Music

The Morning Show

“The Morning Show” is a live, call-in program hosted by Kate Archer Kent that provides news and thoughtful conversation through a Wisconsin lens. We seek diverse voices on state and national news, arts, culture and social issues. Listen on The Ideas Network weekday mornings from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. You can stream or download shows from wpr.org/mornings or your favorite podcast service.

We value the contributions that audiences make to our programs. During a live show, you can join with your questions or comments by dialing 800-642-1234 or emailing ideas@wpr.org. Check out WPR’s caller guidelines to ensure your remarks are appropriate for our audiences and staff to receive.

We also appreciate feedback and ideas for future programming. Email interim Executive Producer Keegan Kyle at keegan.kyle@wpr.org. You can also submit program ideas to the team by filling out a two-question online form. Thank you!

Connect with our team
Kate Archer Kent, Host: kate.kent@wpr.org
Keegan Kyle, interim Executive Producer: keegan.kyle@wpr.org
Jonah Beleckis, Digital Producer: jonah.beleckis@wpr.org
Courtney Everett, Producer: courtney.everett@wpr.org
Trevor Hook, Producer: trevor.hook@wpr.org
Mackenzie Krumme, Producer: mackenzie.krumme@wpr.org
Joel Patenaude, Producer: joel.patenaude@wpr.org
Royce Podeszwa, Producer: royce.podeszwa@wpr.org
Avery Lea Rogers, Producer: avery.rogers@wpr.org
Joe Tarr, Producer: joe.tarr@wpr.org
Lee Rayburn, Technical Director: lee.rayburn@wpr.org

Photo of host Christopher Powless in front of Wisconsin's Capitol

Kalihweyo'se

"Kalihweyo'se," hosted by Christopher Powless, strives to create a sense of community for Native American people and strengthen community ties in Northeastern Wisconsin. Listeners hear traditional and contemporary Native American music which includes rock, folk, country and rap genres. "Kalihweyo'se," which means "good message in the Oneida language, began on Wisconsin Public Radio in 1999 and is produced through the support of the Oneida Nation Arts Program.

Tune into "Kalihweyo'se" on 89.3 WPNE FM and 89.7 WHND Thursdays at 10 p.m.

Excuses

In 1886 American composer Horatio Parker had been hoping for a performance of his string quartet by an important Boston ensemble. When the performance fell through, his colleague George Whitefield Chadwick wrote a cheerful letter explaining what had gone wrong:

In the first place, Kneisel gave me an excuse for...

The Odyssey Series

"The Odyssey Series", produced and narrated by Jonathan Øverby airs on the NPR News and Music Network of WPR, Saturday at 4:00 PM Central. Each of the editions explores diverse forms of music and their potential to create a greater understanding of those near and far. T.O.S. editions are engineered by Tom Blain, Technical Director.

Jubilee

Fifty years after the publication of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Oberto, an Italian newspaper proposed a Verdi Jubilee. The seventy-five-year-old composer responded to the idea in a letter to publisher Giulio Ricordi on November 9, 1888, thinking for a moment that the superstar of the age, soprano Adelina Patti, might participate....

Second Thoughts

Although he had never conducted any of William Walton’s music, Thomas Beecham suggested that the young composer write a concerto for violist Lionel Tertis. Walton wrote the concerto and sent it to Tertis, who thought that Walton’s music was a little too farfetched, and turned it down.

A friend at...

The Plow that Broke the Plains

The Great Depression was a difficult time for most Americans, including musicians. In 1936 Virgil Thomson was a forty-year-old composer struggling for recognition and cash. His friend John Houseman recommended Thomson to a documentary film maker named Pare Lorenz.

Lorenz had already interviewed other composers, including Aaron Copland, by the...

The Guest of Honor

One of the highlights of composer Victor Herbert’s life was a music festival that took place in Zurich in 1882. Herbert, a young cellist with the Royal Orchestra of Stuttgart, was among those chosen to attend. The five-day event was largely a tribute to Franz Liszt, who had fostered the...

I Am Sick of It All!

After receiving an invitation to write a choral work for the 1898 Leeds Festival, Edward Elgar began work on his cantata Caractacus. His inspiration would have to carry him past a series of obstacles, including his own pessimism.

He decided on a story about an ancient British hero, but the...

Why He Quit

Two weeks after the successful debut of his oratorio The Celestial Country, composer Charles Ives did something surprising. He swore off any more public performances of his works.

The Yale graduate had benefited from the teaching of a major American composer of the day, Horatio Parker, who had done his...

Photo of a young pianist at the keyboard

Classical Music

Produced and hosted by WPR's knowledgeable and enthusiastic music staff, our daily programs feature a wide variety of classical music drawn from WPR's vast music library, plus live performances from our studios and concert recordings made around Wisconsin.

Classical Music can be heard each weekday on the NPR News & Music Network from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and weekday evenings starting at 8 p.m. On weekends you can enjoy classical music from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sunday evenings starting at 8 p.m. You can also enjoy classical music on WPR's All Classical Network 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

A Marvel of Modern Technology

The grand new theater was one of New York’s proudest buildings. The Hippodrome was the work of Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy, who had created the Luna Park amusement area at Coney Island. It stood on Sixth Avenue between Forty-Third and Forty-Fourth streets. Its auditorium had 5,300 seats, and it...

Picaresque

Soldier, gambler, churchman, author, womanizer—Giacomo Casanova was all of them, and a musician whose misadventures matched his headlong lifestyle.

At twenty-one he was a mediocre violinist in Venice’s San Samuele theater, later describing himself as “a menial journeyman of a sublime art in which, if he who excels is admired,...

The Judas Biographer

May 4th, 1908, 64-year-old Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was telling a friend about a music treatise he had begun and laid aside. They spoke about the details of composing but, as the evening progressed, the composer and his friend became increasingly reflective.

As a rule, Rimsky-Korsakov said it must always be remembered...

Chopin in Vienna

In 1831 a young pianist and composer named Frederic Chopin left his native land, Poland, in order to establish himself in European musical circles. He was a popular success as a concert performer, but at times he was lonely in a crowd. In Vienna in the spring of 1831 Chopin...

The Congressman and the Conductor

In 1938 twenty-six-year-old Erich Leinsdorf was in New York building a career as a conductor for the Metropolitan Opera when his visa expired, requiring him to return to Austria.

For professional and personal reasons, it was a bad time to go home. Young Leinsdorf had risen quickly in the ranks...

Master or Student?

In the fall of 1824 pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles was in Berlin, where he became acquainted with the family of fifteen-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn’s parents were concerned about the boy’s future, fearful that he would suddenly pass into obscurity, as many other talented children had done. Moscheles had no...

Dear Baroness

The world’s greatest composer was feeling giddy when he wrote Baroness von Waldstadten with a special request on October 2, 1782:

I can say truthfully that I am a happy and an unhappy man–unhappy since the night when I saw your ladyship at the ball with your hair so beautifully...

Liszt in the Lap of Luxury

In 1876 Franz Liszt was on his way from Hanover to Weimar, but he was making the trip in a leisurely, glamorous way. He stopped over at Loo Castle near Utrecht in Holland.

On May 18th he wrote to a friend in Weimar:

I already asked you from Hanover to
...

Unforseen Advantages

In 1941, as Europe waged war, Gerald Finzi wanted to do something for the war effort.

He was offered a job at the BBC that he described as "the usual sort of thing, where one would have been involved with a little music and much, much office work, concert agency,...

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The Morning Show

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Excuses

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Jubilee

Second Thoughts

The Plow that Broke the Plains

The Guest of Honor

I Am Sick of It All!

Why He Quit

Classical Music

A Marvel of Modern Technology

Picaresque

The Judas Biographer

Chopin in Vienna

The Congressman and the Conductor

Master or Student?

Dear Baroness

Liszt in the Lap of Luxury

Unforseen Advantages

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