Tom Huizenga
Tom Huizenga is a producer for NPR Music. He contributes a wide range of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and is the classical music reviewer for All Things Considered. He appears regularly on NPR Music podcasts and founded NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence in 2010.
Joining NPR in 1999, Huizenga produced, wrote and edited NPR's Peabody Award-winning daily classical music show Performance Today and the programs SymphonyCast and World of Opera.
He's produced live radio broadcasts from the Kennedy Center and other venues, including New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge, where he created NPR's first classical music webcast featuring the Emerson String Quartet.
As a video producer, Huizenga has created some of NPR Music's noteworthy music documentaries in New York. He brought mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato to the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, placed tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Jason Moran inside an active crypt at a historic church in Harlem, and invited composer Philip Glass to a Chinatown loft to discuss music with Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange).
He has also written and produced radio specials, such as A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico, broadcast on stations around the country.
Prior to NPR, Huizenga served as music director for NPR member station KRWG, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and taught in the journalism department at New Mexico State University.
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Huizenga's radio career began at the University of Michigan, where he produced and hosted a broad range of radio programs at Ann Arbor's WCBN-FM. He holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in English literature and ethnomusicology.
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The trailblazing singer, who broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955, is remembered in a deluxe new release of albums and images.
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Rewind to 1962 where a 20-year-old Barbra Streisand, at the dawn of her spectacular career, takes a solid but unassuming love ballad and displays all the potential of the human voice in three minutes.
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The revered Cuban composer's winning piece was inspired by the life and struggles of Susan B. Anthony and her own poor mother and grandmother in Cuba.
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Classical music fans are mourning the loss of the celebrated mezzo-soprano, known for her versatility and the warmth of her voice. She died at her home in Austria on April 24 at age 93.
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The young, late-comer to opera is turning heads in the classical world with a powerful voice that can rocket over huge orchestras or pare down to a silvery thread.
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Growing up in a progressive city, Ludwig van Beethoven embraced the ideals of the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that shook Europe and helped shape the composer's music.
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The beloved pianist was a young lion of his generation until a hand injury forced him to rethink his relationship to music.
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Known early on for his avant-garde works, the composer's challenging music nevertheless found fans far beyond traditional classical music circles.
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The English composer's supernova hit continues to obscure his jaunty, folk inflected St. Paul's Suite.
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A thoughtful musician from a distinguished family, Serkin interpreted the classics and expanded the repertoire by commissioning new works.
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Before any opera purists start wringing their hands, let's remember that the 400-year-old art form has proven itself terrifically adaptable and resilient.
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The singer crafted a distinctive career that spanned decades and styles. Though a leading figure in her field, Norman's repertoire, fanbase and achievements stretched far beyond the opera house.