Between the Keys with Jed Distler

For this week's episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler explores new piano releases, plus “newish” releases in the form of rare archival material featuring relatively unknown yet important pianists such as Claudette Sorel and Pietro Scarpini.

However, the lion’s share of tonight’s lineup is given over prominent keyboard practitioners of today, like Kit Armstrong, Fanny Azzuro, Cathy Krier, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Igor Levit, Nathalia Milstein and Jeroen van Veen.

From Russia With Love. Isn’t that a James Bond movie?

Actually, it’s the title of this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, hosted by the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Reisdence Jed Distler.

“I really get inspired putting this program together when I mix and match piano music of many genres and styles,” says Jed Distler, who is The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence and the creator, producer and host of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning weekly program Between the Keys.

Indeed, this week’s episode runs the gamut from Schubert to Rachmaninov, from Louise Farrenc to Luiz Costa, from Roque Cordero to Garreth Farr, and from Mendelssohn to Bill Evans and Clara Schumann.

For this week’s edition of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler explores works by 20th and 21st century composers that are based upon or inspired by the rich, diverse and intensely expressive American blues tradition.

Featured composers include William Grant Still, Misha Mengelberg, Jacob TV, Samuel Barber, Conlon Nancarrow, W.C. Handy , Constant Lambert, Patrick Beckman and Aaron Copland.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler features composer/pianists Eduardo Bruni, Niklas Sivelov  and Michael Brown, along with music of Clementi and Schubert performed by pianist Helene Boschi

Tune in this Tuesday night August 31st at 10 with a rebroadcast Wednesday September 1st at noon on Between the Keys, an exclusive production of The Classical Network and WWFM.org.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler takes listeners on a musical journey that ranged from Frescobaldi and Nielsen to Betsy Jolas, Percy Grainger, Grieg, Massenet, Mussorgsky and Chopin.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents music by Franz Liszt, showcasing the seminal composer’s multi-faceted creativity, from lyric poet and fiery virtuoso to unabashed showman.

A wide range of Lisztian keyboard masters will be featured, including Cecile Ousset, Jerome Rose, Claudio Arrau, France Clidat, Mykola Suk, Judith Jáuregui and the late Natalia Strenchenko, whose short life was tragically and violently foreshortened in 2015.

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler compiles an “ideal” cycle of Rachmaninov’s Preludes Op. 32.

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler shares rare and musically worthy recordings from his extensive collection this week on the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys.

Pianists featured include Muza Rubackyte, Lazare-Levy, Gina Bachauer, José Eduardo Martins, Mihaela Ursuleasa, Benita Meshulam, Vladimir Selivokin, Rudolf Firkusny and Felicja Blumenthal.

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence presents his annual all-Domenico Scarlatti episode on Episode 317 of  the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys this Tuesday night July 27th at 10, with a rebroadcast Wednesday July 28th at noon.

Featured pianists include, in order of appearance: Sergei Babayan, Barbora Krištofová Sejáková, Maria Tipo, Dinu Lipatti, Andrew Tyson, Christoph Ullrich, Olivier Cavé, Christian Zacharias, Alberto Urroz, Alice Ader, Heidi Kommerell and Shiz'ka.

Is there any truth to the old adage “Like Father, Like Son?” Especially when father and son each play the piano professionally, have distinctive careers, and also share certain repertoire preferences?

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence attempts to answer these questions, as he showcases fathers and sons in the same piano repertoire, on Episode 317 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys.  Indeed, in one case, Distler presents three generations of pianists from the same family in the same work. How often does one hear that?

“Whenever I put together a ‘New Old & Unexpected’ episode for Between the Keys, I imagine myself going on a journey without a map, and just my two feet in front of me.  One piece of music suggests another, or perhaps throws me into an unrelated area. Who knows?”

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed DIstler creates musical diptychs, in which he creates improbable yet very plausible pairings of piano pieces.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed DIstler welcomes a special guest, the pianist/educator/curator Min Kwon, who launches her unprecedented large-scale America/Beautiful commissioning project in a series of live streamed and public concerts beginning on July 4th. 

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed DIstler presents sets of variations by Joseph Haydn, Steven Stuckey, Johannes Brahms, Norman Lloyd and Robert Muczynski, with a little taste of Bach’s Goldberg Variations tossed in for good measure.

Pianists include Ernst von Dohnanyi, Gloria Cheng, Edwin Fischer,  Myron Silberstein and Matthew Weissman.

For this week's episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network's Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents three historic chamber music recordings. 

This week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys amounts to what The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler calls his “70 show.”

“Basically we’re celebrating three composers and three keyboard artists whose 70th birthdays occur in 2021,” says DIstler. These all are musicians whose work I admire tremendously, and I’ve managed to put together a  rather stimulating playlist, if I do say so myself!”

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler constructs his program in the form of a mirror.

“The premise is simple,” Distler explains. “The first and last pieces are Schubert songs transcribed for piano.  The second work is by John Cage, as is the second from last work.  Then the third work is by Poulenc, while the third from last selection is also by Poulenc. And so on.”

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler guides listeners off the beaten path.

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents all twelve of Debussy’s Preludes Book II, featuring different pianists.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler pays tribute to celebrated piano teachers who also happened to be fabulous pianists.

Featured artists include such luminaries as Frank Scott, Marguerite Long, Russell Sherman, Dimitri Bashkirov, Alexander Goldenweiser, Rosina Lhevinne, Howard Karp and Vera Gornostaeva .

  On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler explores piano music that is contrapuntal in nature, where independent musical lines converse, interact and sometimes get in each others’ way. Tune in to Between the Keys for works by Mendelssohn, Louis Pelosi, J.S. Bach, Michael Kieran Harvey, Dimitri Shostakovich and Paul Hindemith, this Tuesday night April 27th at 10, with a rebroadcast Wednesday April 28th at noon, exclusively on The Classical Network and WWFM.org  

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents a single, large-scale composition that he feels deserves serious attention: Marga Richter’s Variations and Interludes on Themes from Monteverdi and Bach.

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler offers a stylistically diverse bag of works.

“Sometimes the works I've selected relate to one another easily,” explains Distler, “yet a few items were included simply because I wanted to share some wonderful pieces that I recently discovered.”

This week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys commemorates the 50th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’’s death on April 6th 1971, with a program exploring the composer’s relationship with the pop and jazz worlds. 

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence features the fourteen Chopin Waltzes.