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Anonymous 4

Anonymous 4 With Bruce Molsky: Tiny Desk Concert

Tiny Desk Concert with Anonymous 4 on March 4. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

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Emily Jan/NPR

Tiny Desk

Anonymous 4 With Bruce Molsky: Tiny Desk Concert

The a cappella quartet, known for luminous interpretations of medieval pieces, teams up with folk musician Bruce Molsky in music from more modern times — popular songs from the Civil War era.

Anonymous 4 With Bruce Molsky: Tiny Desk Concert

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Whatever Happened To The Classical Christmas Album?

A sampling of one listener's cherished classical Christmas albums from a few years back. Mito Habe-Evans/NPR hide caption

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Mito Habe-Evans/NPR

Deceptive Cadence

Whatever Happened To The Classical Christmas Album?

The flow of good classical Christmas albums seems to have slowed to a trickle. And that's got one holiday listener longing for holiday albums from years past, from Jessye Norman's Christmastide, Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite and carols led by Robert Shaw.

Whatever Happened To The Classical Christmas Album?

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Anonymous 4 Marks A Milestone Year, Together And Alone

To mark the group's 25th anniversary, Anonymous 4 commissioned the new piece love fail from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Chris Carroll/Brooklyn Academy of Music hide caption

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Chris Carroll/Brooklyn Academy of Music

Deceptive Cadence

Anonymous 4 Marks A Milestone Year, Together And Alone

For its 25th anniversary, the vocal quartet commissioned a new piece from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Despite the fact that the group is mostly famous for singing very old music, love fail reflects the world we live in — not some distant and remote mythology.

Anonymous 4 Marks A Milestone Year, Together And Alone

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The Ecstatic Music Festival: The Mountain Goats And Anonymous 4

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle live at the Ecstatic Music Festival, held at Merkin Concert Hall, New York City, on March 24, 2012. David Andrako/courtesy of Merkin Concert Hall hide caption

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David Andrako/courtesy of Merkin Concert Hall

Classics in Concert

The Ecstatic Music Festival: The Mountain Goats And Anonymous 4

Q2

Hear a transcendent show by a very unlikely pairing from the aptly named Ecstatic Music Festival: Indie icons meet up with a crystal-pure classical vocal quartet.

Anonymous 4 Retrace The Steps Of Their 14th-Century Sisters

The vocal group Anonymous 4. Mark Kwiatek/courtesy of the artists hide caption

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Mark Kwiatek/courtesy of the artists

Review

Deceptive Cadence

Anonymous 4 Retrace The Steps Of Their 14th-Century Sisters

Anonymous 4 sings a cappella music passed down from their 14th-century musical siblings: nuns in a Spanish convent.

Anonymous 4 Sings 'Ave Maris Stella'

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Choirs And Carols: An NPR Christmas

The vocal group Trio Mediaeval sings old and new Christmas carols from its native Norway in NPR's Studio 4A. Asa M. Mikkelsen hide caption

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Asa M. Mikkelsen

Holiday Music

Choirs And Carols: An NPR Christmas

Singers and musicians from the Baltics to Baltimore, recorded in NPR's Studio 4A, perform songs that ring out into the cold air and celebrate Christmas from far and wide. Hear them all, from the shiny trumpets of the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass, to carols and choirs steeped in European tradition.

Hear 'Choirs and Carols: An NPR Christmas'

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Studio Sessions

Anonymous 4, Live at NPR

After 18 years as a quartet, the vocal ensemble Anonymous 4 is retiring. Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Jacqueline Horner and Johanna Marie Rose are currently performing their last concerts and making their last recordings. And before they go their separate ways, they're spending an hour with PT to sing music from their newest CD, American Angels. In this first set of songs, "The Morning Trumpet," followed by two versions of "Amazing Grace" — a quiet version and a livelier "camp revival" version — and "Sweet Hour of Prayer."

Anonymous 4, Live at NPR

Audio will be available later today.

Music Interviews

'Hope, Redemption & Glory' with Anonymous 4

NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with the members of Anonymous 4 — an a cappella singing group — about their latest CD: American Angels: Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory. Unlike their earlier albums, this album focuses on 18th century American spirituals and shape-note music.

'Hope, Redemption & Glory' with Anonymous 4

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