More recent VOA programs on music

Sarah Hickman is a singer-songwriter from Austin Texas, whose life involves more than making music. Watch, or listen to Greg Flakus' feature, part of the VOA series "Making A Difference", on how she and her family are active in a variety of charities helping other people.

You can also hear Greg Flakus' radio report on how, in the year marking the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of composer Felix Mendelssohn, one diligent music professor at Texas' Southwestern University tracked down the original manuscript, somewhat fragmented, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. The piece will be performed this Saturday for the first time in more than 175 years by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. Flakus notes that only 160 of the composer's more than 400 works exist in published form, partly due to the influences of anti-Semitism following the composer's death in 1847; performance of his works were banned altogether under the Nazi regime.

And listen to Henok Semaegzer Fente's radio feature on young Ethiopan-American Wayna Wondwossen, a nominee for Best Urban/Alternative Performance in the recent Grammy Award competition. Born in Ethiopia, she had immigrated to the U.S. at the age of three; she graduated from the University of Maryland, and subsequently worked as a writer-researcher for the administration of former President Bill Clinton, but later turned to music. She has her own Website, where you can hear her music and watch one of her videos. (See also www.VOAWorldMusic.com for more postings on the international dimensions of the Grammy Awards.)