Tom Huizenga

The Latvian composer's epic battle of light and dark is a symphonic message about the relationship between humans and nature.

Listen to a highlight from composer Richard Danielpour's 15-movement piano cycle, which was inspired by essential workers' response to the pandemic.

The NPR classical music critic shares his favorite albums and songs of 2021.

Classical critic Tom Huizenga selects a standout track from an annual compilation of ambient works.

It's bad luck if a barn owl lands on your house and doesn't leave. The Swiss ensemble plays a colorful string arrangement of Leoš Janáček's haunting miniature.

Discover a broad range of the year's best classical albums, from groundbreaking teenage percussionists and innovative opera singers to fierce orchestral composers and brainy pianists.

Watch the Pakistan-born singer and her masterful band perform songs of love and loss in a decrepit, yet generously resonant, convent in Brooklyn.

A new album, marking the Russian composer's 90th birthday, is packed with probing works for huge symphonic forces.

From her first solo album in five years, soprano Anna Netrebko discovers all the bittersweet beauty in an aria by Tchaikovsky.

If you're one of the bleary-eyed millions who find falling asleep at night challenging, listen up.

On World Opera Day, watch scenes that will make you fall in love with the art form — from a crazy day at Mozart's diner to a trippy trip to China with Richard Nixon.

Like singing in close harmony, a pair of guitars intertwine, finishing each other's phrases with radiant transparency in Ravel's magic garden.

The Belgian polymath is back with a song that celebrates the hard-working people – from fishermen to restaurant staff – who keep our economies afloat.

The members of Recap, four young women of color from New Jersey, have built a mission of gender equity into their striking debut album.

Hear the young mezzo-soprano sing contemporary music of rare beauty, offering a voice of creamy muscularity.

Four young women of color founded the percussion quartet Recap in 2020. Their debut album is anchored by Hedera, a mesmerizing work for drums and voice.

Known primarily for his southern-flavored operas, Floyd helped create an American opera vernacular. His 1955 hit Susannah won the New York Music Critics Circle Award and helped launch his career.

An explicit, potent musical manifesto, demanding to repossess what colonization has stolen from Tanya Tagaq's culture.

Still a crowd-pleaser after 300 years.

For a taste of the pianist's technique, here's a lighter mood from Shostakovich that sparkles with interlocking inner voices that ripple as clear as a mountain stream.