On Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7 pm in The Greene Space, Q2 Music presents a live concert and videocast with a star-studded lineup of composer-performers from this season's hotly-anticipated Ecstatic Music Festival 2012. Hosted by WQXR's Terrance McKnight, the show includes performances by composer-percussionist Jason Treuting, multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negron, and musical polymath Jherek Bischoff.

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For this special podcast, Terrance McKnight sits down with three experts from across the musical spectrum and asks them to rank the 10 greatest classical composers of all time.

There was a time when musicians were considered peons on the social ladder and great composers remained anonymous. Both performer and composer were servants to aristocrats or the church. Applauding their craft was radical and perhaps even sacrilege. These days, audiences heartily applaud great performances across sacred and secular mediums. While I enjoy hearing live music and applauding inspired performances, some music is just better without applause.

"I hate 'classical' music" is how New Yorker music critic Alex Ross begins his most recent book Listen to This. Alex will be my guest on my new program All Ears this Saturday at 10 pm.

What I enjoy most about this time of year is the tradition of season. But until now I never seriously thought about how my indulging in these sacred traditions could be an affront to someone else.

What do you think about iPads as instruments? A few months ago the pianist Lang Lang came to our studio and played Flight of the Bumblebee on one. That's possible because of a three-dollar application that simulates a keyboard. Now there is an app that simulates the violin.

My elementary school required that its students sing in the school choir or play an instrument. I chose trumpet. It was loud, shiny and, I thought, how difficult could it be?

Up until a few weeks ago, you'd hear a generous amount of recordings from pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. But now that Pletnev is under investigation for child rape in Thailand his voice has been silenced in concert halls and on the radio – in the U.S. and U.K that is. But back home in Russia, and elsewhere his beat marches on. Pletnev founded the Russian National Orchestra 20 years ago and its season kicked off this month as planned with Pletnev on the podium. 

Tonight at 7:30 p.m., WQXR broadcasts the New York Philharmonic's opening night gala concert live, featuring the U.S. premiere of Wynton Marsalis's Swing Symphony. Terrance McKnight and Elliott Forrest co-host the event.

An acquaintance recently said to me, "Terrance, I think you might be too square for her" (referring to a friend of hers). That comment got me thinking about the degree to which one's personality is shaped by vocation.

Monday night I played a recording of J.S.Bach's Capriccio on the Departure of his Beloved Brother. It's one of those pieces that at times sounds easy enough for a novice. Bach was in his teens when he composed it.

How many of us could've predicted this pairing, Aretha Franklin and Condoleezza Rice singing and playing the classics. Neither of these women is a stranger to classical music. Dr. Rice has performed at the White House with Yo Yo Ma and Ms. Franklin stepped in and covered for Pavarotti at the Grammy Awards in 1998.

This week we celebrated the 150 anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth. Throughout the week, I heard several commentators and hosts quoting Mahler. One quote that kept coming up was “My time will come.”

Terrance McKnight presents a sneak preview of this summer’s Caramoor International Music Festival, featuring a dazzling array of live performances by some of the artists featured in this year’s festival line-up.

Musicians and music lovers have been known to go to extremes for their love of the art form.