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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The Metropolitan Opera suspended, and then fired, Levine after several men came forward with accusations that the conductor had sexually abused them. -
Daniels and his husband, Scott Walters, are both accused of drugging and raping a man in Houston in May 2010. Daniels is also being accused of drugging and raping another man in Michigan in 2017. -
Rider University had planned to sell Westminster Choir College to the China-based Kaiwen Education, but now says it will only move Westminster out of its valuable property in Princeton, N.J. -
The Gershwin estate stipulates that Porgy and Bess should be performed by an all-black cast. The Hungarian State Opera in Budapest reportedly asked its mostly white cast to say that they are black. -
The New York State Supreme Court dismissed most of the fallen music director's claims against the Metropolitan Opera and its general manager, Peter Gelb. Even so, both sides are claiming victory. -
How did Samuel Barber's stirring, lush work for strings — music that has become America's semi-official music of mourning — morph into a beloved and endlessly remixed dance floor anthem? -
The two were arrested Tuesday night in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and are awaiting extradition to Texas. A young singer has accused the pair of drugging and raping him in 2010. -
In a surprise move, the orchestra announced Wednesday that it is bringing composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen aboard as its music director, beginning in September 2020. -
An elite music college in Princeton, N.J., is up for sale. Its prospective buyer is a for-profit Chinese company — which is partially owned by the Beijing municipal government. -
For the second time in just over two months, famed opera star David Daniels has been accused of drugging and then sexually assaulting a young singer.
