Classical Music Indy now brings you free weekly listening playlists through Spotify.

American Pianists Awards winner Sean Chen Playlist

Sean Chen thrilled audiences with his performances at the 2013 American Pianists Awards. In anticipation of his upcoming recital, we sample Sean’s work on stage and in the recording studio.

Don’t miss Sean Chen’s performance Sunday, November 19, at 3:30pm at the Indiana Landmarks Center. Get your tickets here.

To listen to the full playlist, sign up for a free Spotify account.

National Piano Month Playlist

A month might be long enough to celebrate the piano in some other town, but definitely not Indy. As the home base for the American Pianists Awards, we enjoy regular visits by the finest classical and jazz performers in the industry. We toast past fellows (and contenders) with this list of tracks.

Be sure to get your tickets to the American Pianists Association’s Grand Encounters season, which kicks off with a performance Sunday, September 10, at 3:30pm at the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall (Butler University). Get your tickets here.

To listen to the full playlist, sign up for a free Spotify account.

Classical Music Indy now brings you free weekly listening playlists through Spotify.

Classical BBQ Playlist

Grilling out this summer? Need music to go with it? This Classical BBQ playlist is perfect for accompanying your cookout, bonfire, or family dinner.

To listen to the full playlist, sign up for a free Spotify account.

Classical Music Indy now brings you free weekly listening playlists through Spotify.

Mother’s Day Playlist

Where would any of us be, were it not for our mothers? Composers have addressed that question in different ways, over the centuries. We celebrate Mother’s Day with a few of their most heartfelt answers.

To listen to the full playlist, sign up for a free Spotify account.

Classical Music Indy now brings you free weekly listening playlists through Spotify.

Happy Birthday Brahms and Tchaikovsky Playlist

The thought of Johannes Brahms and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky blowing out birthday candles on the same day is enough to make some people’s heads explode. If you love classical music, it’s hard to imagine them doing anything together.
Yet these two composers had a great deal in common–starting, believe it or not, with their reverence for music of an earlier time. Brahms demonstrated that in the finale of his Symphony No. 4, which is based on a Bach chorale. The counterpart to that is Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4, his loving tribute to Mozart, which concludes with a theme that Mozart himself borrowed from Gluck. The unrequited love that Tatiana pours out in her Letter Scene, from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, is balanced nicely by the conflicted feelings in Von Ewiger Liebe, Brahms’s setting of an expression of love in the face of potential shame.
Tchaikovsky and Brahms were also dismissed, now and then, for a certain less-than-adventurous, perhaps even academic, approach to music. Yet the Academic Festival Overture, by Brahms, concludes with a drinking song. And the Slavonic March, by Tchaikovsky, quotes Slavic folk music.
There are more surprising parallels to discover in the lives and works of these composers. All you have to do is listen–and enjoy!

^{To listen to the full playlist, sign up for a free Spotify account.}