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Music Features

Friday

Pianist Omar Sosa plays 'child trickster' in divinely inspired musical journey

Omar Sosa Fabrizio Cirulli/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Fabrizio Cirulli/Courtesy of the artist

Jazz Night In America

Pianist Omar Sosa plays 'child trickster' in divinely inspired musical journey

WBGO

What happened when the Cuban pianist Omar Sosa met with a Santería high priest? He found his life calling.

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Thursday

Thursday

Rapsody's album Please Don't Cry functions as a reintroduction to the rapper — long defined by her technique, now revealing some of the real person behind that prowess.

Rapsody's album Please Don't Cry functions as a reintroduction to the rapper — long defined by her technique, now revealing some of the real person behind that prowess. Jhalin Knowles/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Jhalin Knowles/Courtesy of the artist

Review

Mask off: When rappers bust their own myths

Rapsody and Mach-Hommy, two rap technicians long defined by their skill above all, shake off that armor on a pair of striking new albums that demonstrate wildly different kinds of vulnerability.

Monday

How Cindy Lee became the music world's underground success story of 2024

The retro-pop artist Cindy Lee doesn't sit for interviews, use social media and rejects the streaming era's demands on independent artists. Photo by Meaghan Garvey/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption

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Photo by Meaghan Garvey/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR

Review

How Cindy Lee became the music world's underground success story of 2024

One of the best albums of 2024, Diamond Jubilee, isn't on streaming services. The artist who released it, Cindy Lee, has rejected the streaming era's demands to create something entirely their own.

A new album by pianist Inna Faliks features world premiere recordings of works by five composers.

A new album by pianist Inna Faliks features world premiere recordings of works by five composers. Rosalind Wong/Inna Faliks hide caption

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Rosalind Wong/Inna Faliks

Music Interviews

Pianist Inna Faliks traces musical odyssey from Soviet Ukraine via Faustian fantasy

Faliks draws from her Ukrainian-Jewish heritage and Mikhail Bulgakov's anti-censorship novel The Master and Margarita for a new album.

Pianist Inna Faliks traces musical odyssey from Soviet Ukraine via Faustian fantasy

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Thursday

Gunna performs during the event

Gunna performs during the event "A Grammy Salute to 50 Years of Hip-Hop" on Nov. 8, 2023, at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, Calif. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy hide caption

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Review

Gunna can't flaunt his way out of the YSL trial's shadow

The rapper slipped free from the legal mess that swallowed his label and his mentor Young Thug — but on his new album, he's still in the grip of an unending image crisis.

How 'I Saw the TV Glow' made a 'teen angst classic' soundtrack for the ages

'I Saw the TV Glow' dives deep into the pop cultural obsession of two outcast suburban teenagers, with a curated soundtrack that matches their malaise. Photo by A24/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR hide caption

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Photo by A24/Illustration by Jackie Lay/NPR

How 'I Saw the TV Glow' made a 'teen angst classic' soundtrack for the ages

The newly released psychological horror film I Saw the TV Glow possesses a star-studded original soundtrack that stands on its own as a great, angsty album.

Friday

Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov fled his hometown of Kyiv for Berlin in early 2022.

Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov fled his hometown of Kyiv for Berlin in early 2022. Dmitri Matveyev/Naxos hide caption

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Dmitri Matveyev/Naxos

Review

Music Reviews

What's past is present for Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov

The 86-year-old Kyiv native, living in exile in Berlin, has a new album of symphonic works that explores the idea of reminiscence.

What's past is present for Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov

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Thursday

One of opera's greatest hits gets a new and happy ending in Washington

Speranza Scappucci conducts singers on stage and the orchestra in the pit for the Washington National Opera's production of Turandot. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption

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Keren Carrión/NPR

Performing Arts

One of opera's greatest hits gets a new and happy ending in Washington

Giacomo Puccini's final opera Turandot gets a brand new ending premiered in Washington, with music by a composer known for video game tunes and a librettist who produced 'Succession'

One of opera's greatest hits gets a new and happy ending in Washington

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Wednesday

Taking the toll of Drake and Kendrick Lamar's vicious, gripping psychological warfare

Kendrick Lamar performs during the Rolling Loud hip-hop festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2023 and Drake performs during Day 2 of Lollapalooza Chile 2023. Last week, the two rappers' long-running feud exploded in a flurry of diss tracks. Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images hide caption

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Jesse Wensing/ANP/AFP and Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images

Music

Taking the toll of Drake and Kendrick Lamar's vicious, gripping psychological warfare

As the jolt of adrenaline lit by the clash between the two biggest rappers of a generation fades, it's worth holding onto the possibility — however slim — that something new can grow from the chaos.

Tuesday

Mother's Day Special: Celebrating moms and the music they loved
Jackie Lay/NPR

All Songs Considered

Mother's Day Special: Celebrating moms and the music they loved

Get your hanky out. With Mother's Day nearing, listeners share the songs that remind them of their moms and the deeply moving stories behind them.

Mother's Day Special: Celebrating moms and the music they loved

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Friday

Thursday

Rappers took the White House. Now what?

A crowd of White House press looks on as Kanye West and then-President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office on Oct. 11, 2018. Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images hide caption

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Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images

Review

Rappers took the White House. Now what?

A new documentary, Hip-Hop and the White House, considers rap's association with presidential politics — and in so doing, reveals a persistent misunderstanding of how both operate.