New York's WQXR Gets Hip, and Celebrates the Grammys

WQXR, the only remaining full-time classical music station in New York, and one of the only ones left in the country, is celebrating Grammy Month. (No, it’s not all about Lady Gaga.) Each week leading up to the awards ceremony on Sunday, January 31, WQXR will focus on one of the categories in which classical performances have been nominated. (WQXR switched to a public-radio format this past fall, and can now be found on 105.9 FM.)
Each week, pieces from the nominated albums will be played throughout that week, and also streamed on WQXR.org.
Categories include Best Classical Vocal Performance; Best Small Ensemble Performance; and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (Without Orchestra).
You can vote for your faves on their website, and these days, you can even follow them on Twitter and read a series of blogs; yes, classical music has entered the digital age.
In other WQXR news, venerable WQXR radio host George Jellinek, 90, passed away over the weekend. Jellinek created the radio program “The Vocal Scene” in 1969, a year after becoming the station’s music director. The show, which ran for 36 years, focused on opera and opera singers. It was syndicated on classical stations around the country, and became synonymous with WQXR.
Although he retired as music director in the mid-1980s, Jellinek stayed on as a consultant with the station until a few years ago. He was one of the great old-time classical-music voices in New York.