Episode 1: Yuja Wang – Superstar Pianist Plays Too Many Encores (March 4)

Superstar pianist Yuja Wang joins Manny to talk about bad pianos, encores, what influences her musical interpretations, and her love for Prokofiev. In our Newly Dead game, Yuja puts her knowledge of composer deaths to the test.

Yuja Wang is one of classical music’s brightest stars. Born into a musical family in Beijing, she soon rose to international acclaim performing with some of the world’s greatest musicians, ensembles, and conductors. In recent years, she has done projects as varied as a Rachmaninoff marathon with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, playing all 5 concertos in a single day and a concert incorporating David Hockney paintings. Last year, she won her first Grammy for the album The American Project.

Episode 3: Gabriela Ortiz – Composer and Grammy Gal (March 18)

Composer Gabriela Ortiz joins the show and discusses her grandfather’s connection to Mahler, her compositional process, and her love for Debussy and Stravinsky. Our listeners call in with tricky questions about folk music’s influence on classical pieces, new developments in orchestral instruments, and orchestra cliques. For our game, Manny tests Gabriela to identify which composer received scathing reviews.

Gabriela Ortiz was born into a musical family in Mexico City, where her parents were founding members of Los Folkloristas, an ensemble dedicated to playing Latin American folk music. After starting her studies in Mexico, Ortiz then received a Master’s degree at the Guild Hall School of Music and Drama in London. Recently, she was praised for her recording Revolución diamantina with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, for which she received 3 Grammy Awards. Ortiz has become an established leading figure in contemporary classical music.

Episode 4: John Adams – not the President (March 25)

Manny is joined by renowned composer John Adams who talks opera composition, why his pieces have interesting titles, and about that one time he was mistaken for John Cage. He answers questions from our listeners about the evolution of music and minor keys and tells us about his love of Stravinsky and Handel. In our game, Manny tests his knowledge of outrageous performance directions.

John Adams is a composer, conductor and creative thinker. For a half century, his operas and classical compositions have shaped the new sound of American music. Originally from New England, Adams studied clarinet playing in marching bands and community orchestras. He earned two degrees from Harvard, then moved to California in the early 1970’s where he has spent most of his professional career. His operas and oratorios such as Nixon in China, Doctor Atomic, and El Niño have transformed the genre of contemporary music theater.

Episode 5: John McWhorter – Lover of Language (April 1)

Columbia University Professor of Linguistics and New York Times columnist John McWhorter, chats with Manny about swear words, Broadway, and tackles the conundrums of musical etymology. McWhorter also makes the case for the brilliant first movement of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor. The two then square off in a game about famous classical pieces that bombed at their premieres.

John McWhorter is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, but most people know him better from his writings on language, race, and music in publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. He’s written more than twenty books, including Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue and Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter. McWhorter is also  the host of the language podcast Lexicon Valley.

Episode 6: Yo-Yo Ma, 53 years of friendship and duets (April 8)

Live from Tanglewood, cellist Yo-Yo Ma chats with Manny about their long musical relationship, treats the audience to a few musical performances, and speaks live with callers about their musical questions.

Yo-Yo Ma’s career is testament to his faith in culture’s ability to generate trust and understanding — from his iconic performances and recordings to original undertakings such as the Bach Project and Our Common Nature, a cultural journey to celebrate the ways that nature can reunite us in pursuit of a shared future. Yo-Yo was born to Chinese parents in Paris, where he began to study the cello with his father when he was four. Three years later, he moved with his family to the United States, where he continued his cello studies before pursuing a liberal arts education.

Episode 7: Jeanine Tesori – from “Fun Home” to the Met Opera (April 15)

Composer Jeanine Tesori is a two-time Tony Award winner, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and in 2024, she became the first woman composer to open the Metropolitan Opera season in its 139-year history. On this edition of CMHH she tells Manny about her time living in a lighthouse, about her love of Stravinsky, and why she decided not to be a doctor.

Jeanine Tesori is a formidable figure whose work spans Broadway, opera, and film. A two-time recipient of the Tony Award for Best Score and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tesori has shaped the contemporary American musical landscape. In 2015, she and Lisa Kron made history as the first all-woman team to win the Tony Award for Best Score of a Musical for Fun Home. Her other notable works include Thoroughly Modern Millie, Caroline, or Change, and Shrek the Musical. Tesori is the founding artistic director of Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center and serves as a lecturer in music at Yale University.

Episode 8: David Hyde Pierce – a.k.a. Niles Crane (April 22)

Actor David Hyde Pierce has had a long career in film, television and the theater.  He’s best known to listeners for his portrayal of Niles Crane on the sitcom “Frasier.”  He joins Manny to talk about his life and love of classical music and listen to some of their favorite recordings.  They also play a game called “Animal or Instrument.”

David Hyde Pierce is an Emmy and Tony Award–winning actor and director. His Broadway credits include Hello, Dolly! (Tony nomination), Curtains (Tony Award), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Tony nomination), Spamalot, The Heidi Chronicles, La Bête, and Accent on Youth. Off-Broadway appearances include The Visitor at The Public Theater, A Life, The Maderati, That’s It, Folks!, and The Landing.

As a director, Pierce has led productions of  It Shoulda Been You on Broadway, Vanya and Sonia at the Mark Taper Forum, Ripcord for Manhattan Theatre Club, and The Importance of Being Earnest at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. His film credits include Sleepless in Seattle, Nixon, Wet Hot American Summer, A Bug’s Life, and Treasure Planet. On television, he is best known for his Emmy-winning role as Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier and currently stars as Paul Child on Julia, streaming on Max.

Episode 9: Nicholas Britell – more than that one viral theme song! (April 29)

Film and television composer Nicholas Britell takes us through the process of writing the music for Succession and Moonlight, performs one of his scores live in-studio, and joins forces with Manny to help listeners find new music they’ll love.

Nicholas Britell is a three-time Academy Award–nominated, Grammy-nominated, and Emmy Award–winning composer, pianist, and producer whose work continues to push the boundaries of musical storytelling. Described by The New York Times as “the composer at the frontier of film music,” Britell has achieved wide acclaim for scores including HBO’s Emmy-winning series Succession and Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award–winning Moonlight, as well as Jenkins’ critically acclaimed follow-up If Beale Street Could Talk. Britell is a recipient of multiple World Soundtrack Awards, including Film Composer of the Year, Television Composer of the Year, Discovery of the Year, and Best Original Song Written for a Film.

Episode 10: Isabel Hagen – likes a good viola joke (May 6)

Comedian Isabel Hagen is a classically trained violist, and a filmmaker. As a comedian, she has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and was a New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs festival in Montréal. She talks to Manny about how the viola can be funny and making people love classical music by making them laugh!

Isabel Hagen is a nationally touring stand-up comedian and classically trained violist. She has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and was named a New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montréal. Hagen began performing stand-up comedy shortly after earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Juilliard School. As a musician, she has toured with Vampire Weekend and collaborated with a wide range of artists including Björk, Ed Sheeran, Max Richter, The National, and Steve Reich.

In addition to her work in comedy and music, Hagen is also a filmmaker. Her debut feature film, On a String—which she wrote, directed, produced, and starred in—premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, where it won Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature.

Episode 11: Yefim Bronfman – master of the keyboard (May 13)

Pianist Yefim Bronfman, “Fima,” chats with Manny about their decades-long friendship, their love of sports, their surprising anxiety around live broadcast performances, and responds to questions about how to recover from injuries and choose unfamiliar music. Fima and Manny work together in our Newly Dead game to identify odd composer deaths.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman has been praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral performances in the world’s most famous concert halls.  Nominated for six Grammy Awards, his recording catalogue includes works for two pianos by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Emanuel Ax.  Born in Tashkent while it was part of the Soviet Union, Bronfman immigrated to Israel in 1973 and studied at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University.  He also studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music and the Curtis Institute under Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher and Rudolf Serkin.

Episode 12: Paquito D’Rivera – Beef, Beans and Benny (Goodman) (May 20)

Paquito D’Rivera is a Cuban-born composer, saxophonist and clarinetist whose work spans classical, jazz and Latin music. D’Rivera started his career playing with the National Theater Orchestra of Havana at the age of 10 and has been on stage for seven decades. During their chat, Paquito and Manny discuss what meat and beans have to do with Benny Goodman playing Carnegie Hall, what kind of music teacher his father was, and all things clarinet. He also joins Manny for an in-studio performance of one of his compositions. In our game, Manny and Paquito decide if a sound is made by a musical instrument or an animal.

Paquito D’Rivera is a 14-time GRAMMY Award–winning artist celebrated for his achievements in both Latin jazz and classical music. Born in Havana, Cuba, he performed with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music, and became a featured soloist with the National Symphony of Cuba at seventeen.

A founding member and director of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, D’Rivera also performed with the Cuban National Symphony as both a clarinetist and saxophonist. He later co-founded the United Nation Orchestra, the landmark ensemble organized by Dizzy Gillespie to fuse jazz with Latin and Caribbean traditions. The orchestra received a GRAMMY Award in 1991, the same year D’Rivera was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Carnegie Hall for his contributions to Latin music. Additional honors include honorary doctorates in music from the Berklee College of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, and the Jazz Journalists Association’s Clarinetist of the Year Award in 2004 and 2006.

Episode 13: Ray Chen – superstar violinist wants you to practice (May 27)

Violinist and social media guru Ray Chen wraps up this season of Classical Music Happy Hour with an in-studio live performance. He chats with Manny about video games, performance anxiety, and his practice app Tonic. He joins Manny in our game called Is It a Composer or Is it Cheese?

Ray Chen is an internationally acclaimed violinist redefining classical music for the 21st century. A First Prize winner of the Yehudi Menuhin (2008) and Queen Elizabeth (2009) Competitions, he performs with leading orchestras and in major concert halls worldwide. He is signed to Decca Classics and has released multiple critically acclaimed recordings, including Virtuoso, which received an ECHO Klassik Award.

Chen is widely recognized for his influential digital presence, reaching millions and attracting new audiences to classical music. He has been featured by The Strad, Gramophone, Forbes (30 Under 30), Vogue, and appeared in Mozart in the Jungle. Highlights include performances at the BBC Proms, the Nobel Prize Concert, and France’s Bastille Day celebrations. Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and plays the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

ABOUT EMANUEL AX

Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed by the Avery Fisher Prize. Emanuel Ax was recently named the 2026 Musical America Artist of the Year. The 2025/26 season begins with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and a tour to Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. Following the world premiere at Tanglewood in summer 2025, the concerto written for him by John Williams will have its Boston Symphony subscription debut in January followed by the NY premiere with New York Philharmonic. He will return to orchestras in Dallas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Madison, Naples and New Jersey. In recital he can be heard in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Schenectady and Princeton. A European tour will include concerts in Munich, Prague, Berlin, Rome and Torino. Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He launched a multi-year project with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies of which the first four discs have been released. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University.

ABOUT WQXR

WQXR is New York City’s only all-classical music station, immersing listeners in the city’s rich musical life on-air at 105.9FM, online at WQXR.org, and in the community through live events and performances. Signature programs include Carnegie Hall Live, Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcasts, New York Philharmonic This Week, New York in Concert, and the Young Artists Showcase. WQXR also produces podcasts that showcase compelling storytelling and powerful music: The Open Ears Project, Made in New York: the NY Philharmonic Story, Every Voice with Terrance McKnight, Helga, and Aria Code, a joint project with the Metropolitan Opera. www.wqxr.org

ABOUT CARNEGIE HALL

Since 1891, New York’s Carnegie Hall has set the international standard for excellence in performance. From Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Mahler, and Bartók to George Gershwin, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Judy Garland, and The Beatles, every form of music has filled Carnegie Hall—the only prerequisite: that it be the finest. Carnegie Hall presents a wide range of performances each season on its three stages each season including concert series curated by acclaimed artists and composers; citywide festivals featuring collaborations with leading New York City cultural institutions; orchestral performances, chamber music, new music concerts, and recitals; and the best in jazz, world, and popular music. Complementing these performance activities, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute creates extensive music education and social impact programs that annually serve hundreds of thousands of people in the New York City area, nationally, and internationally, playing a central role in Carnegie Hall’s commitment to making great music accessible to as many people as possible.

In 2024, Carnegie Hall in partnership with WQXR launched If This Hall Could Talk, an eight-episode podcast series that delves into stories of great performances and the shaping of American culture as witnessed at the legendary venue throughout its 130+ year history. Hosted by celebrated Broadway actress/vocalist Jessica Vosk, each episode centers on a unique object drawn from the collection of Carnegie Hall’s Rose Archives—from Benny Goodman’s clarinet and Ella Fitzgerald’s glasses to a ticket from Carnegie Hall’s first Opening Night in 1891 and beyond.