“Are you feeling emotion, or are you just showing it?”

A renowned composer whose music is performed throughout the world, Bruce Adolphe isn't just the author of several books on music, an innovative educator, and a versatile performer. He's also resident lecturer and director of family concerts for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; composer-in-residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute; founding creative director of The Learning Maestros; artistic director of Off the Hook Arts; and host of The Piano Puzzler on NPR's Performance Today. (Episode 48)

“I started with classical music and then got disillusioned nice and early, which is good because you get it out of the way and go back to having illusions afterwards.”

Hailed by the New York Times as “Opera’s Great 25-Year-Old Hope,” Matthew Aucoin shares his passion for opera with a heartfelt traversal of Mozart’s “Figaro,” and discusses unusual pathways to classical music via an early rock band ensemble.

Recent and upcoming performances of Aucoin’s orchestral and chamber works include performances by the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the SOLI Chamber Ensemble, and the Gramercy Trio. (Episode 21)

“Composing is a battle for me.”

Winner of four Grammy Awards, an Oscar, and the Pulitzer Prize, American composer John Corigliano has one of the most diverse and prolific musical outputs of his generation. In an exclusive and emotionally revealing feature, John Corigliano opens up about his influences and inspirations, his difficult relationship with his father who was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, the loss of over 100 friends to the AIDS epidemic and its influence on his works, and the tortured nature of his compositional process. He discusses whether composers endure a specific type of stage fright, and if student composers can be taught an individual voice. (Episode 60)

“You get to a certain age when you don’t care so much what people think about you... and that’s one of the great things about getting older.”

Filmed in Steinway Hall in NYC, polymath pianist Stephen Hough describes his diverse creative projects, the importance of making a positive impression, the non-linear progress of learning, and how to deal with success and failure. Hough emphasizes the influence of his teacher Gordon Green, performance psychology, the artist’s role as an outsider, and his own perspective on the state of human rights in the world. (Episode 9)

“Composition is something you have to do because you can't imagine doing anything else.”

Lowell Liebermann is one of America's most frequently performed and recorded living composers. Called by the New York Times "as much of a traditionalist as an innovator," his music is known for its technical command and audience appeal. He has written over one hundred works, several of which have gone on to become standard repertoire for their instruments. His "Sonata for Flute and Piano" and "Gargoyles for Piano" have each been recorded at least twenty times. (Episode 38)

“Surround children with musical role models and they will become that role model.”

Musical America’s 2018 Educator of the Year and MacArthur “genius” Francisco J. Núñez jump-started his career with a piano from the Salvation Army. In this riveting conversation he talks about how he uses music-making, the “great equalizer,” to transform lives. Since 1988 The Young People’s Chorus of New York City has created not only a vibrant new choral sound, but also an avenue to success for thousands of children. (Episode 73)