From The John Clark Performance Studio

Pianist Valarie Valois joins WDAV in the John Clark Performance Studio to perform selected works, including Danza de la moza donosa by Alberto Ginastera and Forest Murmurs by Franz Liszt. In addition, Dr. Valois will chat with Frank Dominguez about music and her career, which includes local and international performances, music education, and serving as the church musician for St. Michael the Archangel Church in Matthews, NC.

Opera Carolina begins its 2013 – 2014 season with Verdi’s Aida . Two of the performers, baritone Mark Rucker and soprano Othalie Graham, joined us in the WDAV John Clark Performance Studio. Midday host Matt Rogers talked with them about the show, and they sang highlights from Aida .

Join us to hear classical guitarist Adam Levin and violinist William Knuth perform live in the WDAV John Clark Performance Studio. They'll also talk with Matt Rogers about the duo's role in the chamber music world and their appearance at the Music and Museum program at the Bechtler Museum in Charlotte.

Christopher O’Riley, acclaimed pianist and host of NPR's From the Top, stops by the WDAV John Clark Performance Studio for an interview and live performance. We’ll talk to him about some of the top young classical musicians featured in From the Top and will be treated to a performance as well. From The Top is coming to the Batte Center at Wingate University on Saturday, November 23 rd to tape an episode of their award-winning radio program. From the Top , which airs on WDAV each Sunday at 5pm, is the preeminent showcase for America’s best young musicians.

Christopher Gilliam -- director of the Davidson College Chorale, a highly selective, auditioned choir of 24 student singers -- chats with WDAV's Frank Dominguez about the ensemble. You'll also hear recordings from past performances.

Local pianist and WDAV supporter Pamela Howland is stopping by the station to help celebrate WDAV's 35th anniversary. Pamela will play music from her holiday CDs and chat with host Mike McKay.

Members of the Piedmont Baroque Consortium visit the John Clark Performance Studio for a preview of their upcoming premiere of the Gloria in C No 1 by Antonio Lotti. For centuries a lost masterpiece, Lotti's Gloria will be performed in a collaboration between Piedmont Baroque Consortium Director David Tang and British Musicologist Ben Byram-Wigfield.

Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violinist and conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, chats with WDAV host Matt Rogers about the ensemble's 'Diamonds in the Rough' concert on January 23 and 25. Sitkovetsky will also give us a performance of works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky.

Classical flutist Ben Smolen joins Matt Rogers in the WDAV studio to talk about his role in the Master Class of the Symphony Guild of Charlotte. In addition, Ben will stay to perform works from JS Bach, Michael Gandolfi, and Claude Debussy. Sally Moody, president of the Symphony Guild, will also be in the studios to share more about the history and mission of the guild. Smolen is a celebrated classical flutist and recording artist who performs across the globe and was appointed Principal Flutist of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in Orange County, CA, in 2011.

Our good friends The Kontras Quartet stop by to chat with host Matt Rogers and give us a preview of an upcoming concert, their last performance as the Western Piedmont Symphony's Quartet in Residence. The Kontras Quartet will also talk about their next project: Origins , the official Kontras Quartet debut album.

Soprano Margaret Carpenter joins members of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra and Dr. David Tang for a visit to the WDAV studios for a live preview of their upcoming service featuring Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri. The service will take place at Sharon Presbyterian Church under the direction of Dr. Tang, Director of Music. Orchestra members include Barbara Blaker Krumdieck (baroque cello), Anthony Harvey (theorbo), and David Wilson and Peter Lekx (violin).

WDAV invites Charlotte New Music Festival founder Elizabeth Kowalski, pianist Blair McMillan and composer Armando Bayolo to the John Clark Performance Studio for a performance and conversation about the festival.

Matt Rogers chats with Charlotte Symphony cellist Jon Lewis about his performance as part of the CSO Pulse Rush Hour Recital Series. Rush Hour Recitals are hour-long concerts featuring CSO musicians playing their own musical selections--typically pieces that are not among the standard symphonic repertoire. Jon gives us a preview of the late Baroque music he has picked out, and Pulse co-president Beth Rennie shares how the organization is fostering the next generation of CSO concertgoers.

Frank Dominguez welcomes the Copley String Quartet to WDAV’s John Clark Performance Studio. The Copley String Quartet is comprised of members of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, which – at 200 years old – is the oldest performing arts organization in the United States. They are here to talk about their appearance in the Bechtler Music & Museum concert series and to perform several pieces for us.

The Chante Piano Trio returns to WDAV a year after their first-place win in WDAV’s inaugural Young Chamber Musicians Competition. The trio is comprised of Maria Parrini, Stephen Hawkey, and Paul Aguilar. As WDAV prepares to launch the second Young Chamber Musicians Competition, the trio recalls their experiences in the competition and tells us what’s ahead in their musical careers. They also perform pieces by Mozart, Ravel, and Mendelssohn during their visit to the WDAV John Clark Performance Studio.

Prior to their performance in Charlotte, Camerata Vocale Sine Nomine performed live in WDAV’s John Clark Performance Studio on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Patrick Pope, organist and music director at Charlotte's Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter, chatted with Frank Dominguez about this talented group and what drew him to bring them to perform in Charlotte.

Matt Haimovitz joins us in the midst of his Bach Listening Room Tour. On this tour, Haimovitz brings Bach’s cello suites to small, intimate settings throughout the southeast, performing Bach’s Six Suites not in concert halls, but in coffeehouses and music clubs. To conclude the tour, he'll perform all six suites in a single day in Bethesda, Maryland.

BachFest 2015 at St. Alban's Episcopal Church features soprano Margaret Carpenter and mezzo-soprano Tamsin Simmell in a program of arias by J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Instrumentalists will include: Nicholas Haigh, harpsichord & organ, William Simms, theorbo, and Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, baroque cello. Members of the ensemble visit the WDAV performance studio to perform live and chat with Matt Rogers about the upcoming show.

Cellist Amit Peled may have begun his career as a basketball player, but now brings his "larger than life" performances to concert halls around the world. The 6'5 cellist visits the WDAV studio and brings with him the personal concert cello of Pablo Casals, the legendary Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor.  Peled speaks with host Frank Dominguez and previews his upcoming performance for the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art's Music and Museum series.

Jessica Lindsey, assistant professor of clarinet at UNC Charlotte, and pianist Christian Bohnenstengel, an assistant professor at Southern Utah University, give a preview of an upcoming concert highlighting women composers. They will perform Sheila Silver's work Lullaby in its entirety.