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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The charismatic conductor first heard Stravinsky's rambunctious music when he was just 8. Watch him lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela live on Thursday night.
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Violence against women, and a smart storyteller from the Arabian Nights, inspired John Adams' "dramatic symphony," featuring violinist Leila Josefowicz.
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Everything about this Mazurka is dreamy, floating along as if Chopin made up the music on the spot in a great opium cloud. -
Pulitzer-winning music critic Tim Page had been good at pretty much everything, until he had a life-threatening traumatic brain injury. He talks with NPR about piecing together a new life. -
Opera geeks always surge with excitement when a favorite singer releases a new album. Hear a heart-rending sneak preview from Verismo, from the acclaimed Russian soprano. -
The Ukrainian pianist's torrent of notes can sweep one away, like stepping into the current of a fast-flowing river. -
"To be a composer, you have to be a fanatic," said the open-minded artist, who journeyed through styles, countries and decades. -
Henryk Górecki's rather simple arrangement of a folk song from the Kurpie region of northeast Poland holds power beyond its purpose. -
Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras teams up with NPR classical music maven Tom Huizenga to talk about composers from Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil, delighting host Linda Wertheimer.
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When the young composer Tõnu Kõrvits puts a lush, new spin on an old song by one of his compatriots, the long line of singing traditions in Estonia continues unbroken.
