Heading into 2020, conductor Marin Aslop had planned to do a year-long concert series devoted to the composer, with performances scheduled in six different continents. Obviously, that became impossible with the coronavirus pandemic. So instead they now plan to do the next best thing: one online concert with 10 orchestras from around the world playing 'Ode to Joy' to raise money for struggling musicians.

Jason Max Ferdinand, Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities at Oakwood University (Huntsville, AL), takes a new approach to choral directing.  In 2019 he took his ensemble, the Aeolians of Oakwood University, to the American Choral Directors Association's national conference where the singers blew away the audience by challenging racial biases in the choral world with their outstanding performances of traditional Western classical songs and Black music. 

Osvaldo Golijov is a MacArthur "genius" composer who's written for Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quartet and soprano Dawn Upshaw. But in 2012, he was accused of plagiarism, and he disappeared from the scene. Only now, nearly a decade later, is Golijov reemerging — with a work that could not have a more timely subject: it's a meditation on grieving and loss.

In 2021, I'm looking forward to, fingers crossed, live music. I really miss the roar of a symphony orchestra in concert or a soaring soprano on the opera stage. But artists are still making albums, even in lockdown, like British composer Max Richter. His upcoming album is a follow-up to last year's Voices. This new one is Voices, Part 2 which will be released in April.

For members of Luminous Voices, a professional choir ensemble in Alberta, Canada, rehearsing and performing safely during the pandemic has meant getting into their cars, driving to an empty parking lot and singing with each other's voices broadcast through their car radios.

This "car choir" solution is one that college music professor David Newman — an accomplished baritone himself in Virginia — came up with so that ensembles could sing and "be" together.

Meet internationally-acclaimed author Alexander McCall Smith (No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency) and award-winning composer James Ross, who collaborated on song cycle These Are The Hands. Host Fiona Ritchie chatted with them about the process of bringing together the lyrics (McCall Smith) and the piano arrangements (Ross).