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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A new project conceived by Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman recasts baroque music that by turns demonizes and exoticizes Arabs and Muslims. -
Composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels have brought a true story to the opera stage: the life of Omar Ibn Said, a Senegalese Muslim scholar who was enslaved and brought to the Carolinas.
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"Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" opened recently in New York City. It features 200 never-before-seen and rare paintings, drawings and artifacts from Basquiat, who died in 1988 at age 27.
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This "ethno-chaos" group brings sophisticated music and strong anti-Putin messages to their listeners at home and abroad, as "ambassadors of free Ukraine." They're currently on a U.S. tour.
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Early rock recording executive Art Rupe has died at 104. He founded Specialty Records, which launched the careers of Little Richard and Sam Cooke, and helped make R&B popular with white audiences.
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The Ukrainian springtime tradition of intricately decorating eggs has taken on new urgency during the war with Russia. Now, people are using this art to fundraise and bring awareness for Ukraine.
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Many WNBA players head overseas to play during the off-season, where they can be paid much more than they earn in the U.S. Griner, who was arrested for allegedly transporting drugs, is one of them.
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While Russian artists and institutions grapple with how they are viewed internationally, American cultural organizations make what amounts to foreign policy decisions.
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Invited to write a new work for Houston's Rothko Chapel, the composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey created a work that is both intimate and vast, like those Mark Rothko paintings.
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A New York City opera company created an updated version of Fidelio for the Black Lives Matter era. The performance features singers who are incarcerated in real life.
