Tom Huizenga
Tom Huizenga is a producer for NPR Music. He contributes a wide range of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and is the classical music reviewer for All Things Considered. He appears regularly on NPR Music podcasts and founded NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence in 2010.
Joining NPR in 1999, Huizenga produced, wrote and edited NPR's Peabody Award-winning daily classical music show Performance Today and the programs SymphonyCast and World of Opera.
He's produced live radio broadcasts from the Kennedy Center and other venues, including New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge, where he created NPR's first classical music webcast featuring the Emerson String Quartet.
As a video producer, Huizenga has created some of NPR Music's noteworthy music documentaries in New York. He brought mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato to the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, placed tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Jason Moran inside an active crypt at a historic church in Harlem, and invited composer Philip Glass to a Chinatown loft to discuss music with Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange).
He has also written and produced radio specials, such as A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico, broadcast on stations around the country.
Prior to NPR, Huizenga served as music director for NPR member station KRWG, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and taught in the journalism department at New Mexico State University.
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Huizenga's radio career began at the University of Michigan, where he produced and hosted a broad range of radio programs at Ann Arbor's WCBN-FM. He holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in English literature and ethnomusicology.
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Hear the powerhouse pianist barrel through a rambunctious bonbon written for her by Michael Tilson Thomas.
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The music that haunts the Oscar-nominated film is a calling card for conductor Rafael Payare. -
On her new album, Dark with Excessive Bright, the vibrant, young composer coaxes unusual sounds from a symphony orchestra.
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Hear a meditative trombone improvisation, inspired by dreams, and powered by spiraling loops and gentle melodies.
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The composer of Breaking the Waves speaks candidly about equity in her field, the importance of role models and the unglamorous side of writing music every day.
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Watch the pianist, who's been called "a performer of near-superhuman prowess," play a smart set that spans six centuries.
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We asked NPR Music's classical producer Tom Huizenga: Was there one lyric from 2022 that stayed with you all year? He chose a line from the song "One by One," recorded by Julia Bullock.
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The velvet-voiced soprano with a career on the rise chooses her projects, and the music on her debut solo album, with consummate intention.
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Discover a broad spectrum of this year's most compelling classical music, from booby-trapped string quartets and chilled-out piano to full-throttle percussion, electric guitars and high-flying vocals.
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Failure was not an option when Léon arrived in New York, a determined 24-year-old pianist from Cuba. At nearly 80, she says some things haven't changed.
