Tom Huizenga Tom Huizenga is a music producer for NPR Digital Media.
Tom Huizenga
Stories By

Tom Huizenga

Mito-Habe Evans
Tom Huizenga
Mito-Habe Evans

Tom Huizenga

Music Producer

Tom Huizenga is a producer for NPR Music. He contributes a wide range of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and is the classical music reviewer for All Things Considered. He appears regularly on NPR Music podcasts and founded NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence in 2010.

Joining NPR in 1999, Huizenga produced, wrote and edited NPR's Peabody Award-winning daily classical music show Performance Today and the programs SymphonyCast and World of Opera.

He's produced live radio broadcasts from the Kennedy Center and other venues, including New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge, where he created NPR's first classical music webcast featuring the Emerson String Quartet.

As a video producer, Huizenga has created some of NPR Music's noteworthy music documentaries in New York. He brought mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato to the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, placed tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Jason Moran inside an active crypt at a historic church in Harlem, and invited composer Philip Glass to a Chinatown loft to discuss music with Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange).

He has also written and produced radio specials, such as A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico, broadcast on stations around the country.

Prior to NPR, Huizenga served as music director for NPR member station KRWG, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and taught in the journalism department at New Mexico State University.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Huizenga's radio career began at the University of Michigan, where he produced and hosted a broad range of radio programs at Ann Arbor's WCBN-FM. He holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in English literature and ethnomusicology.

Story Archive

Saturday

The Dalí Quartet, accompanied by Ricardo Morales on clarinet, performs during the Library of Congress' Stradivari concert in Coolidge Auditorium in 2023. The Library was given a rare set of Stradivarius instruments in 1935. Shawn Miller/Library of Congress hide caption

toggle caption
Shawn Miller/Library of Congress

Concerts at the Library of Congress at 100

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5546760/nx-s1-9506342" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Cellist and composer Clarice Jensen channels Bach's cello suites in the new album In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness. Ebru Yildiz hide caption

toggle caption
Ebru Yildiz

Experimental cellist Clarice Jensen finds inspiration in Bach, and a few electronics

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5560196/nx-s1-9499154" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

Friday

The 21-year-old South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim plays like an old soul. On a new album, he puts his own stamp on lesser-known music by Tchaikovsky. Bonsook Koo hide caption

toggle caption
Bonsook Koo

How Yunchan Lim changed my mind about Tchaikovsky’s ‘Seasons’

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5494689/nx-s1-9423452" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Julia Hamos' cover of the song "Ellis Island" is one of the songs we can't stop playing this week. Emma Wernig hide caption

toggle caption
Emma Wernig

The Contenders, Vol. 17: Keaton Henson, Arvo Pärt, Julia Hamos, more

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5492405/nx-s1-9396973" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Monday

Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė writes multilayered music that she hopes will grant listeners the freedom to enter an altered state of mind. Laura Bianchi/Courtesy of the Bogliasco Foundation hide caption

toggle caption
Laura Bianchi/Courtesy of the Bogliasco Foundation

Friday

With a new album, prestigious residencies and a star conductor championing her music, Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz is finally getting the recognition she deserves. Marta Arteaga hide caption

toggle caption
Marta Arteaga

It’s time to listen to the bold music of Gabriela Ortiz

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5438131/nx-s1-9380053" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Monday

Tuesday

Natalia Lafourcade's "Cocos en la playa" is one of the songs we can't stop playing this week. Carlos Manuel hide caption

toggle caption
Carlos Manuel

Natalia Lafourcade, Chris Staples, more: The Contenders, Vol. 10

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1250902327/1269298012" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

Soprano Barbara Hannigan takes the spotlight on Electric Fields, a new collaborative album inspired by the 12th-century abbess and composer Hildegard von Bingen. Marco Borggreve hide caption

toggle caption
Marco Borggreve

Classical Review Electric Fields

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5383955/nx-s1-5451153-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

Composer Jennifer Higdon during rehearsal at the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma. Her music receives over 250 performances each year. OK Mozart Festival/OK Mozart Festival hide caption

toggle caption
OK Mozart Festival/OK Mozart Festival

The Composer Interview: Jennifer Higdon

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5352844/nx-s1-5442370-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Pedestrians walk past Stereosound, the record store in Rome that the late Pope Francis used to frequent before his papacy. The pontiff visited the shop in 2022 to bless it following a renovation. Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images

Friday

Tuesday

Wet Leg Iris Luz hide caption

toggle caption
Iris Luz

New Wet Leg, Sufjan Stevens, more: The Contenders, Vol. 7

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1241995554/1268757802" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

Wednesday

Friday

Friday

American composer Steve Reich has invented, developed and evolved interlocking patterns in his music for more than six decades. Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

The pulsating energy of composer Steve Reich  

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5319902/nx-s1-5387565-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina's music probed religion, philosophy and the joy of sound itself. Peter Hundert Photography/Deutsche Grammophon hide caption

toggle caption
Peter Hundert Photography/Deutsche Grammophon

Sofia Gubaidulina, composer who fused sound and spirituality, has died at 93

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5327261/nx-s1-5390539-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

Lucrecia Dalt's "cosa rara" is one of the songs we can't stop playing this week. Camille Mandoki hide caption

toggle caption
Camille Mandoki

The Contenders, Vol. 5: The songs we can't stop playing this week

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1233779223/1266990717" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

On his new album, Dreamcatcher, James McVinnie offers a fresh take on the venerable, and often misunderstood, pipe organ. Graham Lacdao hide caption

toggle caption
Graham Lacdao

Can James McVinnie change your mind about the pipe organ?

Transcript
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5232116/nx-s1-5325813-1" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Tuesday