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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The sale of the most expensive musical instrument in history could be announced Wednesday. And it's a viola. (Will the viola jokes stop now?)
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Swaying triple time has besotted dancers and musicians alike around the globe. But the quintessential high-society dance has surprisingly indecent roots.
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A week after announcing publicly that he had cancer, the widely beloved Spanish conductor has died at age 80.
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Two weeks after the initial furor regarding mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught's first performance at the Glyndebourne Festival in the U.K., we're still examining how women are valued onstage.
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A star mezzo shares forthright and inspiring thoughts about making a life as an artist. "You will never make it," she says. "'It' doesn't exist for an artist."
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The composer and singer-songwriter's new album is a set of 10 vignettes about buildings in L.A. Throughout The Ambassador, Kahane speaks many musical languages fluently and beautifully.
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Over the weekend, five London-based critics reviewed a new opera production — and each attacked the weight of one of the female soloists. Do they treat male vocalists the same way?
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Soprano Sharleen Joynt made a huge splash on The Bachelor. The new edition of The Bachelorette, which starts Monday night, stars an aspiring tenor. But is reality TV too popular for opera?
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Because why shouldn't Julia Wolfe and David Lang be bringing the Bang on a Can All-Stars to Arthur? Watch this short and totally charming clip.
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A little song that went missing 140 years ago has just been rediscovered. Hear a performance of this charming 29-bar song from the BBC.