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'Men Don't Break' tops one conductor's list of classical music highlights of 2021

Latonia Moore performs during a rehearsal of "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" at the Metropolitan Opera house, Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, in New York. (Jason DeCrow/AP)
Latonia Moore performs during a rehearsal of "Fire Shut Up in My Bones" at the Metropolitan Opera house, Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, in New York. (Jason DeCrow/AP)

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Jonathan Taylor Rush joins Here & Now‘s Scott Tong to discuss his top classical moments of the year, including the aria “Men Don’t Break” from Terence Blanchard’s opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” the first opera by a Black composer presented in the Metropolitan Opera’s 138-year history.

Top classical music moments of 2021

Men Don’t Break,” aria from Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”

Watch on YouTube.

Florence Price Symphonies No. 1 & No. 3, Philadelphia Orchestra

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Marin Alsop conducting Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess,” Philadelphia Orchestra

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Stride” by Cuban composer, Tania León — 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 2020

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William Dawson’s “Negro Folk Symphony,” James Conlon revival (Aspen/BSO)

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The Conductor,’ documentary about Marin Alsop)

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This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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