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.
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Lamenting Carter's death, trouble in Spokane and another award for Dudamel: what you need to read, in all the week's news that's fit to link. And one cheeky writer imagines that Colorado's lenient new marijuana law could make Aspen Music Festival recruiting a breeze. -
Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener keep trying to make beautiful music together in 'A Late Quartet,' a new film about the struggles of a veteran chamber group. Beethoven supplies the soundtrack and a prism for splitting the strands of relationships and mortality.
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Hear an excerpt of MacArthur "genius" cellist Alisa Weilerstein's excellent pairing of the Elgar Cello Concerto — recorded with Daniel Barenboim, whose late wife Jacqueline Du Pre's name was synonymous with this piece— and the cello concerto by Elliott Carter, who died yesterday at 103.
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Sandy's effect on classical musicians, creating a Cloud Atlas masterpiece and a Glyndebourne death: your guide to this week's must-read music news. Also: scientific research shows that dogs prefer Beethoven to Megadeth or even silence.
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Terrorism, worrying about China and immigration from Mexico — these sound like topics for Obama vs. Romney, but these pressing political issues have also found their way into today's opera houses. Watch excerpts from five contemporary operas that grapple with these hot potatoes head-on.
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Known for his lushly lyrical scores and a fierce opposition to the Nazism that shadowed his childhood, this major German composer died Saturday in Dresden at age 86. Watch an excerpt from his children's opera Pollicino and learn more about his wide-ranging artistic legacy.
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Many folks would call Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor the ultimate piece of scary music. With that in mind, we've dug around YouTube for five frightfully wild versions, from a hauntingly eerie version for glass harmonica to creepy goings-on on a toy piano.
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From twin Minnesota lockouts to plans for a "pop-up" NY Phil, here's your guide to all the current must-reads, watches and listens. Plus: rumors of the Met's next season, a smashed cello in Germany and a gourmand-themed World Series bet between two of America's top orchestras.
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Hear this youthful group bring a 21st-century spin to a capella singing on their debut album, featuring new music by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs and other exciting contemporary composers.
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From around the classical internet, all the week's news that's fit to link.
