Melinda Whiting
Classical HostMelinda has worked in radio for decades, hosting and producing classical music and arts news. An award-winning broadcaster, she has created and hosted classical music programs and reported for NPR, WQXR—New York, WHYY–Philadelphia, and American Public Media. WRTI listeners may remember her years hosting classical music for WFLN and WHYY.
Currently the host of The Philadelphia Orchestra In Concerton WRTI, Melinda has in the past served as the national radio voice of the New York Philharmonic and the Saint Louis Symphony. For many years she was a frequent host, producer, and editor on the daily public radio music program Performance Today. She also produced a national concert series from the Marlboro Music Festival.
While continuing her radio career, Melinda was editor in chief of Symphony, the bimonthly magazine of the League of American Orchestras. During her tenure, the magazine won several ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in music journalism. She then took a hiatus from the airwaves while serving the Curtis Institute of Music as vice president for communications and senior editor.
Trained as a singer, Melinda also performed professionally for many years with early music ensembles and chamber choirs in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia. She is a member of the board of directors of the Theodore Presser Foundation and formerly served on the board of Network for New Music, as an officer of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and a member of the Diocesan Council of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.
Melinda returned to radio at WRTI in Spring 2017 and has served as WRTI’s midday host since 2021.
Hear Melinda as host of Classical Weekdays on WRTI-FM, weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and as host of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert, Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. on WRTI-FM and Mondays from 7 to 9 p.m. on WRTI HD-2.
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Join us on Sunday, Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 when the Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you the first in a fresh new series of performances from the 2023/2024 season.
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Fanfare this week has four very different string quartets, along with an Astral Artists vocal recital and a marquee concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra.
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WRTI will broadcast The Philadelphia Orchestra's MLK concert from the historic chapel of Girard College on Monday, Jan. 15 at 3 p.m.
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A superstar cellist, an intrepid pianist, and a vocalist who's also one of our own. All in this week's Fanfare, from WRTI.
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The fall season is underway, and again The Philadelphia Orchestra leads off our list of recommended performances, with some real musical star power.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you the 2022/2023 season closer, featuring Symphonie fantastique, by Hector Berlioz, and Walkabout, a concerto for orchestra by composer-in-residence Gabriela Lena Frank.
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Yannick leads the orchestra on the behemoth 9th Symphony by Bruckner with support from the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and soloists including baritone Ryan Speedo Green and soprano Elza van den Heever.
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Guest conductor Matthias Pintscher makes his debut as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you Strauss' Oboe Concerto, Mendelssohn's Third Symphony, and an early work by Anton Webern.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you Inon Barnatan playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24, alongside Beethoven's 'Eroica' and Julia Perry's 'Study for Orchestra,' with guest conductor Osmo Vänskä.