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 Concert on 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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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. -
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.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert presents a program marked by intense anticipation and excitement — the world premiere of John Luther Adams' 'Vespers of the Blessed Earth,' featuring The Crossing, alongside Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring.'
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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert presents Dalia Stasevska's debut on the podium — leading Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, a recent work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi, and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, featuring Wayne Marshall.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18, featuring Emanuel Ax, and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 — both conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, who is still energetic on the podium at 95.
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The latest Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert program features William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony alongside Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, with Tony Siqi Yun as soloist.
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The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert features an all-Brahms program from the 2022-23 season, featuring the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, and Gil Shaham performing the Violin Concerto in D major.
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Yannick Nézet-Séguin calls the Ninth Symphony "Mahler at his purest." Hear a sublime 2019 performance in this encore presentation of The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert on WRTI.
