Classical Americana

Series produced by Classical California

Caption: Lara Downes
Lara Downes 

What’s the defining sound of American classical music? What people, stories, sights and sounds throughout American history built our unique classical tradition, and where does it go from here? On the premiere season of Classical Americana, iconoclastic pianist Lara Downes drives you down the highways and byways of American music, with roadside discoveries and detours to the crossroads where musical traditions merge and transform.

Pianist Lara Downes was named 2022 Classical Woman of the Year by Performance Today. A sought-after performer, Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, producer, curator, activist, and arts advocate, she has been called “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice to the underrepresented and forgotten”. She’s Classical California’s Resident Artist, and the Evening Host from 8PM to Midnight on KUSC-Los Angeles and KDFC-San Francisco.


13 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Lara Downes
This week on Classical Americana, Lara Downes winds down the first season of her American Road Trip. We turn off the engine but keep the radio on –...

  • Added: Mar 19, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
This week on Classical Americana with Lara Downes: explore classical music in the Golden state, from film scores by Korngold and John Williams, to ...

  • Added: Mar 12, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
This week on Classical Americana with Lara Downes, celebrate the women who have broken glass ceilings and opened doors. From Amy Beach, Florence Pr...

  • Added: Mar 06, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
George Gershwin’s lifetime hit the crossroads of migration, technology, progress and change. We’ll hear some of the music that best defines his 20t...

  • Added: Mar 07, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
Music by immigrants who transformed the sound of American music, from Irving Berlin to Kurt Weill and Ernest Bloch, and two very young composers wh...

  • Added: Jan 19, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
By trail and by rail, we’re on the road in search of new vistas and adventures. On this episode of Classical Americana, William Grant Still, Jennif...

  • Added: Jan 10, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
The long American struggle for freedom, for peace, and equality. This week on Classical Americana, join Lara Downes in the church pew and at the pi...

  • Added: Jan 10, 2024
  • Length: 58:59
Caption: Lara Downes
Rivers run through our country, our history, and, of course, our music – keeping us connected, nourished, at work and on the move. This week on Cla...

  • Added: Jan 24, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
Lara Downes swings you through the sights, sounds and stories of the city that never sleeps, from Gershwin capturing the soul of New York in the ro...

  • Added: Jan 24, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
This week we’re harvesting music grown from our American soil and cultivated by national treasures like Leonard Bernstein, Caroline Shaw, Amy Beach...

  • Added: Jan 24, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
This week we’re heading to a region where the musical soil is fertile and the blue moon shines bright. Host Lara Downes explores Kentucky’s classic...

  • Added: Jan 10, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
This week on Classical Americana: Great American composers who transformed the sound of American classical music by bringing the music and lived ex...

  • Added: Jan 10, 2024
  • Length: 59:00
Caption: Lara Downes
This week on Classical Americana travel with Aaron Copland to the Wild West. Discover nostalgic settings of traditional spirituals by the foremost ...

  • Added: Dec 06, 2023
  • Length: 59:00