Classical Music Happy Hour

Hi Classical Music Happy Hour listeners! I’m your host, Manny Ax. I’ve heard from so many of you over the course of this season and I’m so proud of this show and the community we are creating. We’re working hard on...

Violinist and social media guru Ray Chen wraps up this season of Classical Music Happy Hour with an in-studio live performance. He chats with Manny about video games, performance anxiety, and his practice app Tonic. In...

Paquito D’Rivera is composer, saxophonist and clarinetist whose work spans classical, jazz and latin music. Born in Havana, Cuba, D’Rivera started his career playing with the National Theater Orchestra at the age of 10...

Pianist Yefim Bronfman, “Fima,” chats with Manny about their decades-long friendship, their love of sports, their surprising anxiety around live broadcast performances. They’ll answer listeners’ questions about...

Comedian Isabel Hagen is a classically trained violist, and a filmmaker. As a comedian, she has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and was a New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs festival in...

The New York Times has called Nicholas Britell: “The composer at the frontier of film music.” Britell has written scores for Hollywood movies including: The Big Short , Moonlight and If Beale Street Could talk...

Actor David Hyde Pierce has had a long career in film, television and the theater. He’s best known to listeners for his portrayal of Niles Crane on the sitcom "Frasier." He joins Manny to talk about his life and love of...

Composer Jeanine Tesori is a two time Tony Award winner, a two time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and in 2024, she became the first woman composer to open the Metropolitan Opera Opera season in its 139 year history...

Live from Tanglewood, cellist Yo-Yo Ma chats with Manny about their long musical relationship and friendship. The two treat the live audience to a few musical performances, and they take questions from the audience...

Columbia University Professor of Linguistics John McWhorter, chats with Manny about swear words, Broadway, and tackles the conundrums of musical etymology. McWhorter also makes the case for the brilliant first movement...

Renowned American composer John Adams joins Manny to discuss his approach to opera composition, the stories behind his intriguingly titled works, and the time he was once mistaken for John Cage. Adams answers listener...

Composer Gabriela Ortiz joins Manny to talk about her grandfather’s surprising connection to Mahler, her own compositional process, and her enduring love for works by Debussy and Stravinsky. Listeners call in with...

Composer and pianist Marc-André Hamelin joins Manny to talk about growing up with a musical father, the mechanics of piano playing, and the influences behind his prolific performing and recording career. He answers...

Superstar pianist Yuja Wang joins Manny Ax to talk about bad pianos, encores, what influences her musical interpretations, and her love for Prokofiev. In our Newly Dead game, Yuja puts her knowledge of composer deaths...

Join renowned pianist Emanuel Ax for Classical Music Happy Hour: a new podcast full of music, merriment, and conversation. Manny (Emanuel) talks with special guests about their lives, listens to some of their favorite...