Original air date: Week of April 20, 2009
Two hundred years ago this year, composer Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany. He is now widely regarded as one of the most popular composers of the Romantic period. Tune in for an hour-long recital of Mendelssohn's music by pianist and SMF favorite Sebastian Knauer, given at the historic Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church. This celebration of the Mendelssohn Bicentennial took place on Thursday, March 26th as part of the 2009 Savannah Music Festival.

An encore of "On Wings of Song" played by Knauer and violinist/Associate Artistic Director Daniel Hope (performed at the 2009 SMF) concludes the program.

Original air date: Week of May 4, 2009
Composer/Singer/Mandolinist Chris Thile released his first recording when he was just 13. But that was half his life ago, and the now 28-year old virtuoso is involved in an ensemble that has occupied his life since 2007 called the Punch Brothers. It was after the breakup of his very popular contemporary acoustic group Nickel Creek that Thile joined four of his musical buddies to conceive a modern bluegrass band - one with a lot of range, but aesthetically a bluegrass band. Tune in for an episode featuring the Punch Brothers' incredible performance at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts earlier this year during the 2009 Savannah Music Festival.

Original Air Date: Week of May 18, 2009.
For nearly a thousand years, the country now known as the Czech Republic was originally two different regions called Bohemia and Moravia. During the 19th century, two composers were born in Bohemia who created works of great significance. On this edition of Savannah Music Festival LIVE, hear one of Prague's most esteemed string quartets playing the String Quartet No. 1 ("From my Life") by Bedrich Smetana, followed by Antonin Dvorak's String Quartet No. 12 in F, Opus 96 ("The American"). This concert was recorded on Saturday, March 21 in the rotunda at the Telfair Academy of Arts & Sciences, during the 2009 Savannah Music Festival.

Original air date: Week of June 1, 2009
While it is often said that George Gershwin was ahead of his time, the fact remains that he created music in his time, and at his time. On this episode, hear a range of piano music performed at a concert during the 2009 Savannah Music Festival called "Gershwin Songbook." The program included both popular songs and concertos, some of it played as written on the sheet music by classical pianist Sebastian Knauer, and other works improvised on the spot by jazz pianist Marcus Roberts.

Original air date: Week of June 29, 2009
Though the banjo is commonly associated with American musical styles such as country, folk and bluegrass, the stringed instrument was actually adapted from several African musicians before it developed into the modern banjo during the 20th century. One of the most renowned banjoists in the world today is Bela Fleck, who in early 2005, embarked on a trip to Africa in which he collaborated musically with some of the top musicians there. Four years later he assembled some of his favorite musicians from across the African continent and brought them over for a short tour in the United States. During this two-hour program we listen to performances by Toumani Diabate, Vusi Mahlasela, D'Gary, and Anania Ngoliga with their musical partners, and with Bela Fleck and fiddler Casey Driessen.

Original air date: Week of July 13, 2009
What do you grow up to be when your father is an opera conductor and your mother is a pianist? Well, in the case of the French artist Philippe Entremont, he became one of the world's leading pianists and a well-known conductor. On this episode of the Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to two great masterworks played on piano by Mr. Entremont, including Beethoven's 23rd Sonata, as well as the Sonata for Two Pianos in F Minor by Brahms played by Entremont and his former student, pianist Sebastian Knauer.

Original air date: Week of July 27, 2009
Back in the 19-teens and 20s, piano players in clubs had to always be on top of their game in order to ensure that their playing could never be surpassed. The great stride piano player James P. Johnson used to go around New York and hear all of the other pianists play, and in case they played something he didn't, he would copy them and incorporate their work into his own style. The reason for this is so that no one could walk into his club and outplay him, and then take away his job. In the SMF production Piano Showdown, none of the players have to fear for their jobs, but all are driven by the spirit of friendly competition. Episode 1 of 2.

Original air date: week of August 17, 2009
As far back as he can remember, Doyle Lawson loved the sound of music. When he was growing up, just about everyone listened to the Grand Ole Opry, and his family was no exception. Of all the stars that played the Opry, the group that impressed Doyle the most was Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. Doyle described their sound as "high lonesome," and it made him want to play that kind of music. On this episode, we listen to National Heritage Fellow Doyle Lawson performing with his band Quicksilver during the "Long Time Travelin'" show at the 2009 Savannah Music Festival.

Part one of this two-hour radio show features the Clayton Brothers live in the Charles H. Morris Center. One of the most soulful, fiery and fun-loving jazz bands of our time, the Claytons assert their imagination in contexts that are neither mysterious nor exotic. Instead these men share the awareness and responsibility passed on to the more ambitious artists of each generation - that of learning how to redefine the fundamentals while maintaining the essences that give the art its scope and grandeur. In the process, they've removed any pretense by simply ensuring that they have a great time playing music for the audience, which inevitably becomes contagious.

In order to successfully perform a piano recital with a program including Haydn, Chopin and Godowski, one's technique must be formidable enough to blend accuracy and rhythmic preceision with passion and insight in order to achieve moments of purity and colossal soundscapes. Marc-Andre Hamelin's musicianship and virtuosity have been recognized worldwide, in addition to his originality and technical brilliance.

The name cello is an abbreviation of the Italian violincello, often described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice. While cello is a standard part of the orchestra and is the bass voice of the string quartet, as well as a staple of many chamber groups, there have also been a large number of concertos and sonatas written for the instrument. During our 2007 festival, we presented a concert with David Finckel and Wu Han which followed the evolution of musical style, and of writing for the cello in particular, from Bach to Britten. In this episode we hear the first half of that program, a journey through the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras.

In the 100 years since jazz music became an integral part of American culture, the piano has remained fundamental to its development. There have been many great pianists whose original contributions and achievements have helped define the course of jazz, and that tradition still remains intact today. In this episode of the Savannah Music Festival LIVE, we listen to one of the most extraordinary pianists of our time, Marcus Roberts. Hear Roberts perform solo, with his trio and with a few special guests during his spring 2008 visit to the Savannah Music Festival.

Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the most respected and influential composers of all time. His musical genius has inspired literally millions of people during the past two hundred years, and it shows no signs of waning. This program features one of Beethoven's most enduring works written at the end of the 19th century, his Immortal Septet, along with his Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor. Performers include Sebastian Knauer, Daniel Hope, Benny Kim, Philip Dukes, Josephine Knight, Annika Hope, Patrick Messina, Peter Kolkay and Timothy Jones.

Edgar Meyer is a bassist for modern times. Whether he's writing a bass concerto, performing with Yo-Yo Ma, teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, or playing bluegrass with his pals in Nashville, hist virtuosity and original compositions have put him in a class by himself. In 2006, the Savannah Music Festival invited Meyer to perform a program of his original compositions with multi-instrumentalists Sam Bush and Mike Marshall, along with violinist and SMF Associate Artistic Director Daniel Hope. While his work can be complex to rehearse and play, it is always engaging and optimistic to hear.

Eric Reed is a powerful, daring and elegant pianist who was blessed with perfect pitch and a desire to play piano in front of audiences. As a child prodigy raised in the Baptist church, he eventually found his true calling in performing ballads, blues and 4/4 swing, and has since become one of the finest instrumentalists performing jazz today. This episode features Mr. Reed in a variety of performances captured at the 2008 Savannah Music Festival.

In music, an arrangement is the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. In this episode, we listen to one of the finest jazz orchestras in our time performing a variety of great arrangements. Under the direction of Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has nearly twenty years of recording and on the road experience. Their Spring 2007 tour brought them to the Savannah Music Festival, where they played this program of both classic and new arrangements.

Original Air Date: Week of April 26, 2010

Hungarian fiddle playing is known the world over for its passion, romance and virtuosity. To most non-Hungarians, the music is synonymous with the campfire, the open road and the Gypsies. But is Hungarian fiddle music actually Gypsy music? Within the country you will find considerable resentment towards this stereotype, and while there is much appreciation of the skill of Gypsy fiddlers, it is considered to be Hungarian music, not Gypsy music. On this program we listen to violinist Roby Lakatos, who is not only a scorching virtuoso, but a musician of extraordinary versatility. This recording was captured during the opening weekend of the 2010 Savannah Music Festival at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts.

The composition of a piece of music, from the sketch of an idea through its development into a finished work is only the beginning of the process. It is then up to the performers to bring their own understanding about what a musical text means, based upon knowledge and research. Because musical tastes and practices change over time, it is the role of the artist to bring an informed performance based on their study of a work, and how it can best be approached in their own time. In this episode, we listen to the music of Mozart as interpreted by Kristian Bezuidenhout at the 2006 Savannah Music Festival.

As the son of immigrant parents, Jacob Gershowitz was born on September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. By the time he arrived at Tin Pan Alley in 1916 to begin writing songs as a teenager, Jacob had changed his first name to George and shortened his last name to Gershwin. In this episode, we listen to the music of George Gershwin played by a variety of musicians including Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli and Howard Alden, Daniel Hope and Sebastian Knauer, and the Marcus Roberts Trio with Marcus Printup, among others. 

It was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who pioneered writing for a string quartet augmented by a second viola.  This type of string quintet is often called a "viola quintet," and features two violins, two violas and a cello.  In this episode, we listen to musicians Carlamaria Rodriguez, Philip Dukes, Benny Kim, Christopher Wu, and Keith Robinson perform works by Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn.

The eight-stringed instrument that looks like a small lute and was played throughout Europe for several centuries is now known everywhere as the mandolin. This unique sounding instrument first entered popular American culture in the mid 19th century, when it was primarily used as a novelty instrument. By the year 1900 however, mandolin ensembles were touring the vaudeville circuit and mandolin orchestras were forming in schools and colleges.  The ensuing 40 years saw the proliferation of mandolins across the south and a handful of American virtuosos performed, recorded, composed, and arranged for the mandolin in a variety of musical idioms. In this episode, we listen to David Grisman, Don Stiernberg, Sam Bush, Tony Williamson, and Mike Marshall performing in a one-of-a-kind mandolin summit at the Savannah Music Festival.

One of the most important forms in chamber music in which nearly every major composer from the past 200 years has contributed is the string quartet.  Intimate and fascinating, only four instruments take care of everything and none of them stand still in the process. In this episode, we listen to the music of Mozart and Shostakovich performed by Eugene Drucker, Philip Setzer, Lawrence Dutton, and David Finckel in this 2006 SMF recording.

When you're born in New York City to a father who's a Broadway composer and a mother who's a singer specializing in the American Songbook, you're going to grow up around some great music. Such is the case of Bill Charlap, who began playing piano at the age of three and eventually went on to work with Gerry Mulligan, Tony Bennett, Benny Carter, and Phil Woods, before leading his own groups. In this episode, we listen to more great American classics in the second installment of the Bill Charlap Trio, recorded in 2006 at the Savannah Music Festival.

The many songs that came from the Broadway theatre, Hollywood movies, and Tin Pan Alley have always been a vital part of the repertoire of jazz musicians, who turned many of them into jazz standards. In this episode, we listen to more swingin' standards performed by Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden, Wycliffe Gordon, and the Marcus Roberts trio, among others in this 2007 SMF recording.

A sonata in music literally means a piece that is played, as opposed to a cantata, which is a piece that is sung. The sonata has naturally evolved through the history of music, and it took on increasing importance by the early 19th century when it came to represent a principle of composing large scale works. In this episode, we listen to 2010 Savannah Music Festival performances of two great 19th century sonatas by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

In the late 18th century, Vienna was the major musical center in Europe and a city where the great triumvirate of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven made their homes. Beethoven's first appearance in Vienna as a youthful musician of promise came in the spring of 1787, where he was introduced to Mozart and played to him at his request. Mozart, turning quietly to the bystanders, said emphatically: "mark that young man; he will make himself a name in the world!" In this episode, we listen to Beethoven's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 16 performed during the 2006 Savannah Music Festival.

For chamber music lovers, springtime in Savannah is a veritable feast of music for 17 days. Some of the world's finest classical musicians gather to rehearse and perform masterworks of the idiom in historic and intimate spaces. Tune in to hear performances by artists returning to the 2011 festival.

If you were born in the 1960s, you could grow up just about anywhere in America and be exposed to gospel, jazz, blues, soul, folk and rock music on the radio and television. Such was the case of Ruthie Foster, who was raised in South Texas and grew up singing in the Baptist Church before she got serious about music as a teenager. In the spring of 2010, Ms. Foster brought her unique blend of American roots music and southern soul to Savannah. Tune in to hear highlights from her second night at the Charles H. Morris Center.

The term chamber music was first created to identify a form of classical music featuring a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber.  The word "chamber" signifies that the music can be performed in a small room, often in a private salon with an intimate atmosphere.  In this episode, we listen to Daniel Hope, Philip Dukes, Patrick Messina, and Tim Jones, among others, perform Schubert's Octet in F Major, D 803 from this 2006 SMF recording.

In the decade between 1781 and 1791 in Vienna, the preeminent keyboard virtuoso of the day was a young man named Mozart. During the final ten years of his life, Mozart was undeniably the absolute piano star in this music capital, but the keyboard he played was not the same piano that we know and love today. Instead, Mozart played a smaller instrument that emphasized the scale of his writing for medium-sized salons in aristocratic Viennese homes: an instrument known as the fortepiano. Tune in to this episode for an all-Mozart recital by one of today's most virtuosic fortepiano players, South Africa native Kristian Bezuidenhout.

At an audition to become the principal player on your instrument in a symphony orchestra, technical proficiency is only part of the test. Members of the orchestra weigh whether a candidate plays with strong character, yet can blend and match the ensemble's style while also being a thoughtful colleague they are willing to work with for years to come. In this episode, we listen to the 2011 recital given by principal clarinetist for the French National Orchestra, Patrick Messina, at Christ Church during the Savannah Music Festival. He is accompanied by Simon Crawford-Phillips.

The tradition of stringband playing in the United States dates back at least 200 years. In the early 19th century, the fiddle-banjo duo that was essential to the dance music of the day eventually incorporated other instruments such as the guitar, mandolin and double bass. Such an assemblage, of whatever instrumentation, became known simply as a "stringband." By the 1870s, African-American dance houses had musicians who played violin, banjo and bass fiddle, and by the 1920s and 30s, stringbands were among the forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass. Soon, artists began to record stringband music in collaboration with other popular music styles such as blues and jazz. In this episode, we listen to a stringband that has drawn upon nearly every style of music from the past 100 years, the Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile. Part one of two.

The forward movement of contemporary American stringband music has always been fueled by a tradition that existed outside the classroom setting. When a young person attempts to pursue an American style such as bluegrass, Cajun, country or blues, the earliest method of learning often begins with imitating music from recordings. Later on, participation in jam sessions, lessons with a mentor, and getting connected with better players is the easiest route toward figuring out how to play your instrument. In this episode we listen to a group of mostly non-formally trained string players that has developed a wholly original sound based on their collective approach to music making.

During the 18th century, the cello had gradually become regarded as a solo as well as an accompanying instrument. While neither Mozart nor Haydn composed a cello sonata, Beethoven more than made up for them. Not only did he write five sonatas for the instrument, but he was the first major composer to create works with equally important roles for the cello and piano. Tune in to hear three of Beethoven's cello sonatas played by pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel in the Telfair Academy at the 2011 Savannah Music Festival.

In this episode, we listen to the complete 2011 performance by Junior Brown at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, where he played an hour-long, non-stop set on his original instrument made up of a 6-string electric and a lap steel guitar. He calls it the "guit-steel", and like his singing voice, it's eclectic, but definitely the one and only.

In the world of chamber music, there are many masterworks of the idiom - pieces that are continually performed year in and year out at festivals and chamber music series around the world. The piano quintet by Schumann and the D minor trio by Mendelssohn are two such compositions. In this program, we listen to these pieces performed under the musical direction of Associate Artistic Director Daniel Hope. The trio performance includes Simon Crawford-Phillips on piano, cellist Eric Kim and violinist Hope. For the Schumann Quintet, these three are joined by Benny Kim on violin and Carla Maria Rodrigues on viola.

When tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander made his debut recording as a leader in 1992 at the age of 25, many jazz writers dubbed him a “young lion” and a musician on his way up. That was nearly 25 years and more than 20 years ago. In the spring of 2016, Alexander brought his longtime quartet to SMF featuring the now 80-year old pianist Harold Mabern, along with bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth.