Classical Music on KPR

Weekdays from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Enter to win classical music giveaways »About the Host: Cordelia BrownCordelia and music are long-entwined. Her dad was a jazz fanatic and her mom was especially keen on 20th century opera. Cordelia chose violin and piano as the first things she could do well that also interested her, after reading or being outside.Aside from music teaching, directing and accompanying at Bishop Seabury Academy, Kansas City Kansas Community College, Eudora High School and various Johnson County music stores, Cordelia has always been in radio. She started programming and announcing classical music at age 18 when Radio Kansas in Hutchinson first went on the air in 1979.She hosted KANU’s Music by Candlelight in the early 1980s before she left for classical KXTR-FM in Kansas City and later WITF TV/FM in Harrisburg, Penn. She returned to KANU in 1991 and has been here for most of that time since.“Every good piece of classical music tells a story. I hope I can help KPR listeners find those stories or meanings within the pieces, which can vary so much depending on the person, the hearing or the performance. And above all, classical music is for everybody, regardless of how much you know or how good your stereo is. It’s just like books or movies or artwork; you just like what you like, and there’s always so much more you can discover.”

Weekdays from 12 - 3 p.m.Enter to win classical music giveaways »About the Host: Jeff Watson Jeff began in public radio announcing in Garden City at KANZ-KZNA as the Sunday host of All Things Considered and other shows.Jeff came to KU in 1997. He earned a degree in film studies and a minor in English and is working on a political science degree. Hired by KPR in 2001 as a part-time announcer for ATC and classical music, Jeff took over evening classical music in fall 2004.An enthusiast of film soundtracks, particularly American films of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Jeff enjoys his colleagues and meeting listeners. "It was a thrill for me to meet George Harter. I really enjoy A Night on the Town. It is also an enduring pleasure for me to go out in Lawrence and meet strangers who tell me that they recognize my voice from the radio."Currently at work on a 520-page epic poem entitled "Anthony Perkins: Unsung" to be completed just as soon as he can find the right word to rhyme with Hitchcock, Jeff is a real team player.

Weekdays from 7 - 9 p.m. Enter to win classical music giveaways »About the Host: Destiny Ann MermagenKansas City violinist Destiny Ann Mermagen, also known as the Classical Cowgirl, joined the KPR staff as host of Evening Classical in November of 2022.As the winner of international competitions and performance awards, Destiny has appeared as violin soloist and chamber musician in many prestigious venues across the United States, in Russia, Prague, and elsewhere in Europe. Regional performance concert halls include Kennedy Center stages, Strathmore Hall, and New York City's Carnegie Hall. Throughout the last two decades, Destiny has been involved in various musical and educational productions around the world, including those with the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and many more.In 2015, Destiny received the Live Positive award given for acts of kindness. She donated the $10,000 cash prize to Washington, D.C.'s Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where she volunteered her time giving musical performances. As a current resident of Prairie Village, Kansas, Destiny now volunteers at the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Missouri.

Classics Live brings you exclusive performances from throughout the KPR listening area. Our microphones travel to the Sunflower Music Festival, the Lied Center, the Ruel Joyce Recital series, the Great Spaces Music and Arts series, as well as performances recorded in Kansas Public Radio's live studio. Performers include the Emerson String Quartet, the Zoco Duo, Ensemble Iberica, and members of the Kansas City Symphony, among others. The series producer is KPR's Cordelia Brown, with recording engineer Chuck Smith. Darrell Brogdon hosts the program. Thursdays at 7 p.m. December 11 2025 Classics Live 238: Vince Gnojek, Classical Sax. This Doreen Maronde Recital from JCCC features recently retired KU Saxophone Professor Vince Gnojek at his best. News music for sax(es) and piano, assisted by KU’s Director of Collaborative Piano, Ellen Sommer.December 18 2025 Classics Live Present KU Vespers 2025. Not quite the whole incredible Holiday Vespers KU Music Students’ season’s extravaganza, but Darrell Brogdon brings you an hour’s worth of music celebration from The KU School of Music’s choirs, soloists, orchestras, and bands.December 25 2025 Classics Live Christmas 2025. Have Classics Live and KPR on Christmas Day at 7pm so you’ll never forget the reason for the season. After Cordelia and Chuck put this together they were both in a holiday glow for days. One glorious song after another from the Lawrence Civic Choir’s 2024 show at FUMC in downtown Lawrence, which is home to the biggest pipe organ in the state of Kansas! This one’s a keeper. Steve Eubank and the LCC really outdid themselves with this one.January 1 2026 Classics Live 239: Sunflower Music Festival 2025 II: Start the new year off right with a sweet summer evening of chamber music played by members of the 2025 Sunflower Music Festival. Including the complete Samuel Barber quartet which features that profound slow movement known as the Adagio for Strings. They begin with Debussy’s gossamer Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp.January 8 2026 Classics Live 240: The Savages are Back! Karen and Jeffrey Savage both shine in their 88 SQUARED Piano Duo. Face to face onstage in JCCC’s Polsky Theater, the two 9-foot grand pianos were arranged in the ying/yang shape for an hour of piano duets and solos, including a really fresh arrangement of not only Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, but a “Wizard of Oz Fantasy” that has every little tune you’ll recognize from the film, like Schumann’s “The Happy Farmer” and themes for the flying monkeys.January 15 2026: Classics Live 241 Sunflower Music Festival 2025 III: The most charming night of SMF 2025 was “Harp Night.” Festival favorite, harpist Rita Costanzi stars with other ensemble players for harp and viola dances, harp arrangements of tunes by Donizetti, St Saens and Liszt, finishing up with the stunning Ravel Introduction and Allegro.January 22 2026 Classics Live 242: The Romm Trio. Maybe you haven’t heard the combination of French Horn, trumpet and piano. The Romm Trio starts off with a Jubilation based on a Bach Prelude. There are contemporary pieces like the FanTANGO by Kevin McKee as well as some other rarely-heard pieces written for this unusual combo.January 29 2026 Classics Live 243: Sunflower Music Festival 2025 IV. Honor Kansas Day by reliving this prairie night of chamber music in Topeka featuring quintets by Prokofiev and Onslow.February 5 2026 Classics Live 244: Trio Lawrence This local ensemble of flute, viola and harp debuted on KPR’s 2019 Live Day. They’ve just released a new album called Fujin’s Dream, named after a Japanese god of wind. KU music teachers Daniel Velasco, Boris Vayner and Erin Wood bring you ‘Til Human Voices Wake Us by Donald Davis, and Ingrid Stolzel’s The Voice of the Rain and other pieces.February 12 2026 Classics Live 245: Sunflower Music Festival 2025 V This summer Sunflower was able to get one of the world’s best conductors to come spend a couple of weeks in Topeka Kansas! Maestro JoAnn Falletta was a real favorite with musicians and the audience as she took them through Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.February 19 2026 Classics Live 246: Dr Lucy Tan, Pianist Lucy Tan, the beloved piano teacher from Washburn University’s music department, gave a great solo recital in the Midwest Trust Center for the Performing Arts recently. Look forward to a late Beethoven piano sonata, and a very colorful and full of characters suite of sketches by Robert Schumann called Kreisleriana.February 26 2026 Classics Live 247: Sunflower Music Festival 2025 VI: Another summer evening of chamber music played by professional soloists who come to Topeka from all over the world. Valerie Coleman’s Gypsy flair called Tzigane for Woodwind Quintet. Plus a Tango Ballet for String Quartet by Astor Piazzolla.March 5 2026 Classics Live 248: The Goldenberg Duo Now in their 46th year of bringing storytelling between their classical pieces for violin and piano, this brother-sister duo of Susan Goldenberg and William Goldenberg always bring extra special meaning to their pieces. Debussy, Frank Bridge, Amy Beach and more.March 12 2026 Classics Live 249: Sunflower Music Festival 2025 The festival finale! JoAnn Falletta returns to take the chamber orchestra through Mozart’s sunny 29th Symphony, a Haydn concerto featuring oboe, bassoon, violin and cello solos, the St Paul’s Suite, and a very moving, very flowing piece by Max Bruch which honors the Jewish reckoning of Yom Kippur in a piece called Kol Nidrei.March 19 2025 Classics Live 250 A Baroque Celebration: The Genius of Georg Philip Telemann A perfect conclusion to this round of new Classics Live shows, our weekly celebration of the best in live local classical music concerts so we can record them and share them with a wider audience. This one’s a Telemann party with soprano Eva Peng, harpsichordist Anthony Olsen and friends for cantata music, a trio sonata, two solo keyboard pieces and more.

Classical recordings from the KPR Live Performance Studio. Production credit: sound engineers Chuck Smith and Jason Slote.