Anastasia Tsioulcas
Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.
On happier days, Tsioulcas has celebrated the life of the late Aretha Franklin, traveled to Havana to profile musicians and dancers, revealed the hidden artistry of an Indian virtuoso who spent 60 years in her apartment and brought listeners into the creative process of composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley.
Tsioulcas was formerly a reporter and producer for NPR Music, where she covered breaking news in the music industry as well as a wide range of musical genres and artists. She has also produced episodes for NPR Music's much-lauded Tiny Desk concert series, and has hosted live concerts from venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge. She also commissioned and produced several world premieres on behalf of NPR Music, including a live event that brought together 350 musicians to debut a new work together. As a video producer, she created high-profile video shorts for NPR Music, including performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a Brooklyn theatrical props warehouse and pianist Yuja Wang in an icy-cold Steinway & Sons piano factory.
Tsioulcas has also reported from north and west Africa, south Asia, and across Europe for NPR and other outlets. Prior to joining NPR in 2011, she was widely published as a writer and critic on both classical and world music, and was the North America editor for Gramophone Magazine and the classical music columnist for Billboard.
Born in Boston and based in New York, Tsioulcas is a lapsed classical violinist and violist (shoutout to all the overlooked violists!). She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with a B.A. in comparative religion.
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Apple recently launched a standalone streaming service for classical music exploration, including guided playlists, exclusive content and detailed metadata. Does Apple Music Classical deliver? -
Hip-hop musician Pras Michel of Fugees faces criminal trial in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to violate election law and influence American policymakers on behalf of China.
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Since 2020, the Mellon Foundation has given over $40 million to arts and humanities projects addressing mass incarceration. In all, it says, it will donate $125 million to such efforts.
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Multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes has explored mass incarceration for the last eight years. With this sizeable grant, he hopes to sustain "The Healing Project" for decades to come.
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From NPR's Books We Love, four staff members recommend new cookbooks: "Persiana Everyday," "Masa," "Koshersoul," and "The Woks of Life."
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Baltimore prosecutors dropped all charges against Adnan Syed who spent 22 years in jail for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. His case was featured in the hit podcast Serial.
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Syed was 18 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. Lee was murdered in 1999 when she was also 18.
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Emily Meggett spent decades caring for her community with her delicious, traditional Gullah Geechee food from South Carolina. She shared her recipes in her first cookbook, published when she was 89.
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Composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels have brought a true story to the opera stage: the life of Omar Ibn Said, a Senegalese Muslim scholar who was enslaved and brought to the Carolinas.
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"Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" opened recently in New York City. It features 200 never-before-seen and rare paintings, drawings and artifacts from Basquiat, who died in 1988 at age 27.
