Tim Weed has heard all the banjo jokes -- the constant digs about the banjo in the movie Deliverance or the Beverly Hillbillies TV show. But a funny thing happens when Weed actually plays the ...

The banjo isn’t exactly the first instrument that comes to mind when you think of the classical concert hall, but Virginia native John Bullard has blended his background in bluegrass and Bach to bring ...

Tim Weed is used to the funny looks he gets when he tells people he plays classical music on the five-string banjo. In particular, he remembers the reaction he got from a European media mogul when he ...

A banjo player named for three classical composers, Béla Anton Leos Fleck celebrates both bluegrass and classical sounds with his original music. Fleck will be the featured artist with the Louisiana ...

"I felt, in writing this piece, that there was an openness, or a kind of a renewed freshness, I had working with music materials, because I was working in a new form. It took out all the cobwebs in ...

It seems so appropriate for a man named Bela Anton Leos Fleck to put out a record of classical music. After all, his name pays tribute to composers Bartok, Dvorak and Janacek. But how does a banjo ...

It’s a well-documented fact that Tucson music fans crave new sounds and are willing to keep their ears, as well as their minds, wide open when it comes to inventive musical hybrids. So Tim ...

You scan the playlist — Schumann, Handel, Bach, and friends — and you wonder how this is possible. But no: John Bullard is serious, and although he plays the banjo, he does not view that as an ...

What in the holy name of Earl Scruggs is a banjo doing in the middle of a 36-piece classical orchestra? The quick answer: trying to blend in - and not to blend in - at the same time On Sunday night, ...

When you first hear the music of Harpeth Rising, you’ll detect classical underpinnings, strong Appalachian and Eastern European influences, with some 21 st century elements. The trio calls it ...

Manfred Honeck’s extended slice of Richard Strauss's Elektra was made in collaboration with the Czech composer Tomáš Ille, Honeck’s inspiration being performances he’d played in with Claudio Abbado ...