NPR

A new live stage show features actor John Malkovich transformed into some of the meanest music critics ever — in real reviews skewering the work of great composers like Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin.

What NPR’s ICE investigation tells us about the detention facility in Aurora, plus other takeaways.

Absent from the recording studio for more than a decade, the restless musician has commissioned six composers for his new album.

Bear 64F, aka Hank the Tank, is a notorious bandit and a hungry bear with a long criminal record of break-ins.

Most Tiny Desk artists roll into our office space with a suitcase or two because they’re on tour. But when pianist Lara Downes arrived for this springtime performance, she unpacked an entire suitcase stuffed with imitation flowers, ivy and butterflies. Our job? Decorate the piano.

Thomas Bangalter, formerly of French electronic music duo Daft Punk, has released a classical music album: the score to a ballet titled Mythologies that draws on American minimalism and Baroque works.

Scientists have sequenced the genome of Ludwig van Beethoven from two-century-old locks of hair, and found clues about the ailments that plagued him in life.

Watch the rising young cellist transform a Bob Marley classic, explore brand new preludes and unspool a weepy Welsh ballad.

As the new concert season gets underway, composers and orchestra administrators say they are feeling a shift in whose music gets heard.

The young rising violin star not only makes his instrument sing, he offers music by composers of color.

Vienna is famous for decorated symphony halls and its ornate opera houses. Now meet the newest ensemble in town—the Vegetable Orchestra. You’ll hear carrot flutes and a leek violin in this podcast called Sense of Place.

The new record label La Boîte à Pépites is dedicated to raising the profile of female composers whose works have been neglected.

Hear the towering – and polarizing – author in conversation about his 4,000-page book, The Oxford History of Western Music.

A new project conceived by Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman recasts baroque music that by turns demonizes and exoticizes Arabs and Muslims.

Watch a world premiere performance of choral songs built on texts from important Washington women, from Kamala Harris and Condoleezza Rice to Eleanor Roosevelt, Elena Kagan and Abigail Adams.

Vijay Gupta was a 19-year-old violin prodigy when he joined the LA Philharmonic. Now he runs Street Symphony, an organization bringing music to clinics, jails and homeless shelters on Skid Row.