This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Friday, 28 March 2025
Happy Friday, Listeners!
It’s the first day of The Classical Station’s Spring Membership Drive, so from 7am-6pm ET we’ll be asking you for your support as we remind you that everything is Better with Music. Donate online right here and take a look at the Thank-You Gifts we’ll be offering right here.
On today’s date in the history of classical music:
Samuel Ramey. (Courtesy of L2 Artists)
A very Happy Birthday to American bass Samuel Ramey, born in Colby, Kansas, in 1942. Ramey studied music in high school, Kansas State University, and Wichita State University’s School of Music, and began his professional career in the chorus of Colorado’s Central City Opera. Ramey apprenticed with New Mexico’s Santa Fe Opera before trying his hand in New York City, where he debuted at the New York City Opera in 1973. Ramey has since performed extensively in opera houses throughout Europe and the U.S. (in both operas and concerts), and has made many, many recordings. He also served on the faculty at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts and is a distinguished professor of Opera at Wichita State University’s School of Music.
Thursday, 27 March 2025
It’s Friday Eve, All. Thank you for spending your week with us!
Our Spring Membership Drive is scheduled to begin tomorrow morning (March 28, 7am ET), so please become a member if you’ve never donated before. (Becoming a member = donating any amount.) If you have donated before, consider giving in honor of someone who can’t, and/or become an Angel who will match contributions for an hour during the drive. Your support is how we continue to bring great classical music to our listeners around the world; we seriously can’t do it without you.
Thank you so much for listening and supporting The Classical Station since 1978.
Friday Eve also means that tonight is Thursday Night Opera House, featuring the 1984 recording of Sir Colin Davis conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Rundfunkchor Leipzig, and astounding soloists in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Prince Tamino (Peter Schreier) gets help from a magic flute and a birdcatcher named Papageno (Mikael Melbye) to rescue Pamina (Margaret Price) from the Queen of the Night (Luciana Serra) and join the brotherhood of Sarastro (Kurt Moll). Will Tamino triumph over darkness? Maybe. Tune in at 7pm ET with Dr. Jay Pierson to find out.
On this day in classical music history:
Maria Ewing as Carmen with the Metropolitan Opera, c. 1986. (Photo by Metropolitan Opera – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of American mezzo-soprano Maria Ewing in 1950 in Detroit, Michigan. Ewing’s formal music training began with piano lessons; she was an early and talented singer as well, and won a number of competitions in high school. She attended Oakland University in voice studies with Marjorie Gordon, who advised Ewing to audition for the university’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto in the Meadow Brook Music Festival, to be conducted by James Levine. Levine was stunned by her voice, by all accounts; he became Ewing’s champion, friend, and teacher, and she continued studies with him at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Ewing moved to New York City after graduating and continued training as a singer; she spent a marvelous career performing with opera companies all over the world, including Detroit Opera/Michigan Opera Theatre; Houston Grand Opera; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; the Metropolitan Opera; the Ravinia Festival, and more, as well as singing concerts and recitals with some of the world’s best-known orchestras. Ewing was primarily a mezzo-soprano, though she later sang soprano roles, and she is considered one of the most talented singing actresses of her time.
Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Hello, Listeners!
On this date in classical music history:
Kyung Wha Chung (Photo by Kang Taewook)
A very Happy Birthday to Korean violinist Kyung Wha Chung, born in Seoul in 1948. Chung studied piano first as a very young child, then violin, where it became obvious that she was a prodigy and a future virtuoso. She was performing with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at age nine; all of Chung’s siblings were also accomplished musicians, and the family toured Korea and became quite famous (she later formed the Chung Trio with her younger brother, Myung Whun Chung, a pianist, and her older sister, Myung Wha Chung, a cellist). The family moved to the U.S. when she was 13, and she attended the Juilliard School. In 1967, Chung and Pinchas Zukerman shared the winning prize of the Edgar Leventritt Competition; she followed up the win with performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the New York Philharmonic; the London Symphony Orchestra; and many other orchestras, as well as a number of major recordings. Chung joined the faculty of Juilliard School in 2007.
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Dearest Listeners,
We thank you so much for listening to The Classical Station and for supporting us since we went on the air in 1978.
Playing great classical music for you all day, every day, is an honor.
Our Spring Membership Drive is scheduled to begin Friday morning (March 28).
Help us get a strong start and DONATE.
The sooner we meet our operating costs, the shorter the drive.
That means less talk and more great classical music… And EVERYTHING is better with music.
On this date in the history of classical music:
Béla Bartók at the piano, with Zoltán Székely, c. 1925. (Courtesy of The Székely Collection)
It’s the birthdate of Hungarian pianist and composer Béla Bartók in 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, Kingdom of Hungary (now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania). As a child, Bartók studied piano with his mother and other teachers and began composing dance pieces and other works for piano by age nine; he was performing publicly, sometimes with his own music, at age eleven. He studied piano and composition at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest; later in his studies, Bartók discovered the music of Richard Strauss, which profoundly affected him and turned his focus toward composing. The nationalist political climate of the time affected him as well, and he found inspiration in traditional folk music; Bartók and fellow Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály collected music from all over the region and used it in their compositions. Bartók taught on the faculty of the Academy of Music (1907-1934), then resigned and was a working member of the Academy of Sciences, collecting, analyzing, classifying, and publishing articles and papers about folk traditions and material, including music. Bartók’s ethnomusicological research is considered the cornerstone of musical folklore studies in both Hungary and Romania. He wrote orchestral music, lots of chamber music, songs, one opera (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle), a ballet (The Wooden Prince), and quite a bit of music for solo piano, and is named among the foremost composers of the 20th century.
Monday, 24 March 2025
Welcome to a brand-new week! Make every day better with great classical music.
This week’s Monday Night at the Symphony features recordings of the Halle Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli and David Zinman, and includes a performance by Yefim Bronfman and works by Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Meet us at the symphony at 8pm ET.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) on Classical Café, George Leef presents his weekly Legendary Performer feature:
This week it’s German pianist Wilhelm Kempff performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58.
And on Wednesday (March 26th, between 11am-12pm ET), George will give away a pair of tickets to Carolina Ballet’s world premiere of Alice in Wonderland, a journey down the rabbit hole with Alice through choreography by Gianna Reisen and set design by artist Rebecca Rebouché. Tune in to win!
On this date in classical music history:
Angèle Dubeau (front, wearing glasses) with her ensemble La Pieta at the Palacio Bellas Artes, Mexico. (Courtesy of angeledubeau.com)
A very Happy Birthday to Canadian violinist Angèle Dubeau, born in 1962 in Saint-Norbert, Quebec. Dubeau graduated with a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal; studied under Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music; and continued her studies in Romania with Ştefan Gheorghiu. She began touring internationally in the late 1970s and early 1980s; in 1988 Dubeau was the first artist published on the Analekta music label; and in the 1990s, she hosted radio music broadcasts for Radio-Canada; organized the Music in the Mountains festival; founded the Tremblant Music Festival; and created the all-female, all-Canadian, award-winning string ensemble, La Pieta. Dubeau has spent most of her career improving accessibility to classical music and championing the music of contemporary composers. She retired in 2024 due to nerve damage in her right hand.
Saturday and Sunday, 29-30 March 2025
It’s the weekend, Listeners! Join us for wonderful music, always.
Our Spring Membership Drive continues all weekend, from 8am-6pm ET both days!**
Our announcers will be here as always with the greatest hits in classical music, plus selections from our Thank-You Gift cds to remind you that everything is Better With Music.
**On Saturday, we’ll take a break from fundraising from 12pm-2pm ET as Peggy Powell brings us great classical music + Saturday On Point at 1pm ET, featuring the ballet Le Carillon by Jules Massenet. At 6pm ET, Haydn Jones will host your Saturday Evening Request Program. Make your requests and dedications for next week here.
And on Sunday at 6pm ET, tune in for Tom Hayakawa with Preview!, featuring some of the latest releases from the classical music world, including recent recordings by Blue Heron, Resurgum, and Ensemble ArtChoral.
On these dates in the history of classical music:
E. Power Biggs with the Cambridge Portative, c. 1954. (Photographer unknown – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
English organist and composer E. Power Biggs (Edward George Power Biggs) was born March 29, 1906, in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, then grew up on the Isle of Wight. Biggs received his musical training in harpsichord and organ at London’s Royal Academy of Music and he moved to the U.S. in 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression. Biggs became one of the most famous organists in the world through Sunday-morning radio broadcasts; tours throughout Europe, performing on historic organs; and many, many, many recordings. He also inspired American organ-building and innovations to the instrument worldwide. Biggs taught at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts; composed compositions for organ; was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950; and has a star on California’s Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sabine Meyer, c. 2019. (Photo by Dietmar Scholz – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
And a very Happy Birthday to German clarinetist Sabine Meyer, born March 30, 1959, in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg. Meyer was an early student of the clarinet and both she and her brother Wolfgang studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. She made her professional debut with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and was one of the first women with the Berlin Philharmonic (1982), though she left after a year to focus on her career as a full-time virtuoso. Meyer has performed and recorded with orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the world for more than 40 years and has said she plans to retire from performing sometime in 2025.