Much has been reported recently about the limited representation and inequity in the world of classical music.  From musicians of color being represented in orchestras and the repertoire they perform, to women conductors on the podium, equity and inclusion is now becoming part of the discussion in the classical music industry.

On January 26, 2021, The Sound Health Network was launched to explore how music can provide insights into brain functioning, reduce social isolation, promote community solidarity, and influence health, something so many people needed after nearly a year of isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and renowned soprano and Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor at Large Renée Fleming have launched a new partnership, designed to explore the connections between music, health, and wellness.

Tania León, the 78-year-old Cuban-born composer, won the Pulitzer Prize in Music on Friday for her orchestral work Stride. The Pulitzer jury described the 15-minute piece as a "musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the U.S. and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric." The two other finalists were Place, by Ted Hearne and Data Lords by Maria Schneider, both recordings.

We're joined by the great Michael Lasser, longtime host of Fascinatin’ Rhythm on WXXI Radio. Lasser has been at the helm of the nationally syndicated show for more than 40 years. His work as earned him a loyal audience and a coveted George Foster Peabody Award. As reported by WXXI's Jeff Spevak, "jurors said his program was a vivid example of what a listener described as 'radio essays with songs used as illustrations.'” Lasser has decided to retire, with June 26 being the final broadcast of his program.

This hour, we sit down with him and with the program's original producer, Marianne Carberry, to talk about the many years of the show, its music, the social history of that music, and more. Our guests:

• Michael Lasser, host of Fascinatin’ Rhythm, author, teacher, and theater critic
• Marianne Carberry, original producer of Fascinatin’ Rhythm, and program host for Classical 91.5. FM
  

Sitting at the Yamaha grand piano in his Brooklyn apartment, surrounded by two laptops, an iPad, a monitor, a video camera and studio lights, Dan Tepfer plays the first of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations. The piano is a Disklavier, which can record and play back. When he finishes, Tepfer taps a button on his iPad, triggering the piano to play back what he's just recorded with the notes inverted, as if the score were turned upside down.

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra reunited with its live audience on Thursday night at Perinton Center Stage Amphitheater after an absence of more than a year. The concert was the first in the group’s summer-long “RPO Outdoors” series, but it was also Andreas Delfs’s first in-person performance as the orchestra’s music director designate.