Zev Kane

Zev’s love for classical music was first instilled by his grandmothers, Mimsie, his first piano teacher, and Fruma, who regularly treated him to concerts by his hometown St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Although he doesn’t remember the exact moment his intrigue blossomed into a full-blown obsession, by the time he was in ninth grade, Zev was spending his weekends at the local library, rifling through its expansive classical CD collection, checking out as many as his scrawny arms could carry, and spending far more time than he’d care to admit listening, reading liner notes, and poring over digital scores.

After graduating from Dartmouth College, where he majored in Music with concentrations in theory, musicology, and composition, Zev was hired as a member of the music programming staff at WQXR, New York City’s classical station. Despite having no prior radio experience, it only took a few weeks on the job for Zev to realize that, just like the music he’d come to love in his early adolescence, broadcasting was his thing. As WQXR’s Music Director, Zev hosted the station’s monthly new release program, interviewed leading classical talent (including composer Steve Reich, pianists Stewart Goodyear and Simone Dinnerstein, and violinist Leonidas Kavakos), and wrote dozens of monthly album reviews for its website.

Zev is thrilled to be WRTI’s classical program director, where he hopes to steward and grow the station’s tremendous legacy on the airwaves of Greater Philadelphia. In his free time, he enjoys solving the New York Times Crossword Puzzle, early morning runs, hunting for Philly’s best bagels (all suggestions welcome!), and hosting his own weekly music discovery podcast, 7/4.