Watch the young violinist Nicola Benedetti spin out music by John Williams and Bach in sweet and soulful tendrils of sound at the Tiny Desk. 

The versatile composer, violinist and vocalist Caroline Shaw is one of just a handful of female musicians to earn the Pulitzer prize — and, at age 30, perhaps is the youngest music winner ever.

Photo: AJ Wilhelm for NPR

This 1653 engraving by Rembrandt inspired composer Frank Martin to write his oratorio Golgotha in 1945. For the Holy Week, we’ve picked a few of our favorite musical Passions.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

(More from Deceptive Cadence.)

Van Cliburn, the Texan pianist who captured America by conquering Moscow, has died at age 78. The first classical musician to sell a million albums, he went on to mentor generations of young artists through the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Like some of us, Max Richter grew tired of Vivaldi’s warhorse The Four Seasons. But instead of writing off the piece forever, Richter rewrote it. He blended Vivaldi’s work with his own music, tucking in some light electronics for a modern makeover. Watch him perform it with violinist Daniel Hope at Le Poisson Rouge.

Watch the Ebene Quartetdelve deep at a Brooklyn bookstore to play the dark-hued second movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 string quartet.

Researchers in London claim that listening to classical music makes for unsafe driving — in fact, that it caused more erratic driving than hip-hop, heavy metal or not listening to music at all.

Got three minutes? Do you have a tissue handy? There’s a small town in Paraguay  built on a landfill and it has an orchestra that plays instruments created out of literal trash, made lovingly for them by their community.

Discover ten classical albums released this year that you absolutely, positively won’t want to miss, from opera singer Cecilia Bartoli’s exploration of a mysterious Baroque composer to the cello-based loops of Maya Beiser.

Photo: Uli Weber