Here, at the WQXR offices, we read about, watch and listen to a lot of classical music. We created the WQXR Whole Note as a place to share news, videos, music and musings that have captivated us. We hope they will captivate you, too, and perhaps inspire you to tell us what is capturing your attention in the comments below.
In 2014, WQXR launched the inaugural Instrument Drive with a goal to gather 1,000 violins, flutes, cellos and other instruments for under-served area schools in 10 days. Expectations were smashed:
3,000 instruments were raised
100 schools received donations
10,000 students benefited over the following year
Building on that success, the 2016 WQXR Instrument Drive has launched with a doubly ambitious target of 6,000 instruments to collect, repair and then distribute to schools in New York and New Jersey with underfunded music departments. You can now fill out a donation form and schools can register to become a beneficiary.
But the importance of this drive isn't only measured in numbers. In 2014, Joseph Feingold, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, came to Lincoln Center to donate his violin, which he purchased on the black market in the 1940s.
That instrument is now making music the hands of an aspiring young musician in one of poorest neighborhoods in the nation.
LISTEN
11 pm — Exploring Music, which is in the midst of a series about African American performers and composers, features Leontyne Price singing from Porgy and Bess, and Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige." (WQXR)
READ:
Maestro Kent Nagano endorses applause in between movements. (The Guardian)
A look at the revived interest in Nina Simone, and her first love, classical music. (New York Review of Books)
The use of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" as send off music during the 2016 Oscars, annoyed quite a few people. (The Independent)
WATCH:
Remember that violin that Joseph Feingold donated to the WQXR Instrument Drive? It's journey is now the subject of a documentary film, called Joe's Violin.
FOLLOW:
#Musochat, an informal group that hosts chats on twitter based around music-themed topics such as diversity, composing for the stage and diversity.