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Leonard Slatkin

From Funerals To Festivals, The Curious Journey Of The 'Adagio For Strings'

Dutch superstar DJ Tiesto (seen here performing in Miami in February 2019) released a massively popular electronic reworking of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in 2005. Paras Griffin/Getty Images for E11EVEN Miami hide caption

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Paras Griffin/Getty Images for E11EVEN Miami

American Anthem

From Funerals To Festivals, The Curious Journey Of The 'Adagio For Strings'

How did Samuel Barber's stirring, lush work for strings — music that has become America's semi-official music of mourning — morph into a beloved and endlessly remixed dance floor anthem?

From Funerals To Festivals, The Curious Journey Of The 'Adagio For Strings'

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High Notes And Clams: The Best And Worst Of Classical 2013

Sarah Joy Miller as Anna Nicole Smith in Anna Nicole by Mark-Anthony Turnage, the final production from the New York City Opera, which closed its doors for good this fall. Stephanie Berger hide caption

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Stephanie Berger

Deceptive Cadence

High Notes And Clams: The Best And Worst Of Classical 2013

A beloved conductor made a triumphant return, an opera singer took a stand and Walt Disney was reanimated by Philip Glass. It was quite a year in classical music, which also brought the closing of a prominent opera company and the continued silence of a major orchestra.

Finding Nature, Rage And Humor In Modern American Symphonies

The AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at the Washington Monument in October 1992. The AIDS crisis is the subject of John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1, "Of Rage And Remembrance." AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

Finding Nature, Rage And Humor In Modern American Symphonies

The symphony is far from a dead art form. Critic Donald Rosenberg says dozens and dozens of notable symphonies have been written in recent decades by composers eager to stretch themselves in unanticipated — but affecting — directions.

The Mid-Century American Symphony

Composer Marc Blitzstein (left) with Leonard Bernstein studying the score of a Blitzstein work during a 1947 recording session. W. Eugene Smith/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

The Mid-Century American Symphony

The middle of the 20th century was a golden age for American symphonic music. From William Grant Still's celebration of African-American culture to Marc Blitzstein's ode to aviation and the U.S. military, Harvard scholar Carol Oja explores a compellingly diverse group of American symphonies.

Spring For Music: Detroit Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

Leonard Slatkin leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Spring for Music festival at Carnegie Hall. Torsten Kjellstrand/for NPR hide caption

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Torsten Kjellstrand/for NPR

Classics in Concert

Spring For Music: Detroit Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

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Pink Martini singer Storm Large joins Leonard Slatkin and the orchestra for Kurt Weill's satirical Seven Deadly Sins, in a program bookended by composers who straddled the turn of the last century.

Spring For Music: Detroit Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

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Barber's 'Adagio': Naked Expression Of Emotion

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What Makes It Great

Barber's 'Adagio': Naked Expression Of Emotion

From sorrow, the music builds to a climax of intensity, and finally reaches serene acceptance. Commentator Rob Kapilow conducts a guided tour of Barber's best-known piece.

Hear What Makes Barber's 'Adagio For Strings' So Great

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Music Interviews

Leroy Anderson: Master of the Miniature

The Boston-based composer is remembered, 100 years after his birth, for a string of three-minute pops-concert classics such as "Sleigh Ride," "The Typewriter" and "The Syncopated Clock."

Leroy Anderson: Master of the Miniature

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Music News

'Made in America,' from Coast to Coast

Over an 18-month period, Joan Tower's Made in America was heard in all 50 states, played by 65 different orchestras. Her composition, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, has now netted three Grammy awards.

Hear 'Made in America' (Leonard Slatkin conducts the Nashville Symphony)

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