Graham Parker

If only the plot worked, Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna, his debut opera, might be on track to becoming a real addition to the 21st-century canon.

Graham Parker, vice president of WQXR, and WQXR’s Elliott Forrest give details about the upcoming Beethoven Awareness Month,  which includes a “Where’s Beethoven?” photo contest and a 12-hour marathon of Beethoven’s piano sonatas performed by some of classical music’s brightest rising stars, including Joyce Yang and Jonathan Biss in Greene Space.

Confession. I have worked hard to avoid most of the 9/11 tributes, reflections, reliving and agonies of the past weeks. I chose to watch the George Bush National Geographic interview, and was impressed with his honesty, humanity and frailty. I helped program an event for WQXR in The Greene Space. But I couldn’t watch the TV loops, the commentators, or look again at those pictures.