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Jamal was born in Pittsburgh, broke through with his small group music in Chicago in the 1950s, and recorded scores of records through 2016 — a 65-year recording career. He died April 16.

Carol Jantsch, 21, soon will be the Philadelphia Orchestra's youngest member, and the first woman to be a principal tuba player in a top U.S. orchestra.

Joanna Newsom plays the concert harp, an unusual instrument for a singer-songwriter. Her debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, was widely praised in 2004. Newsom has a long-awaited new record, Ys.

Carl Orff's 1937 composition Carmina Burana remains one of the most popular pieces of the classical music repertoire. Conductor Marin Alsop and Scott Simon discuss why so many artists have performed the piece.

Singer Aretha Franklin talks about the legacy of the late hitmaker Ahmet Ertegun. The co-founder of Atlantic Records died this week at 83. He helped discover and develop many artists, including Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin and Sonny and Cher.

Dmitri Shostakovich's most famous work, the Fifth Symphony, reflects his tenuous position as a creative artist in a repressive state. But the composer's overall contributions were stunningly diverse. Conductor Marin Alsop and Scott Simon reflect on the music of Shostakovich.

NPR's Scott Detrow talks to NPR's Ann Powers and Marcus Dowling of The Tennessean about how two country songs sit atop the Billboard Hot 100, and the context for this moment.

Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony" is an anthem to American roots. It was written by a foreigner and required white classical musicians to respect Black spirituals and Native American music.

Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio is the opera the Emperor supposedly said had, "too many notes!" You can count them yourself in a production from the Salzburg Festival, in the composer's hometown.

A new Criterion four-DVD box set — Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist features several of Robeson's films and an abundance of documentary material.