
Elizabeth Blair
Elizabeth Blair is a Peabody Award-winning senior producer/reporter on the Arts Desk of NPR News.
Blair produces, edits, and reports arts and cultural segments for NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In this position, she has reported on a range of topics from arts funding to the MeToo movement. She has profiled renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Mikhail Baryshnikov, explored how old women are represented in fairy tales, and reported the origins of the children's classic Curious George. Among her all-time favorite interviews are actors Octavia Spencer and Andy Serkis, comedians Bill Burr and Hari Kondabolu, the rapper K'Naan, and Cookie Monster (in character).
Blair has overseen several, large-scale series including The NPR 100, which explored landmark musical works of the 20th Century, and In Character, which probed the origins of iconic American fictional characters. Along with her colleagues on the Arts Desk and at NPR Music, Blair curated American Anthem, a major series exploring the origins of songs that uplift, rouse, and unite people around a common theme.
Blair's work has received several honors, including two Peabody Awards and a Gracie. She previously lived in Paris, France, where she co-produced Le Jazz Club From Paris with Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the monthly magazine Postcard From Paris.
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The songwriter and singer, who cemented his prominence with hits like "Say A Little Prayer" and "Walk on By," died Wednesday of natural causes.
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The composer has been lauded for decades over his deeply affective music; director Alejandro González Iñárritu, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and more join us to explain why.
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This year's MacArthur Fellows include scientists, artists and historians. The so-called MacArthur "geniuses" receive unrestricted grants of $800,000 for their "exceptional creativity" and "promise."
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Vogt died "surrounded by his family after a battle with cancer," according to a statement from his representatives.
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A family of Afghan musicians in the U.S. wants to raise awareness about their plight.
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California musician Skylar Tang, 16, is the winner of a Jazz at Lincoln Center contest. She'll accept the award in New York this weekend.
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Alongside her husband, Alan, she won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song for "The Windmills of Your Mind" and "The Way We Were."
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Emmy Award-winning composer Stephen Lawrence, who co-wrote songs for Sesame Street and Free to Be... You and Me, died on December 30 at age 82.
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After weeks of trying to flee Afghanistan, 101 musicians, students and teachers with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and Zohra Orchestra finally landed in Doha, Qatar on Sunday.
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The Afghanistan National Institute of Music was a thriving school in Kabul. But the last time the Taliban was in control of the country, all music related activities were strictly forbidden.