News & Reviews

Our guest for Preview! is Canadian pianist Luke Welch. His May 2023 release, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Works, has gained significant recognition and is under consideration for a JUNO nomination.

This week's guest on Preview!, Jeremy Filsell, has been the Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York, since 2019. Recently, he and the Saint Thomas Choir released the Christmas album No Small Wonder.

This week’s guest for Preview! is Graham Ross, the Fellow and Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge since 2010. Clare College Choir is renowned as one of the best university choral groups in the world, and recently released a collection of 20th-and 21st-century American choral music, Rolling River: American Choral.

Our guest for Preview! this week is Dr. Robert Parkins. Along with serving as Duke University’s Organist, he also teaches as a professor of the practice of music. He speaks with Rob Kennedy about the various organs Duke University’s chapel uses and about their upcoming organ recitals.

Benjamin Goodson, Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir, appears on Preview! this week. The Netherlands Radio Choir has recently released Rheinberger and Mendelssohn Choral Works, and Rob Kennedy discusses the composers and their works in this week’s interview.

Our guest for Preview! on November 5th was Sara Maria Blanton, the Executive Director and founder of the Raleigh Music Collective. Rob Kennedy spoke with her about the Raleigh Music Collective, its goals for the community, and how it helps music students in Raleigh.

This week on My Life in Music, Rob Kennedy interviews Jean-Willy Kunz, the Organist-in-Residence at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Randall Goosby, a graduate of Juilliard, a student of Itzhak Perlman, and a wonderful violinist in his own right, appears on our program, Preview!, this week. In their May 2023 recording, Randall Goosby and The Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin blend compositions by Florence Price and Max Bruch, some of which have never seen a commercial recording release before.

Our Preview guest this week is Dr. Al Sturgis, the Music Director of the North Carolina Master Chorale, discussing their upcoming programs. This will be the NC Master Chorale’s 81st season! If you’d like to find more information about upcoming programs or buy tickets, please visit ncmasterchorale.org.

This week on Preview! our guests are members of the Carolina Ballet (Jan Burkhard, Yevgeny Schlapko, and Marcelo Martinez), here to talk about their roles in the new ballet Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel.

This week, our guest is Brazilian guitarist Plínio Fernandes, discussing his new recording, Bacheando. Bacheando is a collection of works by Bach and composers inspired by him. Last year, Fernandes released his debut album Saudade with Decca Classics.

This week on Preview!, Rob Kennedy speaks with JoAnn Falletta about Claudette Sorel: Rediscovered, the new album release by the Sorel Organization. JoAnn Falletta, in addition to her position as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, is part of the Sorel Organization’s Board of Directors.

Elizabeth Beilman, the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute’s Executive Director, is this week’s guest on Preview! Beyond the NCCMI, Beilman is the North Carolina Symphony’s Assistant Principal Cellist.

This Sunday, The Classical Station will feature GRAMMY-nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane, the mind behind Ayreheart and The Baltimore Consort, and Carolyn Surrick, who has released multi-disciplinary works like her poetry book Between War and Here, but always returns to her beloved viola da gamba. Caleb Gardner discusses their collaboration, As Flows the River, its inspirations, and their musical backgrounds.