NPR Classical Stories

Philip Glass' newest symphony, an homage to Abraham Lincoln, was supposed to premiere at the Kennedy Center — until it didn't. And then, the Boston Symphony Orchestra stepped in.

Last year, Trump dismissed Biden-appointed Kennedy Center board members and replaced them with loyalists. A new filing by the Center's lawyers reveals how its board of trustees makes decisions.

Comedian Bill Maher received The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday night at the troubled Kennedy Center, where a tarp continues to cover the forced removal of President Trump's name.

Pianist Lara Downes and Pulitzer-winning author Salamishah Tillet discuss Nina Simone and one of her best-known songs at her lovingly restored birthplace in Tryon, N.C.

Smith's new show is about her great-great-grandfather, a free Black man who reburied the Union dead at Gettysburg and prepared the ground for Lincoln's most famous speech.

A federal judge has ordered the Kennedy Center to update him on programming and operational plans. But with most of the staff gone and many artists booked elsewhere, what shows would they present?

Pierce says he's motivated by the "ticking clock of mortality" — and the desire to challenge himself as an actor. He's currently starring in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Othello.

At Free Shakespeare in the Park in New York, real weddings are happening every night after a production of Romeo and Juliet. But don't those characters die?

Summer is the perfect time to go back to great books that whizzed by in spring, including The Family Man, by James Lasdun, The Hill, by Harriet Clark and A Beautiful Loan, by Mary Costello

Workers finished removing President Trump's name from the facade of the Kennedy Center early Saturday, hours after a court-ordered Friday deadline to remove references to Trump from the building.

The French pianists celebrate more than a half century of recording together with a triple-disc set containing many brand new tracks.

Fifteen years after The Book of Mormon made its Broadway debut, original cast members Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad once again took the stage as Mormon missionaries — this time at the 2026 Tony Awards.