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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Watch the celebrated opera star deconstruct old Italian love songs with her signature flair, backed by a crack jazz ensemble. -
The pontiff, who possessed a sizable record collection, was a keen listener. Hear his favorite tracks — from Bach to Piazzolla — and a few more that might have caught his discerning ear. -
The classical guitarist offers a mesmerizing East meets West collision, teaming up with a family of Indian musicians who play the sarod, a darker-toned cousin of the sitar. -
The famed Frenchman brings all his elegance and colorful playing to music by Ravel, Brahms and Villa-Lobos. -
The rising star of the British Kanneh-Mason family offers vigorous Chopin, serene Liszt and a stirring spiritual at the trusty Tiny Desk upright piano. -
The youngest ever winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition makes our trusty upright piano sound like a 9-foot grand in music by Liszt and Tchaikovsky. -
The countertenor’s sparkling personality shines brightly in a wide ranging set that includes jazz, classical and spirituals. -
The Norwegian soprano, with plenty of horsepower, unleashes a high C, and much subtle singing, in a thrilling set. -
One of the most performed living composers unpacks the power of melody in her music, her unconventional path to success and how visual art guides her process. -
Two adventurous musicians trace the history of their fruitful collaboration in a set of pieces both ferocious and beautiful.
