When you listen to All Classical Radio, you hear handcrafted radio programming that is locally produced and community focused. In collaboration with students from Portland State University’s Branded Media Course and the PSU School of Film, All Classical invites you to explore what it means to make radio for humans, by humans, with a brief and powerful behind-the-scenes look at the station’s approach to independent classical music public radio.

“What [All Classical Radio hosts share] of themselves…is what I think helps to create a narrative and a relationship with our listeners” says Director of Music and Programming John Pitman in the video.

Watch below, or on All Classical Radio’s YouTube channel. 

Creators and contributors:

• Audrey Weller: Editor, Producer
• Maddie Kasberger: Producer, Co-Director
• Tomas Penner: Cinematographer, Co-Director
• James Shasteen: Production Assistant, Co-Director
• Michael Stringfield: Adjunct Assistant Professor, Branded Media, PSU School of Film
• John Pitman: Director of Music and Programming, All Classical Radio
• Brandi Parisi: Radio Network Program Director, All Classical Radio

About All Classical Radio’s Arts Mentorship and Education Initiatives

This project with PSU and the PSU School of Film highlights All Classical Radio’s commitment to community collaboration, arts and media education, and supporting the next generation of creatives and leaders. The station’s robust mentorship and education initiatives include the unique Young Artist in Residence and Youth Ambassadors programs, paid internships, arts journalism and productino mentorships, and more. Its International Children’s Arts Network provides access to music and the arts for children, families, and educators 24/7 at icanradio.org.

Thank you to Michael Stringfield, Portland State University Adjunct Assistant Professor, Branded Media, PSU School of Film, and all of the brilliant PSU students involved in bringing this video to life.

Renowned for his interpretations of the music of Russian composer and mystic, Alexander Scriabin, celebrated pianist Yevgeny Sudbin is host John Pitman’s latest guest for this Arts Blog interview.

On Sudbin’s newest album, Ver La Flamme (Toward the Flame), the pianist shares his deep knowledge and appreciation for the music of the early 20th century composer, and his imaginative and thought-provoking piano pieces. The album includes preludes, études, sonatas, and fantasies.

In his conversation with All Classical Radio’s Director of Programming, John Pitman, Sudbin shares some fascinating stories about Alexander Scriabin’s wild ideas about the direction of his music, and his audiences. Listening to these works reminds us why the composer and his music truly feel “outside of time.”

Hear Pitman’s conversation with Sudbin below:

Yevgeny Sudbin’s Ver La Flamme is available May 9, 2025, on BIS Records.

April is National Poetry Month. All Classical Radio host Brandi Parisi recently spoke with Portland-based songwriters, composers, and poets Dao Strom and Alicia Jo Rabins about their new collaborative project/album, Wild Nights.

Hear their interview, including details about the multi-year project, their music choices of folk and Americana, and the poetry of Emily Dickinson below:

Imagine if we could hear, decades after a composer has passed, a note-for-note set of instructions of what how they intended their music to be heard? It’s rarer than you might think. In this Arts Blog, program director John Pitman has a conversation with the grandson of the Austrian born composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Leslie or “Les” Korngold – and John Mauceri, a conductor who has devoted his career to elevating the importance of music by Korngold and other 20th century European composers who were effectively saved by Hollywood studios, who needed the rich traditions for their new art form.

The new recording shares a rediscovered record made by Korngold himself, at the piano, of his Symphony in f-sharp minor, from the 1950s. This is a fascinating story that takes us from pre-war Vienna, to Hollywood California, and ultimately back here to Portland, Oregon, where the Korngold legacy continues.

Hear John Pitman’s conversation with Les Korngold and John Mauceri below:

Photo of the Korngolds and John Mauceri at the Hollywood Bowl – by Donald Dietz in 1993 (Leslie Korngold is seen behind John’s left shoulder):

Front of LP, back of LP, and LP in sleeve photos – courtesy of the Special Collections and Photograph Archive, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

The Korngold Symphony is available now through Supertrain Records.

Alex Prior, the newly appointed Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, speaks with All Classical Radio host Brandi Parisi. In this wide-ranging discussion, they talked about Alex’s phenomenal career (he was Assistant Conductor of the Seattle Symphony at age 17!), universality in music, the importance of outreach and community, his love of the Pacific Northwest, and his interest in geographic elevation facts.

Conductor and Composer Alex Prior (b. 1992) brings over 19 years of international and critically acclaimed experience to his appointment as Music Director-designate of the Eugene Symphony. His tenure with the Eugene Symphony will begin in fall, 2025. Alex has earned a reputation since early childhood for his profound and visionary music making which he has had the opportunity to share with some of the world’s greatest soloists, orchestras, and opera companies.

Alex began his post-secondary studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 13 with a dual major in conducting with Alexander Alexeev and composition with Boris Tishchenko. He made his professional conducting debut at 14, conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and graduated with top honors at the age of 17 – a feat only matched by Sergei Prokofiev. Immediately thereafter he was appointed by the Seattle Symphony as an Assistant Conductor.

He will take the artistic helm at the Eugene Symphony for their 60th anniversary 2025/26 season.

Learn more at eugenesymphony.org