Classical Music

All day, all night

Classical 88.7 features a stellar collection of music from throughout the ages, presented by hosts with backgrounds deeply rooted in the music of the masters. Program hosts include Pat Alexander, Julie Amacher, Steve Blatt, Bob Christiansen, Dan Drayer, jeff Esworthy, Valerie Kahler, Gillian Martin, Mindy Ratner, David Rutherford, Charlie Samson, Monika Vischer, Stephanie Wendt, and John Zech.

Performance Today

Weekdays & Saturday, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. (program schedule)

"Classical music is a living, breathing art form with meaning and resonance for our lives today — something always changing and evolving and astounding and, at its best, revolutionary," says Performance Today host Fred Child. This award-winning radio program features the finest live contemporary performances from around the nation and makes the concert hall experience immediate and accessible for well over one million Americans.

Exploring Music

Weekdays, 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. (program schedule)

Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin will enlighten, educate and entertain you, enriching your listening experience. Peabody Award winning host, Bill McGlaughlin with his in-depth knowledge of and deep passion for classical music along with his enthusiasm, imagination and spontaneity, guides you through a new musical theme each week, devoting five days to a single topic. Bill has been everything in music, from educator, performer, conductor, and music director, to broadcast host and his most challenging career of all, that of composer.

San Francisco Opera

Saturday, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m. (program schedule)

Performed in the War Memorial Opera House, their home since October 1932, the San Francisco Opera presents eight operas from their past season hosted by Elaine Warner, and directed by David Gockley.

Now the second largest opera company in North America, the San Francisco Opera was founded by Gaetano Merola and incorporated in 1923. The company’s first performance (La Boheme) took place on September 26th, 1923 in the city’s Civic Auditorium, with Queena Mario and Giovanni Martinelli, and conducted by Gaetano Merola himself. Nine years later, the company moved into its new home, inaugurating the newly built War Memorial Opera House with a performance of Tosca on October 15, 1932 with Claudia Muzio, Dino Borgioli, Alfredo Gandolfi, and conducted by Merola.

The San Francisco Opera is one of four national opera companies heard during the spring and summer months on Classical 88.7. During Fall and Winter, The Metropolitan Opera season is presented, rounding out KWTU's commitment to bring you the finest in opera 52 weeks a year.

SymphonyCast

Saturday, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. (program schedule)

Each week SymphonyCast presents a full-length concert by a national or international symphony orchestra. Concerts are drawn from Europe’s leading ensembles, along with U.S. orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. SymphonyCast is currently heard on more than 90 public radio stations across the county each week. Host Brian Newhouse won a Peabody Award in May 2000 for writing "The Mississippi: River of Song," a seven-part music documentary distributed by Public Radio International.

New York Philharmonic

Sunday, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. (program schedule)

This concert broadcast represents virtually the Orchestra's entire 2007-08 season. The New York Philharmonic is by far the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. Founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians led by American-born Ureli Corelli Hill, the Orchestra currently plays some 180 concerts a year. On December 18, 2004, the Philharmonic gave its 14,000th concert - a milestone unmatched by any other orchestra in the world.

American conductor Lorin Maazel began his tenure as Music Director at the beginning of the 2002-03 season, 60 years after making his debut with the orchestra at the age of 12 at Lewisohn Stadium in New York, then the orchestra's summer venue. A second-generation American, born in 1930 in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He has conducted throughout Europe, Australia, North and South America, Japan, the former Soviet Union, and at most international festivals and opera houses, and has appeared with all the major symphony orchestras. His numerous recordings include complete symphonic cycles of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky, as well as extensive operatic repertoire. He was the first American to appear at Bayreuth (in 1960), and was inducted into the American Classic Music Hall of Fame in 2002.

From The Top

Sunday, 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. (program schedule)

From the Top, with host Christopher O'Riley, is a weekly radio series that showcases the nation's most outstanding young classical musicians. Each one-hour program presents pre-collegiate musicians whose stunning individual performances are combined with lively interviews, unique pre-produced segments, lighthearted sketches and musical games. (program website)

Wind & Rhythm

Sunday, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. (program website)

Playing ‘in-the-band’ is often the highest achievement in a musician’s experience. Sure, many leave the Wind Ensembles and Symphonic Bands for other musical expressions. But for many, band was the first experience of learning to play together... nicely. Wind and Rhythm is a weekly broadcast of pure band music, produced in Tulsa with host Doug Brown. The program features selections from Concert Bands and Wind Ensembles to Brass Bands and Percussion Ensembles.

San Francisco Symphony

Sunday, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. (symphony website)

Since its beginning in 1911, the San Francisco Symphony has been known for innovative programs that offer a spectrum of traditional repertory and new music. Today, the Orchestra's artistic vitality, recordings, and groundbreaking multimedia educational projects, carry its impact throughout American musical life.

"At a time when America's major orchestras are struggling to define their missions and maintain audiences, the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas is an exception." - The New York Times

The San Francisco Symphony has grown in stature and acclaim under such distinguished music directors as Henry Hadley, Alfred Hertz, the legendary Pierre Monteux, Josef Krips, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart and Herbert Blomstedt, who continues as Conductor. Current Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas assumed the post in 1995. Together, he and the San Francisco Symphony have formed a musical partnership hailed as "one of the most inspiring and adventurous in the country." Maestro Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra have also been praised by the critics for their musicianship, for their innovative programming, for bringing the works of American composers to the fore, and for bringing new audiences into Davies Symphony Hall.