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…
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Savannah Music Festival LIVE is a weekly radio series produced for Georgia Public Broadcasting, which is now in its 16th season. The show has been licensed to public radio stations across the country and is available to stream online anytime. GPB Radio's weekly statewide broadcasts are on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. and WUGA on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 9 p.m
Savannah Music Festival 1640 – The Alt / Teada
On this episode we listen to selections from a co-bill of Irish bands from our 2023 festival, The Alt and Teada.
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 913 – Vicente Amigo, Part Two
Flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo made his southeastern U.S. debut at the 2016 Savannah Music Festival. This episode is part two of two.
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 912 – Beethoven Piano Trios, Part 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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 911 – Vicente Amigo, Part One
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.
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 910 – Cecile McLorin Salvant 2016, Part 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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 909 – Mozart & Mendelssohn with the Danish String Quartet
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 908 – Monty Alexander Trio
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 907 – Cecile McLorin Salvant 2016 – Part One
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 905 – Late Night Jazz Jam 2016
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 904 – Eric Alexander Quartet
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…
Savannah Music Festival Live 903 – Rhiannon Giddens
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…
Savannah Music Festival Live 902 – Randy Napoleon Trio
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 901 – Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 852 – Del & Dawg
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 851 – Aaron Diehl Solo, 2016
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 850 – Ballake Sissoko 2016
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 833 – DakhaBrakha
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 848 – Viennese Masterpieces
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 847 – The Boxcars
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 843 – Warren Wolf & Wolfpack
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 839 – Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 838 – Rene Marie Quartet with Houston Person
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 837 – Warren Vache Plays Benny Carter
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 823 – The Band Courtbouillon
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 821 – Asleep at the Wheel
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….
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 820 – Rosanne Cash
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 817 – Hot Rize
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,…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 813 – St. Saëns & Bruch
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 812 – Brahms & Mahler Piano Quartets
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….
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 810 – Vive la France – Part Two
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 809 – Vive la France – Part One
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 808 – Paul Lewis
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 806 – Bela Fleck & Brooklyn Rider
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,…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 805 – Stephen Hough
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…
Savannah Music Festival LIVE 804 – Early Masters
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…