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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This week's Fanfare features two separate performances with star pianists, a special concert and symposium on the women of the Baroque era and more. -
Join us on Sunday, Oct. 26 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, and Monday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2, as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you a program pairing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Florence Price's Piano Concerto, featuring Lara Downes. -
Join us on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you Emanuel Ax in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17, on a program that also finds Dalia Stasevska conducting Lutosławski and Ravel. -
The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert presents a program of German Romantic masters. Tugan Sokhiev leads two works by Strauss, the Prelude to Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, and a Liszt Piano Concerto featuring Haochen Zhang. -
Join us on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you an all-Beethoven program from the 2024/2025 season, featuring the German master’s towering Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”) and Symphony No. 4. At the podium is guest conductor Tugan Sokhiev, joined by soloist Garrick Ohlsson. -
After more than 20 years singing the female lead in Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde,' soprano Nina Stemme is retiring the role. As she tells Melinda Whiting, it wasn't hard to say goodbye — though her longtime Tristan, tenor Stuart Skelton, admits to some sadness. Hear their exclusive interview with WRTI, before hearing their electric performance on The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert. -
Join us on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 12:30 p.m. as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert offers a complete concert performance of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, featuring two sterling headliners who, as Yannick Nézet-Séguin puts it, “have virtually owned these roles.” -
Join us on Sunday, July 27 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, July 28 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you a single work: Gustav Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 6 in A Minor. -
Join The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert on Sunday, July 20 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, July 21 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as Nathalie Stutzmann leads Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, a new work by Missy Mazzoli, and Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto, featuring soloist Edgar Moreau. -
Join us for The Philadelphia Orchestra on Sunday, July 13 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, July 14 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as Danish violinist and conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider does double duty, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major, and conducting Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D Minor.
