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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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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With more than 80 world premieres to her credit, Barbara Hannigan, an intrepid soprano and conductor, has a knack for making modern music sound effortless and approachable.
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After decades of performing, the celebrated soprano's enthusiasm for music is irresistible. She chooses some of her favorite recordings for an informal session of listening and conversation.
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On Oct. 19, 1814, an Austrian teenager named Franz Schubert wrote "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel," a boldly innovative song that remains an inspiration for singers and songwriters.
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One hundred years after the start of World War I, hear a range of pop and classical music from artists of the era. Some music reflects the war's violence, some gives solace.
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The Estonian composer's contemplative yet powerful music has found popularity beyond the borders of classical music. He's making a rare appearance in the U.S. to attend a festival of his music.
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On the 300th anniversary of his birth, hear how music by Johann Sebastian's son Carl Philipp Emanuel bridged the gap between the old-fashioned Baroque and newfangled music by Haydn and Mozart.
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Hear the gorgeous voice of a young opera singer with his ears tuned to the great tenors of the past.
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Inspired by the emotionally charged and virtuosic music of the Baroque era, the adventurous mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli's new CD is devoted to the dazzling music associated with the age of the castrati.
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April 14 marks the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. In honor of the occasion, two preeminent Handel musicians explain why the music remains as popular as ever with both performers and audiences.