We're still waiting for spring to really get here on Now is the Time, Sunday, April 7th at 10 pm. Carlos Carrillo's plummy Como si fuera la primavera (As if this were spring) features clarinet, and Emma Lou Diemer's Before Spring, the violin.

Jason Barabba's Conjecture spins clarinet with orchestra, and eighth blackbird performs Thomas Albert's Thirteen Ways, his consideration of the Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," which inspired their name. And what about that eighth way? "I know noble accents / And lucid, inescapable rhythms; / But I know, too, / That the blackbird is involved / In what I know." Maybe they know when spring will arrive.

On Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection, April 6th at 5 pm...

“Edvard Grieg,” they were saying in Germany and in Denmark. It was the name of that young pianist/composer from Norway they were noticing, for he was starting to become somebody. But then something odd happened. He discovered Norway.

Wagner's Ring Cycle is back on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. In the epic's first installment, the theft of the Rhinegold and Alberich's curse set in motion the tragic events that will lead to the downfall of the gods. Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads an extraordinary cast that includes Stephanie Blythe, Stefan Margita, and Mark Delavan as Wotan. Saturday, April 6, 1 to 3:30 pm.

The Opera: In Focus

Guest conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi conducts The Philadelphia Orchestra this Sunday, April 7th from 2 to 4 pm in a program featuring Witold Lutoslawski's Funeral Music - one of the most accessible works by the 20th-century Polish composer. It will be followed by a performance of Mozart's darkly sublime Piano Concerto No. 20 with pianist Rudolph Buchbinder, who speaks with WRTI's Jim Cotter during intermission. 

WRTI continues a long-standing relationship with the Berks Jazz Fest, which runs from April 5th through the 14th in Reading, PA. Jeff Duperon will broadcast live from the Berks on BOTH Friday and Saturday nights of the Festival, and Bob Perkins will bring you some "GM" in the AM from Reading on Sunday, April 7th.

Join WRTI through the month of April as we celebrate the art form that is our lifestyle...Jazz! During each jazz shift, WRTI hosts will feature music by an artist who has shaped jazz into the multi-faceted genre that it is today.  You'll hear the great vocalists, bandleaders, instrumentalists and composers, as well as the stories behind their jazz innovation.

You can expect to hear these featured artists at 7 pm, 10 pm, 1 am and 5 am each day. Also, keep an ear out for special jazz interviews and tidbits sprinkled throughout our regular programming.

WRTI's Jazz Hot 11 is a weekly countdown of your favorite new jazz releases in rotation.
This week's Hot 11:

WRTI will broadcast a Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Mozart and Beethoven this Sunday, highlighting some musical connections between these two masters.  As WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports, on the podium will be Christoph von Dohnanyi who has a longtime connection with the Philadelphians.