This Black History Month, we take a look at two dynamic musicians of African descent and a modern organization that is spearheading a more diverse future. Read below about the French composer who led the best orchestra in Paris, the American opera star who stunned audiences with her voice, and an organization that is creating positive change on a national scale.

For our first blog post during Black History Month, we wanted to take a look at a time in American history when the simple act of attending a classical music concert was prohibited for people of color. Renowned African-American opera baritone Robert Honeysucker, who unexpectedly died in 2017, was a student at Tougaloo College in 1963 when he decided to attend a whites-only concert in Jackson, Mississippi. His actions and the many other brave protests of the Civil Rights Movement helped to shed light on the issue of racial prejudice, but how far has classical music really come today?

For this week’s blog feature, we talked to Justin Wade, Executive Artistic Director of Young Actors Theatre, about their mission and approach to Self-Empowerment Theatre, and the role music plays in their productions. Young Actors Theatre will open two shows this weekend: Sleeping Beauty, and Twelve Dancing Princesses, at The Toby at the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

It’s not fake news, it’s very real. This Month in Classical Music History is a series dedicated to finding stories of the good, the bad, and the downright weird. In this article, read about a Beethoven historian who blatantly made things up, the NY Phil’s Young People’s Concerts under Leonard Bernstein, and a scandalous dance scene from an opera that was so seductive, all subsequent performances were cancelled.

It’s National Mentoring Month! What better time to take a look at one of the most influential music mentors in recent history? Nadia Boulanger was an incredible educator and taught the likes of Stravinsky, Copland, and Quincy Jones out of her apartment in Paris. Read about her life and lasting impact on some of the most recognized composers of the 20th century.

It’s not fake news, it’s very real. This Month in Classical Music History is a series dedicated to finding stories of the good, the bad, and the downright weird. For December read about Handel fighting his best friend in a duel, an atonal composer thought to be a Nazi sympathizer, and one of Indiana’s own Jazz legends.

You can make double the impact with the Founder’s Challenge. Any new or increased gift you make above last year’s total will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a generous founder of Classical Music Indy, up to $50,000. Donate Your gift will have twice the …

Classical music is rich with history of magnificent music, compelling divas, and innovative composers. Not every world premiere was grand, however.  This Month in Classical Music History is a series dedicated to finding stories of the good, the bad, and the downright weird. For November read about Bach serving time in jail, an invention that helped develop the standard tuning pitch of A440 Hz, and an outburst from the New York City Opera stage.

November is National Native American Heritage Month, and Classical Music Indy is always looking to highlight unique projects that impact our music world. This year, we were thrilled to discover the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project, a part of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. We spoke with Clare Hoffman, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the festival, about how their program trains Native American students from rural Arizona to compose music.

In recognition of Free Speech Week read below about composer Dmitri Shostakovich and the restrictions he faced under Stalin’s Soviet Union. He created an incredible piece of music under great threat from the government, and today his Fifth Symphony is regarded as a masterwork of subtle communication to the Russian people who were suffering under “The Great Purge.”

Classical music is rich with history of magnificent music, compelling divas, and innovative composers. Not every world premiere was grand, however.  This Month in Classical Music History is a series dedicated to finding stories of the good, the bad, and the downright weird. This month read about the first opera composed in the New World, the life of the violin maker Guarneri del Gesù, and Beethoven’s last will and testament.

Over the summer we ran a three part series “Antidotes for Performance Anxiety” by Dr. Miranda George that focused on strategies to combat stage fright as a performer and how teachers can mitigate performance anxiety with their students. In this addendu …

Classical music is rich with history of magnificent music, compelling divas, and innovative composers. Not every world premiere was grand, however.  This Month in Classical Music History is a series dedicated to finding stories of the good, the bad, and the downright weird. This month, we’ve dug up moments from history that are often overlooked. Read about a composer’s poisonous encounter with mushrooms, a prominent opera house, and the first stereo!

Performance anxiety is an issue for numerous musicians, from beginner to veteran. With symptoms ranging from the shakes to a full blown disappearance of skill, once that ball is rolling how do you stop it? Classical Music Indy asked Dr. Miranda George, a trumpet player, vocalist, and teacher who has lectured and written about performance anxiety, to write a three part series on the topic. In Part 3 of the series, Dr. George provides guidance for teachers, conductors, and leaders of ensembles on the ways they can create an environment of performance confidence.

Performance anxiety is an issue for numerous musicians, from beginner to veteran. With symptoms ranging from the shakes to a full blown disappearance of skill, once that ball is rolling how do you stop it? Classical Music Indy asked Dr. Miranda George, a trumpet player, vocalist, and teacher who has lectured and written about performance anxiety, to write a three part series on the topic. In this second article of her three part series, Dr. George explains key strategies that sufferers from stage fright can implement to keep them on track.