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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The pioneering Japanese-American conductor who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra for nearly decades died Tuesday. -
Saariaho, who battled a male-dominated educational system in her native Finland, forged a strong and singular voice in contemporary music. -
Classical music fans are mourning the loss of the celebrated mezzo-soprano, known for her versatility and the warmth of her voice. She died at her home in Austria on April 24 at age 93. -
The gifted conductor who had wielded immense influence in the classical music world, was publicly accused by nine men of sexual abuse. He died March 9 at age 77 of natural causes. -
Plagues and epidemics are ages-old phenomena. They've triggered both fear and inspiration. NPR's Tom Huizenga surveys musical responses from composers over the centuries. -
Known early on for his avant-garde works, the composer's challenging music nevertheless found fans far beyond traditional classical music circles. -
Sometimes it takes an outsider to see a culture clearly. Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's Ninth Symphony was an ode to what American music could become. -
Watch the 19-time Grammy winner return to his lifelong passion for J.S. Bach, playing music from the Cello Suites and offering advice on the art of incremental learning.
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NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with NPR Music Senior Editor Jacob Ganz and NPR's classical music producer, Tom Huizenga, about the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in music, the newest inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and rapper Kanye West going platinum for his latest album.
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Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras teams up with NPR classical music maven Tom Huizenga to talk about composers from Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil, delighting host Linda Wertheimer.
