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WQXR & WNYC Studios

Part mixtape, part sonic love-letter, The Open Ears Project is a podcast in which people share the classical track that means the most to them and why. Created by journalist and former WQXR Creative Director Clemency Burton-Hill, each episode offers a brief and soulful glimpse into human lives, helping us to hear this music — and each other — differently. Guests from the worlds of film, books, dance, comedy and fashion as well as firefighters, taxi drivers, and teachers share cherished musical memories and remind us that extraordinary things happen when we simply stop and listen. 

Transcripts are posted to individual episode pages as they become available.  

The Open Ears Project is produced by WQXR and WNYC Studios.

The Open Ears Project

Actor Alec Baldwin talks about how Aram Khachaturian's Spartacus Adagio revives and energizes him during the busiest days of his life.

Keep listening after the episode to hear the full track.

1. Alec Baldwin on Resetting Your Day

New York City firefighter Rob Vogt talks about how Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries helped him cope in the tragic aftermath of 9/11.

Keep listening after the episode to hear the full track.

2. Rob Vogt on Conquering Fear

Yoga teacher Connie Viglietti tells us how she remembers her beloved Grandma Ginger by singing one of her favorite songs, Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, and contemplates the transporting power that music has to connect us to the people we love the most, even if they are no longer with us.

3. Connie Viglietti on Making Grandma Proud

Guitarist Miloš Karadaglić discusses his deep connection to the longing for home expressed in Francisco Tárrega’s Lágrima.

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4. Miloš Karadaglić on Being Home

Podcaster Aminatou Sow talks about how the cheerful defiance of Florence Price’s Juba Dance helped her through a life-changing moment.

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5. Aminatou Sow on Finding Joy

Novelist Ian McEwan remembers how Bach's Concerto for Two Violins helped him first to navigate selfhood as a teenager, and, later in life, the sorrow of losing his best friend.

6. Ian McEwan on What Cannot Quite Be Said

Opera singer J'Nai Bridges discusses what she learned about forgiveness, memory and legacy from Henry Purcell's heartbreaking Dido's Lament.

16. J'nai Bridges on Forgiveness

Conductor Eric Jacobsen recalls losing his beloved mother at the age of 11 and how her favourite piece, Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 inspired him to become a musician.

Keep listening after the episode to hear the full track.

7. Eric Jacobsen on Vulnerability

Deborah Frances-White is a comedian, writer, and host of “The Guilty Feminist” podcast, where she explores the balancing act between feminist idealism and human imperfection.

In this episode, White reflects on her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness and shares a story about the first time she saw a performance of Mozart’s opera “Così fan tutte.” On the train home from the performance, she shared a serendipitous encounter with a stranger that could have been lifted from an opera plot. To this day, when White listens to “Soave si il vento” — a trio from the opera meaning “may the wind be gentle” — it evokes for her “the longing and the loss for all the loves that might have been.” 

This performance of “Soave sia il vento” comes from the 1997 EMI recording of “Così fan tutte” by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

Deborah Frances-White on Chance Encounters and Mozart

Dexter Filkins is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, former Iraq War correspondent for the New York Times, and author of the bestselling book, “The Forever War.” He’s currently a staff writer for The New Yorker.

In this episode, Filkins recalls how Ravel’s music gave him respite during his “nightmare years” covering the war in Iraq. He explains how Ravel, who served as an ambulance driver during World War I, balances suffering and hope in the second movement of his Piano Concerto in G Major. 

The performance of Ravel’s "Adagio" from his Concerto for Piano in G Major featured on this episode comes from the 1998 Deutsche Grammophon album "Ravel: Piano Concertos; Valses nobles et sentimentales," featuring pianist Krystian Zimerman as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Pierre Boulez.

Dexter Filkins on Tension, Tenderness, and Ravel

Caroline Shaw is a tireless musician, active as a violinist, vocalist, producer, and composer. She’s won multiple Grammy awards and, along with Kendrick Lamar, is one of the youngest recipients of the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Throughout her career, she has continuously experimented across genres, her collaborations spanning from the likes of Nas and Rosalía to So Percussion and Roomful of Teeth. 

 

With all her acclaim today, it is hard to imagine that Shaw was once just a kid at band camp. In this episode of the Open Ears Project, Shaw recalls performing Felix Mendelssohn’s “Octet for Strings” as a teenager at summer camp, an experience which sparked her lifelong love of chamber music. 

 

This recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-Flat Major was performed by the Gringolts Quartet and Meta4 from the 2020 Bis record, “Octets.”

Caroline Shaw on Mendelssohn and Possibility

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