WRTI Picks from NPR Music

This coming week, Disney Hall celebrates its 10th anniversary. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with conductor and music director Gustavo Dudamel, as well as other figures from the Los Angeles classical scene, about the highlights since then.

The jazz legend practiced his saxophone 10 to 15 hours a day before he got his big break, and while he wasn't the most reliable husband, when it came to music, he never wavered. Scholar Stanley Crouch's Kansas City Lightning is the first of a two-volume biography of Parker.

The composer's tendency to push buttons won him harsh reviews — and a lasting legacy. Conductor John Mauceri discusses how Giuseppe Verdi was regarded during his lifetime and where he stands now, 200 years after his birth.

This coming week will mark Italian opera giant Giuseppe Verdi's bicentennial. NPR's Arun Rath isn't just a fan of the composer's adaptation of Othello — he says it just might have the edge on the Bard's original.

Labor disputes engulfed the Minnesota Orchestra. Bankruptcy shuttered the New York City Opera. Even Carnegie Hall had to cancel its opening-night gala. What gives?

At 78, jazz drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath is still displaying his aptitude for making songs swing while keeping them firmly in time. Critic Tom Moon reviews Tootie's Tempo, Heath's collaboration with two younger jazz players.

Kicking off a week of stories on Morning Edition about the extraordinarily talented children often known as prodigies, NPR's David Greene spends a few minutes with a preteen musician who has already performed at Carnegie Hall and the White House.

A jazz pianist and bandleader, Iyer is one of the most critically acclaimed musicians of the past decade. He also has a masters in physics. Here, he explains why he decided to switch to a full-time career as a jazz musician, and describes what influenced his album Solo.

The pianist's latest album features some of the most difficult etudes ever written for solo piano by the Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti.

Two of this year's roster of grant winners are pianists who exemplify creative thinking and wide-ranging intellectual and artistic pursuits. And as it happens, NPR has a long history with each of them. See and hear excerpts of their distinctive work.