Music

Got an idea for a classical cartoon, or a reaction to this one? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Pablo Helguera is a New York-based artist working with sculpture, drawing, photography and performance. You can see more of his work at Artworld Salon and on his own site.

Brooklyn, N.Y., is the current home of John Ellis — raised in North Carolina and once a student in New Orleans — and Darcy James Argue, from Canada and once a student in Boston. They're both on the main stage at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival.

There's something about Johann Sebastian Bach's music that nourishes musicians. Pianist Andras Schiff and cellist Yo-Yo Ma have said that they play Bach almost every day — like having breakfast, it seems essential for them.

Chihiro Yamanaka is big in Japan — of course, it helps that the pianist was born and grew up there. Now, she's based in New York City and making strides in the stateside jazz world. Her 2012 album Reminiscence features two trios: one is her working band, while the other features special guests Larry Grenadier (bass) and session artist Bernard "Pretty" Purdie (drums). An imaginative virtuoso on the piano bench, she's enjoyed a recent itinerary which has seen her play in many of the East Coast's most prominent jazz clubs and concert halls.

Everywhere you look right now, it seems like American symphony orchestras are fighting for their lives — strikes, lockouts, bankruptcy. Perhaps the biggest example is the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, which is just coming out of its own bankruptcy. Tonight, its new 37-year-old music director takes the podium as the venerable orchestra begins a reboot.

Ahmed Janka Nabay was one of the first musicians to take 500-year-old bubu music outside of his homeland of Sierra Leone, where he'd been a rock star. Nabay was forced to flee the country in the midst of that country's civil war, and eventually wound up in Philadelphia in 2003. Nine years later, Nabay's band has released its first album, En Yay Sah, which blends bubu and electronic dance music.

Singer, songwriter and author Josh Ritter had just reissued his second album, The Golden Age of Radio, when he appeared on Mountain Stage in April 2003.

A lot can happen in six years. For Milwaukee-bred trumpeter Philip Dizack, it marked the passage of an era worth documenting in his own artistic chronology.

"End of an Era represents a moment when what you had is gone," he says about his new album during this session from WBGO's The Checkout. "For me, it's specific things like family relationships that ended. Both of my grandparents passed away. All those things were very personal, but I saw that everyone goes through something. And it's all the same."

The Budapest String Quartet has always been my standard-bearer for chamber music. I grew up listening to their recordings, and especially admired not only their gorgeous sound, but also the uncanny interaction among all four players, even when there were changes in personnel. They had a way of playing as if they were speaking to each other, expressing deep and sometimes complicated feelings.

Rosanne Cash started out working with her father, the late Johnny Cash, then released her own self-titled debut in 1978. She's since made 11 more records and topped various Billboard charts with 11 singles. Refusing to be held by genre limitations, Cash is known variously as a rock, pop, folk and country performer.