Anastasia Tsioulcas
Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.
On happier days, Tsioulcas has celebrated the life of the late Aretha Franklin, traveled to Havana to profile musicians and dancers, revealed the hidden artistry of an Indian virtuoso who spent 60 years in her apartment and brought listeners into the creative process of composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley.
Tsioulcas was formerly a reporter and producer for NPR Music, where she covered breaking news in the music industry as well as a wide range of musical genres and artists. She has also produced episodes for NPR Music's much-lauded Tiny Desk concert series, and has hosted live concerts from venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge. She also commissioned and produced several world premieres on behalf of NPR Music, including a live event that brought together 350 musicians to debut a new work together. As a video producer, she created high-profile video shorts for NPR Music, including performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a Brooklyn theatrical props warehouse and pianist Yuja Wang in an icy-cold Steinway & Sons piano factory.
Tsioulcas has also reported from north and west Africa, south Asia, and across Europe for NPR and other outlets. Prior to joining NPR in 2011, she was widely published as a writer and critic on both classical and world music, and was the North America editor for Gramophone Magazine and the classical music columnist for Billboard.
Born in Boston and based in New York, Tsioulcas is a lapsed classical violinist and violist (shoutout to all the overlooked violists!). She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with a B.A. in comparative religion.
-
A blogger charges that management at the Minneapolis-based symphony may have attempted to undercut pro-labor organizing efforts — several months before talks between the musicians and the administration failed. The orchestra association says that they were just doing their job. -
Violinist and conductor Joshua Bell is going to be joining Lance Bass and a Shark Tank judge in Atlantic City. (And one of the country's foremost classical music critics is a preliminary rounds judge.) Is there a classical music/beauty pageant axis we just didn't know about?
-
Hear world premiere performances by the Kronos Quartet and collaborators live at Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Festival. And rehearsal photos show new music and old instruments coming together.
-
Touring the world with Valery Gergiev and Joshua Bell is the opportunity of a lifetime for 120 teenage musicians taking part in the first National Youth Orchestra of the United States, organized by Carnegie Hall. Can their experience give a boost to classical music more generally?
-
Watch an installation artist and a percussion quartet make music of the city, by the city and for the city. The world premiere of their outdoor work uses piano wires strung to the Manhattan Bridge.
-
Vi Hart takes dodecaphony out of the ivory tower and onto YouTube in incredibly entertaining lay terms. And you'll never hear "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in quite the same way again.
-
Not that long ago, a composer using an electric guitar would have seemed like a crime against the state of classical music.
-
31-year-old American mezzo Jamie Barton had a double win at the prestigious Welsh competition. She walked away Sunday with both the main prize and the song award.
-
Friday at 6:30 PM, come hear a singular world premiere at Make Music New York. A collaboration commissioned by NPR Music with artist Eli Keszler and drumming dynamos So Percussion uses the Manhattan Bridge itself as part of the music-making.
-
Hearing — and holding — Mozart's own instruments is a thrill like no other. The great composer's violin and viola, which are only pulled out of storage in Salzburg about once a year, are in the United States for the very first time. And the magic they wield is undeniable.
