Lara Classical Americana 1-11

Classical Americana

Lara Downes Americana

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 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. Tune in each Saturday 6PM-7PM.

Listen to the latest episode on demand:

Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 9

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, Hope

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: music that keeps our hopes high. Inspiring works by Duke Ellington, Florence Price, Jennifer Higdon, and others.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 8

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, Love

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: it’s all about LOVE—from the bonds of family to the sparks of romance, heartfelt music by Eubie Blake, Jake Heggie, and others.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 7

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, Joy

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: you're invited to pursue happiness with a musical celebration of joy and jubilation.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 6

LIBERTY, Free to Be You and Me

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: music that lets us define, redefine and transform ourselves, from William Dawson, Christopher Tin, Lou Harrison, and more.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 5

LIBERTY, America To Me Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: we examine the freedoms of thought and speech, and their powerful reflections in American music.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 4

LIBERTY, I Believe In Liberty

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: music inspired by the pursuit of liberty from Margaret Bonds, Duke Ellington, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and more.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 3

LIFE: Youth, Day, Old Age and Night

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week, we journey along life's winding paths, listening to its ups and downs with music by Leonard Bernstein, Philip Lasser, and George Walker.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 2

LIFE, The Promise of Living

Classical Americana explores how music reflects “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This week: growing pains. The struggles of our youth are an inescapable part of Life. But music has the magical ability to turn all the angst and anguish into something beautiful. Come of age, musically speaking, with help from composers like Jake Heggie, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber and Oscar Levant.

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Classical Americana: Season 2 - Episode 1

LIFE, Scenes from Childhood

This season on Classical Americana, as the Declaration of Independence nears 250 years old, we’re exploring how music reflects those most American of values: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This week, host Lara Downes starts at the very beginning with an hour of music that captures the spirit of childhood, from a lullaby by Florence Price to Chick Correa’s Children’s Songs, and more.

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