America 250

Rich, diverse voices throughout history, telling unique stories. Tonight on America 250: The American Experience, hear women composers whose music brings new perspective to what American music can be...from Valerie Coleman to Joan Tower, Margaret Bonds to Barbara Harbach.That's tonight from 8 - 10 pm on 91.1, 107.5, and our music stream.

In a conversation with pianist Lara Downes, the New Yorker staff writer says music in America will keep evolving as long as the country keeps an open door to new people and new sounds.

This week on America 250: The American Experience, we journey alongside trailblazing women. You’ll hear the legendary voice of Marian Anderson, who defied racial prejudice with her historic 1939 performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. And music by Ruth Crawford Seeger, an avant-garde classical composer who later helped preserve American folk music at the Library of Congress.Hear these two pioneers tonight from 8-10pm on 91.1, 107.5, and our music stream.

Women conductors are still in the minority. On America 250: The American Experience, we hear women taking the lead — from trailblazer Antonia Brico, the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic in 1938, to contemporary icon Marin Alsop.We’ll also hear Mei-Ann Chen, a champion of new and diverse voices… and the late Jeanne Lamon, who helped bring early music to modern audiences.The Friday night encore of The American Experience, tonight from 8 to 10 on 91.1, 107.5, and our music stream.

The classic spiritual conjures themes of freedom and resilience, which flow through a conversation between pianist Lara Downes and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

Beginning in the late 1700s, enslaved Africans gathered on Sundays at Congo Square in New Orleans. It became one of the most important cultural sites in American music history, a place where dancing, drumming, and African musical traditions lived on.American composer Henry Gilbert drew on that powerful legacy in The Dance in Place Congo. Hear it tonight on 91.1, 107.5, and our music stream.

With a song from 1759 as a mile marker, pianist Lara Downes and historian Jill Lepore examine what this land was like just before it became the United States.