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In the cloistered world of classical music recordings, there is great interest in choral music by Catholic nuns these days. On Mater Eucharistiae, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, are "able to bring other people into that space of prayer when we're singing."

Up until recently, the likely composers of the great American symphony looked remarkably similar: all white, overwhelmingly male. But recent developments have opened up the doors to composers who were once lost to history.

Conductor David Robertson decodes America's orchestral anxieties, from nurturing new works to playing the classics. "I'm seen by many people as having horns and a forked tail," he says, "because I actually love to discover something that has not been played before."

Steinway Musical Instruments is on the auction block and a mystery bidder, rumored to be hedge fund manager John Paulson, appears to have the winning bid at $458 million. Ilya Marritz explains why the fairly healthy company is seeking a buyout in the first place.

The jazz trumpeter who made his first recordings 50 years ago this summer might be his instrument's least appreciated giant. Perhaps the trumpeter of the 1970s, Shaw was an icon for the generation that followed, as well as an innovator on his horn.

Charles Ives biographer Jan Swafford traces the life of the New England insurance executive who forever transformed the American symphony. Ives's father, a Civil War bandmaster, said any harmony — however radical — was fine. "Nobody," Swafford writes, "had ever told a young composer that before."

The drummer is 84 — he's been around the jazz scene for a while. He was the drummer on Miles Davis' late-'50s and early-'60s masterpieces. These days, he's still touring the world and leading bands.

Fridays are funnier with a classical cartoon at noon, from Deceptive Cadence.

Violinist and conductor Joshua Bell is going to be joining Lance Bass and a Shark Tank judge in Atlantic City. (And one of the country's foremost classical music critics is a preliminary rounds judge.) Is there a classical music/beauty pageant axis we just didn't know about?

The trumpeter and the drummer each bring high-energy bands to the Detroit Jazz Festival.