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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…

For many people, the term “music festival” implies a large, outdoor gathering held over the course of a few days featuring numerous bands on multiple stages. Though there are several such festivals that I regularly visit (WOMAD and Festival International are two favorites), attending outdoor concerts is a very different experience, demanding important decisions related to…

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…

Original air date: week of October 19, 2010 The year 1827 was the last full year of life for Franz Schubert. He had just turned 30 and was terribly ill, yet it was arguably his most prolific year, in which he wrote a wealth of heralded masterpieces. in this episode, we listen to two of…

Original air date: week of October 12, 2010 If the musical world of the 19th century can be said to end with Beethoven, it is the opinion of some that it should end with Wagner. Such a description expresses neatly the power that each of the remarkable figures had over the musicians and composers of…

Original air date: week of October 3, 2010 Pianist Garrick Ohlsson is an interpreter of great originality, whose playing combines supreme elegance with extraordinary tonal projection. These qualities have placed him among the ranks of the world’s foremost pianists. On this edition of the Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to Mr. Ohlsson playing a…

Original air date: week of September 26, 2010 As one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century, Dmitri Shostakovich was a child prodigy as both a pianist and composer. Born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia, he first achieved national fame in the early 20s, but he would eventually have a complex and…

Original air date: week of September 19, 2010 If you were born in the 1960s, you could grow up just about anywhere in America and be exposed to gospel, jazz, blues, soul, folk and rock music on the radio and television. Such was the case of Ruthie Foster, who was raised in South Texas and…

Original air date: week of September 12, 2010 When new styles of American music began to emerge at the end of the 19th century, the primary instrument at the center of these creations was the piano. Virtuosos such as ragtime stylist Scott Joplin created works like the “Maple Leaf Rag” that would sell over a…

Original air date: week of September 5, 2010 The term “20th Century Classical Music” often conjures up the notion of sounds that are not very appealing to classical music purists. However, many 20th century composers never strayed from writing beautiful music that attracted a broad array of people, no matter how sentimental or sappy it…

Original air date: week of August 29, 2010 Violinist Mark O’Connor spent ten days at the 2010 Savannah Music Festival playing in a variety of projects. His Hot Swing! Trio at SMF featured guitarist Julian Lage and bassist Gary Mazzaroppi. Inspired by the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli (O’Connor’s mentor), the group played…

Original air date: week of August 22, 2010 In the late 18th century, Vienna was the major musical center in Europe and a city where the great triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven made their homes. Beethoven’s first appearance in Vienna as a youthful musician of promise came in the spring of 1787, where he…

Original air date: week of August 15, 2010 A sonata in music literally means a piece that is played, as opposed to a cantata, which is a piece that is sung. The sonata has naturally evolved through the history of music, and it took on increasing importance by the early 19th century when it came…

Original air date: week of August 8, 2010 Born in New York City in 1904, Fats Waller played the organ and sang in the choir of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where his father was the minister. By the time he was a teenager, the lure of playing in the theatre and accompanying silent…

Original air date: week of August 2, 2010 While it’s hard to give a satisfactory definition of “genius,” it nearly always happens that artistic genius expresses itself in youth. With the greatest of geniuses there follows an extended period of prodigious activity at the highest level, which seldom sustains its fire throughout a long life….

Original air date: week beginning July 25, 2010 In 2010, Mark O’Connor came to the Savannah Music Festival and spent ten days pursuing his American music journey. He taught master classes, played solos and duos, and performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. He played original compositions with the US Army…

Original air date: week of July 18, 2010 Few musical communities have proven more nurturing of emerging talent than bluegrass and its acoustic tributaries. In part this is because precocious youth has proved a wise investment, as evidenced by former teenage virtuosos such as Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss and Chris Thile. But mostly this is…

Original air date: week of July 12, 2010 Each year during March and April, violinist Daniel Hope invites some of his favorite colleagues to spend 17 days performing chamber music with him at the Savannah Music Festival, where he serves as Associate Artistic Director. Utilizing a blend of the finest players from around the world,…

Original air date: week of July 4, 2010 When pianist Bill Charlap arrived in Savannah with his trio to play three sets of music over the course of one evening, he made it emphatically clear that he had no intention of repeating himself. possessing a profound knowledge of music and the American songbook, he delivered…

Original air date: week of June 28, 2010 Though her childhood was steeped in the culture of mining and Appalachia, Kathy Mattea wasn’t really exposed to much traditional mountain music. But after the 2006 Sago mining disaster in her home state of West Virginia, she took her collection of mining and mountain songs and embarked…

Original air date: week of June 21, 2010 Pianist Henry Butler was born in New Orleans and has developed a sound that Dr. John refers to as the “pride of the Crescent City.” As an extension of the great piano lineage that includes Jelly Roll Morton, Professor Longhair, James Booker and Tuts Washington, Mr. Butler…

Original air date: week of June 14, 2010 During his career, Czech composer Antonin Dvorak wrote 14 string quartets, all between 1862 and 1895. His final two quartets, with their mastery of form, color and expression, are a fitting summation of Dvorak’s exceptional achievement in this genre. During March of 2010, the Emerson Quartet performed…

Original air date: week of June 7, 2010 The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception. Due to its combined melodic, harmonic and rhythmic possibilities, it has been the one instrument that allowed the greatest jazz players to use their creativity to address all of these elements of musical…

Original air date: week of May 31, 2010 In December of 1891, Czech composer Antonin Dvorak accepted the offer of Jeanette Thurber to become the director of the National Academy of Music in New York City. Mrs. Thurber hoped that the conservatory, which she founded in 1885, would foster the development of American concert music….

Original air date: week of May 22, 2010 As one of the most revered pianists in our time, Yefim Bronfman bucks the stereotype of the Russian soloist as merely a technical wizard of large sound and emphatic personality. Though he has technique to burn, he also has a chameleon-like ability to subsume himself in the…

Original air date: week of May 17, 2010 Ever since their childhood concerts in Brazil and their New York appearances as teenagers in 1969, Sergio and Odair Assad have been touring the world and recording as The Assad Brothers. They have followed a fascinating path of musical development utilizing the traditional repertoire of the guitar…

Original air date: Week of May 10, 2010 At the turn of the 20th century when the mandolin became popular in America, a man named Orville Gibson changed its shape and marketability. What had primarily been a fad instrument would soon fall into the hands of players that would forever alter its musical direction. This…

Original Air Date: Week Beginning May 3, 2010 When mandolins began evolving from the lute family in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries, they were designed with a round back or bowl back in what was known as the Neopolitan style. By the end of the 19th century, a new style with a carved…

Original Air Date: Week of April 26, 2010 Hungarian fiddle playing is known the world over for its passion, romance and virtuosity. To most non-Hungarians, the music is synonymous with the campfire, the open road and the Gypsies. But is Hungarian fiddle music actually Gypsy music? Within the country you will find considerable resentment towards…

As the Industrial Revolution progressed in the 19th Century, an educated middle class arose with the means and cultural aspirations to invest in a new form of domestic art: the family piano. Since there were no means to reproduce music automatically, people played. Along with this new instrument came new methods and styles of music,…