takes considerable bravery to name your band after one of the greatest jazz ensembles of the 20th century, but the Hot Club of Cowtown get away with it because they have spirit, originality and skill that would surely have impressed Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt back in the 1930s and 40s. The Texas trio…

Throughout the Americas during the 19th century, the rich harmonic and melodic forms from Europe melded with the complex and intoxicating rhythms from Africa. In Brazil, the most important musical style to emerge was called choro, which dates back to the 1870s when European dance forms combined with the local African rhythms of Rio de…

While most jazz piano trios have the piano front and center, there is one trio in which all members share equally in shaping the direction of the music. The Marcus Roberts Trio, made up of Roberts on piano, Rodney Jordan on bass and Jason Marsalis on drums, does so with lighting quick musical reflexes and…

In demand as both a performer and a composer, Edgar Meyer has formed a role in the music world unlike any other. One of the most remarkable virtuosos in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument, Meyer’s technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore. In this…

It’s always interesting when an outstanding artist decides to recreate an existing work. It opens up our understanding of both the original and the new version. So when banjoist Noam Pikelny reimagined one of the standard-bearers for instrumental bluegrass, the 1976 recording entitled Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe, he wanted to be true to its…

That high lonesome sound known as bluegrass is a music steeped in tradition. Inspired by the music of Appalachia with roots in Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English traditional music, it first emerged in the 1930s when Kentucky native Bill Monroe formed his famous bluegrass boys. One of bluegrass music’s modern day masters is tenor and…

Beginning in the Renaissance period, the European guitar generally had four courses, each strung with two gut strings, and the pair of strings within each course tuned in unison. By the early 18th century, six double-strung courses had become common, and the changing number of courses in these early guitars reflected the ongoing desire on…

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and contralto voice types. With a a vocal range extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above, mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, and a voice that resonates in a higher…

Long before the advent of concert halls, theaters and outdoor festivals, people gathered in their homes to play music and share the intimacy of musical expression in small rooms. While concert halls inside of homes have always been a part of music making, they hold a place of esteem in jazz history. Jazz house concerts…

When one thinks of bebop, the first musician that comes to mind is usually Charlie Parker, the pioneering alto-saxophone player and composer. In this episode, we listen to an early disciple of Parker’s, alto sax player Charles McPherson, who was born in 1939 and raised in Detroit. Mr. McPherson grew up surrounded by a wealth…

Emerging in the 18th century from the region of Andalusia in southern Spain, flamenco is a form of Spanish folk music and dance that is thought to have grown out of Andalusian and Romani music and dance styles. Born into a musical family in Andalusia, Jose Fernandez Torres acquired the moniker “Tomatito” after becoming a…

The many victorious performances made by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly added timeless examples of small group jazz to a tradition that developed in the wake of the bebop movement of the 1940s. Working together, the three artists achieved a poetic level of expression that was as playful and tender as it was…

The art of musical composition generally consists of the manipulation of harmony, melody, form, rhythm and timbre. In the case of Johannes Brahms, creating such order was often an arduous task, and it was completely common of him to destroy the original version of a work if he thought it was in any way inadequate….

The great tradition of jazz piano in the early 20th century was probably best summarized by the father of stride piano, James P. Johnson, when he was asked which pianists he had learned things from in New York City. He responded by saying, “I loved Eubie Blake, Luckey Roberts, Willie the Lion Smith, and even…

The blues as such are synonymous with low spirits, blues music is not. With all its so-called blue notes and overtones of sadness, blues music is nothing if not a form of diversion. On this episode, we listen to a 2014 performance at the Charles H. Morris Center entitled “Ladies Sing the Blues,” featuring Catherine…

Ardently exploring the origins of American music in jazz, blues, country and western swing, singer and guitarist Pokey Lafarge seems like a throwback, yet the music he plays never sounds old-fashioned. In this episode, we listen to Pokey Lafarge’s final performance of four given at the 2014 Savannah Music Festival.

When your personal goal as a musician is to pull the audience in so that they feel like they’re a part of the ride, then you’re making what Christian McBride calls “people music.” That’s the mantra that McBride has lived by throughout his career, which combined with his abundant virtuosity, has made him the most…

Legend has it that when Coleman Hawkins squared off against Lester Young in a late night jam in the late 1930s at a Kansas City nightclub, a new saxophone king was crowned who would forever be known as “Prez.” Each year, SMF presents a late night jam to wrap up a week of Swing Central…

The history of flamenco dates back to 1774 when it first began to appear in literature. With roots from Andalusia and the Romani people from Spain, its format usually involves singers, guitarists, dancers and the iconic sound of hand clapping. Most of the artists performing flamenco come from family traditions, including 33-year old cantora Estrella…

Tuned a perfect fifth above the violin and an octave below the cello, the viola makes a unique and beautiful sound. In the spring of 2014, the esteemed British violist Philip Dukes created the idea for a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of the renowned Michael Tree. The performance featured a selection of works spanning…

The string instrument that turns a quartet into a quintet varies with each composer or work. Mozart added a viola, Schubert, a cello, but Antonin Dvorak chose the double bass for his G Major String Quintet, matching the full palette of the symphony orchestra. In this episode of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to…

Every spring, sixteen talented young string players, all under the age of 22, travel to Savannah for a groundbreaking mentorship program called the Acoustic Music Seminar. Led by acclaimed mandolinist Mike Marshall, the participants receive six days of hands-on instruction in playing, songwriting and ensemble work. Past instructors have included Julian Lage, Casey Driessen, Avi…

The use and development of folk music by classical composers in the 19th century often echoed the traditional music of their homelands. The rise of nationalistic elements into works by such notable figures as Chopin, Sibelius and Rimsky Korsakov occasionally relied on folk music from their native lands as inspiration, as did Edvard Grieg with…

Every spring for the past eleven years, violinist Daniel Hope has assembled an array of his friends from Europe and the United States to perform in a series of chamber music concerts at the Savannah Music Festival. Playing some of the great masterpieces of the idiom, these musicians rehearse each program across several days in…

In the year 2000, roots music mavens Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott joined forces to create a recording of old-time country covers and originals, which turned quite a few heads. But it took another twelve years for them to record together again, a span when their respective careers grew and blossomed into a myriad of…

One of the annual highlights of the Savannah Music Festival is a concert we produce called “Piano Showdown”. It brings together four jazz pianists and allows them to display their original interpretation of songs in both solo and duo settings, with the only requirement being that every pianist has to play at least two songs…

For lovers of the mandolin, an instrument that first came about nearly 400 years ago, it’s hard not to appreciate the many virtuosos that have emerged in the past half century and blended extensive musical styles. Two of the most unique and extraordinary mandolinists in our time are Mike Marshall and Chris Thile, who have…

Nearly every year since 2004, the Savannah Music Festival has lined up four different jazz pianists in a concert that showcases not only their individual talent, but also their ability to perform duets with each of the other pianists on the bill. This episode features highlights from Piano Showdown 2014 with Christian Sands, Aaron Diehl,…

Johannes Brahms spent many years attempting to write string quartets. Working under the shadow of Beethoven was too challenging for the young composer and it believed that he discarded as many as twenty quartets before finally publishing his first two in 1873. In this episode, we listen to the acclaimed Jerusalem Quartet perform Brahms String…

Though they’ve played as a duo since they first met, trying impromptu duets at picking parties, doing a few tunes at benefits and playing occasional radio shows together, that was long before they got married and took the show on the road. With the birth of their little boy in the summer of summer of…

When pianist and composer John Lewis formed the Modern Jazz Quartet in the early 1950s, he established an almost classical sounding chamber music ensemble by devising an approach that evenly distributed improvisation inside of compositions distinctly arranged for piano, vibraphone, bass and drums. In this episode, we listen to pianist Aaron Diehl playing the music…

Finish the gig around midnight, meet and greet folks after the show, give a quick lesson to some young fans, then hop on the bus and drive to the next city, in search of a few hours of shuteye on the road. Check into the hotel at 4 a.m., grab a bit more sleep before…

When guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge formed a collaborative effort using early 20th century Martin Guitars to explore the worlds of improvisation and composition, no one should have been surprised. With Lage’s background in jazz and improvised musical styles, and Eldridge’s relationship with bluegrass and his membership in the acclaimed band Punch Brothers, the…

Many of the most notable achievements in jazz have come through its great composers. Giants such as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus and many others always kept the music moving forward through the creation and performance of new compositions. In this episode, we listen to the premiere of new…

People who love jazz singing seem to always be hoping to discover the next Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald. Until very recently, the only contemporary jazz singer who came close to matching these three giants is the extraordinary Dianne Reeves, that is, until the emergence of Cécile McLorin Salvant. At age 24, this…

Since 2004, violinist Daniel Hope has served as the Associate Artistic Director for the Savannah Music Festival, where he programs an assortment of chamber music across 17 days. Part of his vision for the festival was to bring together his European colleagues with some of his favorite American musicians, something he believes doesn’t happen nearly…

Though he is often grouped with Bach and Beethoven as one of the three “B’s” of German musical composers, Johannes Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene. During his lifetime, Brahms’ popularity and influence were considerable, and he created some of the great…

In 2014, SMF hosted the US premiere of a piece that we co-commissioned by composer David Bruce. Entitled “The Given Note” (after a poem by Irish poet Seamus Haney), this Savannah performance of the piece featured Daniel Hope on violin, Julian Lage on guitar, Rodney Jordan on bass, Mike Block on cello and Jose Franch…

In anticipation of SMF’s 25th Anniversary Season, we produced a special radio program featuring Associate Artistic Director Daniel Hope as host. The episode includes highlights from past years of SMF chamber music, with artists such as Daniel Hope, Sebastian Knauer, Anne Sofie von Otter, Mark Padmore & Kristian Bezuidenhout, the Ebene Quartet, the Emerson String…

In the ten festivals since 2005, one of our favorite and regularly featured artists has been pianist Sebastian Knauer, who plays in our chamber music series curated by his friend and colleague Daniel Hope. In this episode we listen to Mr. Knauer’s opening day recital at Savannah Music Festival 2014, recorded live at the Trinity…

If you ever wondered when the last time a work was written for a piano trio and a string quartet together, well, it’s only happened once. In 2009, composer Ellen Taffe Zwilich wrote a work entitled “Septet” especially for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Miami String Quartet, two groups with strong personalities. Tune in to…

Composer, arranger and conductor Robert Sadin has produced some of the most interesting recordings of the past decade. Working with a diverse array of musicians including Sting, Herbie Hancock, Kathleen Battle, Stevie Wonder, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, his musical palette often sounds ancient but is always modern. In this episode, we listen to a…

Original air date: week of November 24, 2013 For many people, college is a place to study subjects that will prepare you for the next step in life, as well as a time to create new friendships. Such was the case for Woody Platt, Mike Guggino, Graham Sharp and Charles Humphrey, who began playing music…

Original air date: November 17, 2014 In the musical movement known as roots revivalism, there are musicians indebted to and enamored of their form and its forebears, who occasionally succumb to simple imitation. Other times, there are artists fearful of being mere imitators, who sometimes produce forced and gimmicky musical hybrids. And then there are…

The general definition of a prodigy is “a child with a skill set or an ability that is incredibly accomplished, far beyond their years.” Often times, such individuals are found in more quantitative fields, such as chess, music and math. One such prodigy is Julian Lage, who was born in 1987 and acclaimed as a…

When you study jazz under Sir Roland Hanna and Jimmy Heath, earn your Master of Arts degree Summa Cum Laude from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and receive the Louis Armstrong Award for Composition from the ASCAP Foundation all while in your young twenties, the serious of your intent is not…

More than 25 years ago, two of the most original string players in the community of American vernacular instrumental music joined forces, setting in motion a partnership that continues today. Beginning as members of the David Grisman Quintet while in their young twenties, they have continued to stretch their musical boundaries through recordings, performances and…

Though his artistic pursuits are difficult to categorize stylistically, there is no doubt that mandolinist, composer, producer, educator and historian David Grisman has an insatiable appetite for music. Hist idiosyncratic artistic journey has been one of elaboration and refinement, so when he formed a trio in 2011 to explore the common musical roots of folk,…

When you survey the history of the piano in 20th century American music, there are several individuals, composers and standards, particularly within jazz and popular songs. Performing a recital that traverses these figures and movements, while ensuring that your renditions remain original, is quite a challenge. In the spring of 2013, pianist Marcus Roberts played…

Jerry Douglas has received thirteen Grammy Awards, won the Country Music Association’s “Musician of the Year” award three times, been awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts, and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 by the Americana Music Association. He is the most famous and arguably the…

Though pianist Richard Goode’s repertoire ranges from the 18th to the 20th centuries, it is the Classical period, and specifically Beethoven, with whom he is inescapably identified. It was Mr. Goode’s recordings of the Beethoven sonatas in the early 1990s that created his international reputation. In this episode, we listen to the second half of…

In its most simple definition, a jam session is a musical event where musicians play by improvising without extensive preparation. Jazz jam sessions are an old tradition that allow players to test their skills in front of an audience, usually playing well known standards yet ones that require a common vocabulary. In this episode, we…

Mozart’s lifelong admiration for Johann Christian Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian Bach, began during the family’s first trip to London when Mozart was only eight years old. The young prodigy was then in the midst of a concert tour of Europe, and when he met Johann Christian, he sat in his lap and they…

The year 1787 was a bountiful one for Mozart. While his major project during that year was his opera, Don Giovanni, Mozart completed several more works. These included a rondo for piano, two string quintets, an orchestral work, his serenade for strings known as “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” a sonata for violin and keyboard, a sonata…

The late Chet Atkins called Martin Taylor “one of the greatest and most impressive guitar players in the world.” Pat Metheny stated that Mr. Taylor “is one of the most awesome solo guitar players in the history of the instrument.” Although completely self-taught, guitarist and composer Martin Taylor continues to enjoy a remarkable musical career…

At this point in his career, 42-year-old pianist Jeremy Denk is nearly as well-known in music circles for his writings about music as he is for his piano playing. His blog, entitled “Think Denk: the Glamorous Life of a Concert Pianist,” chronicles the hilarious and frustrating minutia of the tedious, not-so-glamorous concert life. It has…

Pianist Richard Goode has been described as a non-specialist, in the sense that he’s a virtuoso soloist, a compelling recitalist, a committed chamber music performer and a sensitive accompanist, all in one. In this episode we listen to a 2013 Savannah Music Festival appearance by Mr. Goode entitled “Early and Late,” and featuring works Haydn,…

Some historians believe that the origins of the string quartet can be traced back to the Baroque trio sonata, in which two solo instruments performed with a continuo section consisting of a bass instrument and a keyboard. Others suggest that the widespread practice of playing works written for string orchestra with just four players, covering…

As Musical America‘s 2012 “Musicians of the Year,” cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han rank among the most respected and influential classical musicians in the world today. Their repertoire as a duo spans virtually the entire literature for cello and piano. However is is the combination of talent, energy, imagination and dedication that they…

As a singer whose live performances are a musical patchwork of contemporary Americana styles, Texas born Ruthie Foster is a unique artist in our time. She has created a repertoire that is seamlessly evocative of the life she lives, which comes out of the Baptist Church and the soul of southern Texas. Tune in to…

By 1801 at the age of 30, Beethoven had been experiencing ringing in his ears for three years, and was well on his way to deafness. By 1815, Beethoven’s condition had become “intolerable” and with the addition of other problems, he could no longer perform in public (though he continued to compose). The final eleven…

The Romantic Period contains numerous chamber music masterworks by both Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Though he was born 23 years after Schumann, Brahms began to compose early in his life, and it was through the violinist Joseph Joachim that he was introduced to Schumann. In this episode, we listen to Daniel Hope & Friends…

The strongest unified movement toward Russian nationalistic expression in 19th century concert music occurred during the 1860s with the formation of a group of composers dubbed “the five” or “the mighty handful.” They included Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It was the beginning of a nationalistic sound that would…

The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance and grandeur in sculpting, painting, architecture, literature, dance and music. The Baroque style began around 1600 in Rome and spread to most of Europe over approximately the next 150 years. Tune in to…

Though Russia got a late start in developing its native tradition of classical music, by the late 19th and early 20th century, the country was well into its third generation of classical composers. Two of the giants from this period were pianists/composers whose first name was Sergei, however their musical conceptions were completely different from…

The history of Russian music over the past 125 years has been every bit as tempestuous as its political leadership. As nationalist music began to envelope Europe toward the end of the 1800s, Russian composers were creating some of the most beautiful and powerful music of this period. Tune in to hear performances of Tchaikovksy’s…

When flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia brought his group for their Savannah debut in 2012, he showed why he is the most renowned flamenco guitarist playing today. With great singers, dancers and virtuoso instrumentalists, the ensemble lit up the stage for nearly two hours, bringing the sold-out crowd to their feet numerous times throughout the…

His real name is Francisco Gustavo Sanchez Gomez and he was born in 1947 in Algeciras, a city in the province of Cadiz in Spain. He likes to eat soup and drink wine, but is also internationally renowned as a flamenco guitarist, for which he uses the stage name Paco de Lucia. Tune in for…

Using fearless musical curiosity as a guiding force for more than 35 years, Tony Trischka has become one of the world’s foremost banjo players, inspiring an entire generation of bluegrass and acoustic musicians. Besides being one of the instrument’s top pickers, he has also long been one of it’s best teachers, working with young musicians…

While there are certain unmistakeable similarities in the musicianship of the two siblings, the younger brother of Nat King Cole long ago emerged from the awesome shadow cast by his elder brother. In truth, his phrasing is far closer to that of Frank Sinatra or Billie Holiday than that of his brother, and his timing…

When immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland arrived in the Appalachian region of the United States in the 18th century, they brought with them the musical traditions of their homelands. These traditions were extended, refined and combined into a variety of American roots music styles, including a distinct musical form called bluegrass. In this episode,…

Bruce Molsky was born in the Bronx and fell in love with old-time music as a teenager. He moved to Virginia in the ’70s, learning directly from old masters like Tommy Jarrell, and seeing how music fit into people’s lives there. He has since become one of the world’s most revered fiddle players, and a…

The use of music in a painterly fashion by the French pioneered a direction in the creation of instrumental sound, and this attachment to visual culture has served as one of the inspirations for the unique modern tradition of the French musical language. In this episode, we listen to Daniel Hope & Friends performing the…

Original air date: week of October 7, 2012 When writing music, most composers see a piano as the best means of trying out ideas as they commit them to paper. In fact, there is more extensive solo repertoire for the piano than for any other instrument. During the 20th century, composers like Messiaen, Debussy and…

Original air date: week of September 22, 2012 Even though you can’t pack it in your hand luggage as you might a guitar, fiddle or flute, the piano opens up the entire world of music because it can translate the full range of harmony of orchestral and choral scores. There is no substitute for the…

Original air date: week of September 17, 2012 When you’re raised by a mother who is an aspiring concert pianist as well as your piano teacher, and she takes you to hear performances by Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Mary Lou Williams, Earl Hines, Hank Jones and Lester Young, you’re not only a lucky guy,…

Original air date: September 9, 2012 Since 1975, the Takacs Quartet has been regarded as one of the great ensembles in chamber music, playing with a unique blend of drama, warmth and humor while bringing fresh insights to the chamber music repertoire. In 2012, the Takacs Quartet made their Savannah debut at our festival and…

Though he lacked the sheer power of many other keyboard artists in his day, Polish-born pianist Frederic Chopin more than compensated with his impeccable virtuoso technique and inspired musicianship. He incorporated the beauties of Italian opera into his piano compositions and performances, making them notable for their clarity of articulation, singing tone and flowing legato….

Coming from a homeland with no real classical guitar tradition and a population of only 600,000, the challenges faced by Milos Karadaglic in climbing the international guitar-playing ladder were daunting. War was happening all around his homeland in Montenegro, but because he came from a musical family and his parents loved music, they encouraged his…

In 1998, when Bela Fleck formed his renowned ensemble the Flecktones, he never dreamed the group would still be performing almost 25 years later. The original creations of these four virtuosic players, fusing a wealth of musical styles using both acoustic and electric instruments, is like no other band. In this episode, we listen to…

On paper, it wouldn’t appear that the mixture of a traditional New Orleans jazz group and a classic bluegrass band on the same stage would make for a musical extravaganza. But when the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Del McCoury Band decided to make a recording and follow it up with a national tour,…

Original air date: week of July 29, 2012 Nearly a quarter of a century ago, banjo master Bela Fleck formed a band that drew on bluegrass, jazz, blues and rock, combining the talents of four unique musicians that play acoustic and electric instruments. They call themselves the Flecktones, and the dexterity they use to make…

Original air date: week of July 8, 2012 Struggling with illness and deafness in the final years of his life, Beethoven rose above them to create some of his most profound works. The emotional weight of his A minor Quartet, Op. 132 is manifest evidence of what French musicologist Joseph de Marliave called “the habitual…

Original air date: week of June 24, 2012 Throughout a lifetime of performing and composing, Edgar Meyer has turned the double bass into a modern virtuoso instrument that is equally at home in classical music and in the American vernacular. Mandolin master Mike Marshall has been blending genres in acoustic music for more than 30…

Original air date: week of June 17, 2012 In this episode, we listen to Antonin Dvorak’s great Piano Quintet, Op. 81, performed at the Telfair Academy of Arts & Sciences by Menahem Pressler with Daniel Hope and Benny Kim on violin, Josephine Knight on cello, and Carla Maria Rodrigues on viola. This 2012 Savannah Music…

Original air date: week of June 3, 2012 This edition of SMF Live features selections from an all-Dvorak program that was part of the Daniel Hope & Friends series at the 2012 Savannah Music Festival. Joining Daniel and his colleagues on this occasion was the great pianist Menahem Pressler of the now retired Beaux Arts…

Original air date: week of May 27, 2012 Back in the 1930s, a group of related Pentecostal churches developed an African-American gospel music tradition known as sacred steel. The steel guitar was embraced in worship services in place of the traditional organ. This new instrument was met with great enthusiasm by musicians, many of whom…

Original air date: week of May 20, 2012 As arguably the greatest child prodigy the history of western music has ever known, Felix Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery throughout his entire life. His chamber music works, including the piano trios and cello sonata, continue to be favorites o musicians and audiences everywhere. In this…

Original air date: week of May 13, 2012 Every now and then a musician comes along with an artistic conception that is so original, he/she is incapable of sounding like anyone else. Such is the case with all great artists, but at age 30, Chris Thile has become one of the most unique American musicians…

The only documentation from Franz Schubert’s life concerning his great string string quintet – one of the masterpieces of the chamber music literature – is a letter from 1828 written by the composer just a month before his untimely death at the age of 31. In it, he asked his publisher when he might be…

Philadelphia has been the birthplace of many great jazz musicians, including many masters of jazz. By the late 1920s, players such as Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti had put Phillip on the jazz map, followed later by Stan Getz and a jazz scene in the 1950s that would include the Heath Brothers, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford…

Musical recitals offer listeners the opportunity to hear a collection of pieces selected by the performer. Such an occasion might feature the works of either a single composer, or a group of compositions that, when combined, illuminate a central theme or moment in time. During our 2012 festival, pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips gave a recital that…

As the concept of a jazz orchestra approaches nearly 90 years of existence, the big bands still around and touring with their own style and identity are few and far between. One group that has persisted in sustaining an international presence, while extending and refining the tradition, continues to be lead by a man that…

The history of the banjo in jazz dates back to the earliest ensembles of the 20th century in New Orleans, when banjo players were occasionally the star of the band. Over the next 100 years, however, the banjo changed within American musical culture, gradually falling out of favor as a primary instrument within a jazz…

To describe a classical pianist as thoughtful, modest and dedicated to his craft would almost make him/her seem unexciting. Yet those traits aptly describe one of the most commanding and consummate pianists of our time, Norwegian Leif Ove Ansdnes. In February of 2012, Mr. Andsnes played with exhilaration, creativity and elegance during a recital produced…

Old-time American music has always resided comfortably next to classic country, folk and bluegrass. Fans of these styles have always known they can count on a superb blend of them when listening to Tim O’Brien, who has spent the last three decades expanding the possibilities of acoustic music. In 2011, Tim O’Brien brought an all-star…

Original air date: week of January 15, 2012 As the tradition of bluegrass music continues to evolve, the genre’s most creative musicians wield an expansive repertoire of original compositions and arrangements built on virtuosity, showmanship and a deep understanding of other American musical styles. In this episode we listen to part one of a two-day…

The sound of the Hammond B-3 organ with a Leslie speaker evolved in mid-20th century America through a range of musical genres that included blues, rock, gospel, and most notably, jazz. Many of the finest players on the instrument were jazz musicians, and the trail they blazed on the instrument is still being traveled today….

Original air date: week of November 27, 2011 Tucked between Togo to the west and Nigeria on the east, the West African nation of Benin is one of the smallest on the continent, yet it has produced one of Africa’s finest contemporary musicians. During the Spring of 2011, we premiered a special production featuring guitarist…

Original air date: week of November 6, 2011 Though nine of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s ten violin sonatas date between 1797 and 1803, the early years of his maturity, he still managed to leave the genre irrevocably changed. These enduring works have influenced generations of performers and composers, and they remain as profound today as when…

Original air date: week of October 31, 2011 Duke Ellington is widely regarded as one of the most important composers in the history of music and his orchestra in the mid-1930s was at the beginning of his creative peak, featuring some of the finest soloists in the history of jazz. During the years 1936-1940, a…

Brazilian music has produced many creative composers and a wealth of great guitarists, but rarely do these talents reside within the same individual. One such exception is the brilliant young musician Chico Pinheiro, who was born in Sao Paolo in 1974, and has distinguished himself as a remarkable presence both in and outside the Brazilian…

The Hungarian-born Franz Liszt was one of the greatest and most charismatic virtuosos in music history. Liszt exerted an almost otherworldly control over his audience due to his technical and interpretive mastery, and it was not uncommon for members of the audience to faint during a Liszt recital. Tune in as we listen to pianist…

There have been many outstanding piano trios throughout the history of jazz, each with its own signature sound. There is the majestic swing of the Oscar Peterson Trio, the classy bop of the Hank Jones Trio, the great independence of the Bill Evans Trio, and the powerful virtuosity of Bud Powell’s trios. Each great jazz…

Original air date: week of August 28, 2011 Though the repertoire of composition for violin and cello is not especially large, there are many colorful and dramatic duos that span the period from the late nineteenth through the first quarter of the 20th century, some of which have become staples of the literature. In this…

Original air date: week of August 26, 2011 When people talk about jazz piano music, more often than not they are referring to a jazz piano trio, which has generally been jazz pianists’ favorite format. There’s good reasoning behind this notion, too, because the jazz piano trio can represent the essence of jazz in the…

Original air date: week of August 19, 2011 Bassist Edgar Meyer and banjoist Bela Fleck had collaborated for nearly thirty years, but in 2008 when they formed a trio with tabla master Zakir Hussain, they created a small group in which each member offered up original compositions based upon their virtuosity and shared musical ideas….

Original air date: week of August 14, 2011 When banjoist Bela Fleck, bassist Edgar Meyer and tabla player Zakir Hussain decided to form a trio, they committed to creating a group with rich and varied compositions, virtuosic playing and a plan to grow the ensemble’s sound and repertoire over time. In this episode, we tune…

Original air date: week of August 7, 2011 Taking vocal cues from Sam Cooke and James Brown and wrapping them in the cozy warmth of rhythm and blues, singer/guitarist James Hunter hails from England but has American soul running through his blood. In this episode, we listen to Hunter’s 2011 SMF performance from the Trustees…

Original air date: week of July 24, 2011 In the world of chamber music, there are many masterworks of the idiom – pieces that are continually performed year in and year out at festivals and chamber music series around the world. The piano quintet by Schumann and the D minor trio by Mendelssohn are two…

Original air date: week of July 17, 2011 When American engineer Laurens Hammond invented the electric Hammond organ in 1934, he knew he had created an organ that could be sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ. However, by the 1950s and 60s, it had become a standard keyboard instrument…

Original air date: week of July 10, 2011 Players who win piano competitions don’t always become great pianists, but now in his late 30s, Nikolai Lugansky has all the makings of a modern virtuoso. Born in Moscow in April of 1972 to a couple of research scientists, Mr. Lugansky was just five years old when…

Original air date: week of July 3, 2011 In this episode, we listen to the complete 2011 performance by Junior Brown at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, where he played an hour-long, non-stop set on his original instrument made up of a 6-string electric and a lap steel guitar. He calls it the “guit-steel”,…

Original air date: week of June 26, 2011 The five sonatas for cello and piano that Beethoven composed are milestones of the literature. They redefined the possibilities for these two instruments by creating music in which each part had an equally important role, setting a standard for every composer who followed. Tune in for part…

Original air date: week of June 19, 2011 During the 18th century, the cello had gradually become regarded as a solo as well as an accompanying instrument. While neither Mozart nor Haydn composed a cello sonata, Beethoven more than made up for them. Not only did he write five sonatas for the instrument, but he…

Original air date: week of June 12, 2011 The forward movement of contemporary American stringband music has always been fueled by a tradition that existed outside the classroom setting. When a young person attempts to pursue an American style such as bluegrass, Cajun, country or blues, the earliest method of learning often begins with imitating…

Original air date: week of June 5, 2011 While Beethoven is generally acknowledged as the first great composer of cello sonatas, there have been numerous outstanding works written for the cello as a solo instrument over the last three centuries. Composers such as Boccherini, Grieg, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Shostakovich and Britten all wrote compositions that…

Original air date: week of May 29, 2011 The string quartets written in the late 19th and early 20th century by Debussy and Ravel both dazzled and disturbed people in their first performances. Debussy’s fantastic, spiraling variations were shocking, but the exotic beauty of his writing excited many (including the young Ravel). Over time, passionate…

Original air date: week beginning May 23, 2011 The tradition of stringband playing in the United States dates back at least 200 years. In the early 19th century, the fiddle-banjo duo that was essential to the dance music of the day eventually incorporated other instruments such as the guitar, mandolin and double bass. Such an…

Original air date: week of May 15, 2011 When people hear the term “chamber music”, more often than not they think of a form of Classical music from the European tradition written for a small number of instruments. In the past 100 years, however, chamber music has grown to include any art music that is…

Original air date: week of May 8, 2011 At an audition to become the principal player on your instrument in a symphony orchestra, technical proficiency is only part of the test. Members of the orchestra weigh whether a candidate plays with strong character, yet can blend and match the ensemble’s style while also being a…

Original air date: week of May 1, 2011 The art of playing jazz piano is something that Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes pursued for more than 20 years before they met one another. After these two premiere pianists fell in love and became a couple, they realized that one of the biggest challenges of being…

Original air date: April 24, 2011 In the decade between 1781 and 1791 in Vienna, the preeminent keyboard virtuoso of the day was a young man named Mozart. During the final ten years of his life, Mozart was undeniably the absolute piano star in this music capital, but the keyboard he played was not the…

Original air date: week of February 20, 2011 When the family band Cherryholmes burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere during the first few years of the new millennium, they quickly developed a loyal audience, followed by a wealth of honors and awards. On January 12, 2011, after more than a decade together, Cherryholmes…

Original air date: week of February 13, 2011 Growing up in the South Carolina low country, Shannon Whitworth was always surrounded by water, before she decided to make her home in the North Carolina mountains. It’s the reason that the themes of water and mountains surface regularly in her songs, alongside the women about whom…

Original air date: week of February 6, 2011 When you think of American roots music, one of the most distinct styles is bluegrass. Bill Monroe once characterized the genre of music he helped create as: “Scottish bagpipes and old-time fiddlin’. It’s Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It’s blues and jazz, and it has a high…

Original air date: week of January 30, 2011 The most common piano trio format in jazz has usually included a pianist, a bassist and a drummer. Communication between these three players is built around the talents they have amassed through extensive training, so that their reflexes are to the point where the music takes over…

Original air date: week of January 23, 2011 The musical heritage of French West Africa includes a wealth of traditional and popular music styles from a variety of countries including Senegal, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin and Mali. The arid, landlocked nation of Mali is a cultural colossus. Its contemporary music serves as a rich and…

Original air date: week of January 16, 2011 Each Spring, twelve of the top high school jazz bands from across the nation travel to Savannah to spend three days studying with a handpicked set of instructors who, individually, are some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time. This episode of the Savannah Music Festival…

Original air date: week of January 2, 2011 When double bass player and composer Renaud Garcia-Fons arrived backstage in the van with his custom five-stringed bass, we expected to see yet another huge bass case. Instead, he unloaded a much smaller box from which emerged a wooden body, out of which came the neck, followed…

Original air date: week of December 26, 2010 At the quarter century mark in age, jazz pianist Gerald Clayton has staked a claim in the music by sticking to his mantra that tradition and innovation can peacefully coexist. But with Gerald at the keyboard, this coexistence is often anything but peaceful. Dodging early pressures to…

Original air date: week of December 19, 2010 The development of jazz music during the first half of the twentieth century occurred at an astonishingly rapid pace. The wide array of styles that emerged included the polyphonic improvisation of New Orleans jazz, stride piano, big band swing and bebop. By 1943 Duke Ellington had stopped…

Original air date: week of December 12, 2010 The term “piano trio” usually refers to to a group comprising a pianist, a double bass player and a drummer. The pianist is generally the leader of these trios, which are usually named after the pianist, such as the Bill Evans Trio or Oscar Peterson Trio. In…

Original air date: week of December 5, 2010 In this episode we listen to a 2010 performance by an American guitarist who has been closely identified to jazz, although he has always taken elements of folk, blues, rock and other styles, and spun them into a wholly original sound. Guitarist Bill Frisell is joined in…

Original air date: week of November 21, 2010 The lineage of great jazz musicians in Georgia goes back to the early 20th century when such renowned musicians as Fletcher Henderson came out of Atlanta University, moved to New York city and formed one of the finest big bands of all time. In this episode we…

For chamber music lovers, springtime in Savannah is a veritable feast of music for 17 days. Some of the world’s finest classical musicians gather to rehearse and perform masterworks of the idiom in historic and intimate spaces. Tune in to hear performances by artists returning to the 2011 festival.

Original air date: November 7, 2010 This episode is a sneak preview for GPB listeners of artists returning to Savannah in 2011. Stay tuned for our complete season announcement on November 10th!

Original air date: week of October 31, 2010 Whether one is a young student just beginning to write music, or a master at the height of their powers, the art and craft of composing chamber music is always a challenge. In this episode, we listen to three very different, but unique chamber music works: Mahler’s…

Original air date: week of October 24, 2010 Of all the major composers of the late Romantic era, Brahms was the one most attached to the classical ideal as manifested in the music of Haydn, Mozart, and especially Beethoven. As a mature composer, Brahms became for conservative music journalists the most potent symbol of musical…