Susan Stamberg
Nationally renowned broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg is a special correspondent for NPR.
Stamberg is the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program, and has won every major award in broadcasting. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame. An NPR "founding mother," Stamberg has been on staff since the network began in 1971.
Beginning in 1972, Stamberg served as co-host of NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered for 14 years. She then hosted Weekend Edition Sunday, and now reports on cultural issues for Morning Edition and Weekend Edition Saturday.
One of the most popular broadcasters in public radio, Stamberg is well known for her conversational style, intelligence, and knack for finding an interesting story. Her interviewing has been called "fresh," "friendly, down-to-earth," and (by novelist E.L. Doctorow) "the closest thing to an enlightened humanist on the radio." Her thousands of interviews include conversations with Laura Bush, Billy Crystal, Rosa Parks, Dave Brubeck, and Luciano Pavarotti.
Prior to joining NPR, she served as producer, program director, and general manager of NPR Member Station WAMU-FM/Washington, DC. Stamberg is the author of two books, and co-editor of a third. Talk: NPR's Susan Stamberg Considers All Things, chronicles her two decades with NPR. Her first book, Every Night at Five: Susan Stamberg's All Things Considered Book, was published in 1982 by Pantheon. Stamberg also co-edited The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton. That collection grew out of a series of stories Stamberg commissioned for Weekend Edition Sunday.
In addition to her Hall of Fame inductions, other recognitions include the Armstrong and duPont Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ohio State University's Golden Anniversary Director's Award, and the Distinguished Broadcaster Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.
A native of New York City, Stamberg earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, and has been awarded numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. She is a Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University, and has served on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Foundation and the National Arts Journalism Program based at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Stamberg has hosted a number of series on PBS, moderated three Fred Rogers television specials for adults, served as commentator, guest or co-host on various commercial TV programs, and appeared as a narrator in performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her voice appeared on Broadway in the Wendy Wasserstein play An American Daughter.
Her late husband Louis Stamberg had his career with the State Department's agency for international development. Her son, Josh Stamberg, an actor, appears in various television series, films, and plays.
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In the 1930s and '40s, band singers were mostly blond, sophisticated and attractive. Ella Fitzgerald was awkward, gawky and even a bit chubby by comparison — but could she sing.
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In June, the Songwriters Hall of Fame will induct the man who wrote the theme for M*A*S*H. At 84, composer and arranger Johnny Mandel has an Oscar and multiple Grammys, as well as credit for arranging Barbra Streisand's latest album.
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The daughter of famed jazz journalist and producer Leonard Feather first tried to make a career as a stage actress. That's when she started to translate her minor aggravations into song lyrics — and singing them.
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After decades conducting symphony orchestras and composing classical music, Andre Previn records a solo jazz album. The musical polymath has written scores for hit musicals like Gigi and Kiss Me Kate.
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Susan Werner's musical path has taken her from opera to pop, jazz and classic American songs. In her latest album, The Gospel Truth, this singer-songwriter journeys to America's spiritual side.
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Patti Austin is best known as an R&B singer. But on her new album, she reinterprets the American standards of George Gershwin — including the controversial song "Swanee," made famous — and infamous — by Al Jolson.
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Robin McKelle is a jazz singer who brings new life to some old standards. Inspired by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, this jazz singer sounds mature beyond her 30 years.
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With a catalogue of more than 400 songs, including "Over the Rainbow," "Stormy Weather," and "Get Happy," the timeless music of Harold Arlen has kept America swinging, and singing, for decades. NPR marks the centennial of the songwriter's birth with an hour-long special.
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The Susie Arioli band, out of Quebec, has just released its third jazz-swing album, That's for Me. NPR's Susan Stamberg speaks with vocalist Arioli and guitarist Jordan Officer about their music, inspiration and collaboration.
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On Susan Werner's newest CD, her sixth, the singer-songwriter moves distinctively away from folk and toward the jazzy American songbook style recently embraced by artists such as Rod Stewart and Norah Jones. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports. Hear three selections from Werner's I Can't Be New.