Tom Huizenga
Tom Huizenga is a producer for NPR Music. He contributes a wide range of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and is the classical music reviewer for All Things Considered. He appears regularly on NPR Music podcasts and founded NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence in 2010.
Joining NPR in 1999, Huizenga produced, wrote and edited NPR's Peabody Award-winning daily classical music show Performance Today and the programs SymphonyCast and World of Opera.
He's produced live radio broadcasts from the Kennedy Center and other venues, including New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge, where he created NPR's first classical music webcast featuring the Emerson String Quartet.
As a video producer, Huizenga has created some of NPR Music's noteworthy music documentaries in New York. He brought mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato to the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, placed tenor Lawrence Brownlee and pianist Jason Moran inside an active crypt at a historic church in Harlem, and invited composer Philip Glass to a Chinatown loft to discuss music with Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange).
He has also written and produced radio specials, such as A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico, broadcast on stations around the country.
Prior to NPR, Huizenga served as music director for NPR member station KRWG, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and taught in the journalism department at New Mexico State University.
Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Huizenga's radio career began at the University of Michigan, where he produced and hosted a broad range of radio programs at Ann Arbor's WCBN-FM. He holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in English literature and ethnomusicology.
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Classical 101In our very first tap dancing Tiny Desk, the artists created an experience so unexpectedly fresh and suffused with joy, it moved some to tears and others to cheer for more. -
The Brooklyn-based composer talks about the artistic powers of her island homeland, writing scores for America's top orchestras and making music with plants. -
Classical 101The young Icelandic pianist, once equated with Glenn Gould, exceeds the comparison in music by Bach that is played with transparent, lyrical joy. -
The thoughtful violinist makes a set of contemplative music, including a piece by Philip Glass, sing sweetly on her $16 million instrument.
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Absent from the recording studio for more than a decade, the restless musician has commissioned six composers for his new album. -
The intrepid champion of new music turns her attention to female composers, offering a sampler of works by women across four centuries, including a favorite of Louis XIV and an Ethiopian nun.
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Classical 101With plenty of humor, the octogenarian talks about her far-reaching career — including why she fled the modernist school of composers — and some mysterious visitations from her dead heroes. -
The intrepid violinist undertakes some of the most challenging solo violin music, marking the centenary of its creation by composer Eugéne Ysaÿe.
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The widely acclaimed pianist serves up nearly 200-year-old music by Chopin mixed with a contemporary work that looks back in time.
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Classical 101The band's sophomore album, Earthdrawn Skies, connects the dots in wildly diverse music spanning eight centuries.
