This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
This Week at The Classical Station will be on hiatus until Monday, 1 December.
Join us here to listen.
Please support the wonderful classical music that we bring to you 24 hours-a-day,
wherever you may be listening.
Saturday and Sunday, 15-16 November 2025
We’ve got your weekend soundtrack, right here.
This weekend:
Join Peggy Powell at 1pm ET for Saturday On Point, our weekly spotlight on classical music for dancers on the stage. This week, Reinhold Glière’s popular masterpiece, The Red Poppy.
Then at 6pm ET, Haydn Jones has all of your favorites and special dedications on the Saturday Evening Request Program.
Here’s the playlist, and feel free to make requests and dedications for next week right here.
Get your sacred Sunday morning started at 8am ET with Great Sacred Music. Your host James Steelmon brings you devotional thoughts accompanied by sacred works, including Giuseppe Verdi’s gorgeous Requiem.
And at 6pm ET, Preview! spotlights the latest classical recordings. This week, Herbert Blomstedt and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with a recently re-discovered piece of music written by Mozart when he was still a teenager, and Jacques Ibert’s Escales performed by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic.
On these dates in the history of classical music:
Daniel Barenboim, c. 1980s. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A very Happy Birthday to pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, born November 15, 1942, in Buenos Aires, Argentina;
William Ackerman (Courtesy of williamackerman.com)
and to guitarist and composer William Ackerman, born November 16, 1949, in West Germany (he grew up in Palo Alto, CA).
Friday, 14 November 2025
Happy Friday!
Join us for our weekly celebration of the day with All-Request Friday and your requests and special dedications (and we’ll do it again on the Saturday Evening Request Program).
The playlists are here
Make your requests and dedications here
On this date in the history of classical music:
Portrait of Leopold Mozart by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni, c. 1765.
It’s the birthdate of violinist and composer Leopold Mozart in Augsburg, Germany, in 1719. Mozart was a well-known teacher and composer in his day, but he is perhaps best known as the father and primary teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a choirboy in his childhood, but then became a violinist in the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg and, in 1757, court composer. In 1763, Mozart turned his focus to overseeing the training, exhibiting, and performance touring of his children, Maria Anna and Wolfgang Amadeus. Among his compositions are concerti for various instruments, symphonies, and other works.
Thursday, 13 November 2025
Happy Friday Eve to you, Listeners!
We celebrate at 7pm ET with Thursday Night Opera House and Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land. Philip Brunelle conducts the Orchestra, Chorus, and Soloists of The Plymouth Music Series.
On this day in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of composer George Whitefield Chadwick in 1854 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Chadwick dropped out of high school and briefly worked with his father in insurance before he was admitted into the New England Conservatory to study organ, piano, and music theory. He spent time in Germany as a student of composer Carl Reineke and returned to Boston in 1880 to work as an instructor at the Conservatory; he also conducted orchestral and choral concerts. Chadwick was a prolific composer and his music included symphonies and other orchestral works; cantatas and other choral works; an opera; songs; organ compositions; and quite a number of chamber works, including string quartets and a piano quintet. He also wrote a music theory textbook (Harmony, 1897).
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
On this date in the history of classical music:
Alexander Borodin in a portrait by Ilya Repin, c. 1888. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of composer and chemist Alexander Borodin in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1833. Though Borodin became one of the most prominent and cherished composers of the 19th century (and a member of “The Five,” a group of composers known for developing a uniquely Russian sound in classical music), he was primarily a doctor and a chemist who was a significant figure in early organic chemistry. At age 17, Borodin graduated from St. Petersburg’s Imperial Medical–Surgical Academy; was a surgeon in a military hospital; then pursued advanced scientific study in western Europe. He returned to his alma mater in 1862 as a professor of chemistry and spent the rest of his career in research, working on a process now known as the Aldol reaction with Charles Adolphe Wurtz). Also in 1862, Borodin began studying composition with Mily Balakirev and spent his spare time in composition. He also founded St. Petersburg’s School of Medicine for Women and was a teacher there until 1885. As a composer, Borodin is best known for his symphonies and symphonic poems, his string quartets, and his opera, Prince Igor.
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Join us for a great day filled with great music!
On this date in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of violinist and composer Andrea Zani at Casalmaggiore, Cremona, Italy, in 1696. Zani’s father taught him to play the violin before the young man started composition lessons with a local musician and studied violin with a court violinist in Guastalla. Zani was discovered by Antonio Caldara, the Capellmeister at the court of Archduke Ferdinand Charles, and was invited to Vienna, where he was a violinist for the Habsburg family. After Caldara’s death, Zani returned to Casalmaggiore where he made concert appearances until his death.
Monday, 10 November 2025
Hello All, and welcome to a new week. Let’s fill it with wonderful music.
Wrap yourself in the warmth of vinyl at 7pm ET with Vince Tillona on Drop the Needle. This week, the second of a 3-part monthly series focused on the historic recordings of Arturo Toscanini, featuring Toscanini and his World of Opera.
At 8pm ET, Monday Night at the Symphony is our spotlight on the recordings of the world’s great orchestras. This week features the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and works by Joe Hisaishi, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and more, conducted by Jose Serebrier and Gilbert Levine, plus a special performance of Giulio Caccini’s Ave Maria arranged by David Cullen.
See you at the symphony!
Tomorrow, tune into Classical Café with George Leef for this week’s Legendary Performer, organist Marie-Claire Alain.
And on Wednesday (between 11am and noon ET), George will give away two tickets to the NC Symphony’s Cirque Holiday Pops. Tune in and win!
On this date in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of pianist, trumpeter, conductor, and composer Ennio Morricone in 1928 in Rome, Italy. Morricone was composing by the age of six and was strongly encouraged to follow his passion for music. He began trumpet lessons in his childhood at the Saint Cecilia Conservatory and continued studies in trumpet, composition, and choral music. In 1941, Morricone was among the conservatory students chosen for the Orchestra of the Opera, and he graduated in 1954. He went on to write loads of music in an extremely wide variety of styles and is probably best known for his scores for more than 70 award-winning films; he was honored two Academy Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, and two European Film Awards, among other accolades. Overall, Morricone wrote more than 400 film, television, and radio scores, as well as more than 100 purely classical compositions.