Anastasia Tsioulcas
Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.
On happier days, Tsioulcas has celebrated the life of the late Aretha Franklin, traveled to Havana to profile musicians and dancers, revealed the hidden artistry of an Indian virtuoso who spent 60 years in her apartment and brought listeners into the creative process of composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley.
Tsioulcas was formerly a reporter and producer for NPR Music, where she covered breaking news in the music industry as well as a wide range of musical genres and artists. She has also produced episodes for NPR Music's much-lauded Tiny Desk concert series, and has hosted live concerts from venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge. She also commissioned and produced several world premieres on behalf of NPR Music, including a live event that brought together 350 musicians to debut a new work together. As a video producer, she created high-profile video shorts for NPR Music, including performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a Brooklyn theatrical props warehouse and pianist Yuja Wang in an icy-cold Steinway & Sons piano factory.
Tsioulcas has also reported from north and west Africa, south Asia, and across Europe for NPR and other outlets. Prior to joining NPR in 2011, she was widely published as a writer and critic on both classical and world music, and was the North America editor for Gramophone Magazine and the classical music columnist for Billboard.
Born in Boston and based in New York, Tsioulcas is a lapsed classical violinist and violist (shoutout to all the overlooked violists!). She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University with a B.A. in comparative religion.
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A group of sixth, seventh and eighth grade students realized there was no children's book about the composer Florence Price. So they wrote, illustrated and published their own. -
The prosecutors who brought Cosby to a conviction in 2018 — and then saw him freed earlier this year — are asking the Supreme Court to throw out a state court's ruling. -
The former Empire actor is accused of lying to Chicago police about being the purported victim of a hate crime in Jan. 2019. He is charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct. -
Pianist and composer Jon Batiste was nominated in 11 categories, including Album of the Year. Read the full list of 2022 nominees. -
William Ivey Long is an iconic presence on Broadway, designing costumes for shows such as Diana: The Musical and Chicago. Now two men have accused the former Tony Awards chairman of sexual abuse. -
After 13 years living under a legal arrangement that controlled both her personal life and finances, the pop star was released from her conservatorship Friday. -
Pianist Isata and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason are British sibling classical virtuosos. Still in their twenties, the star soloists have just released their first joint album. -
Live Nation is the biggest live-events company in the world. Court records and federal citations show that the company was already linked to 200 other deaths and 750 injuries before Friday's tragedy. -
The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink had a six-decade career leading major orchestras across Europe, the U.S. and the U.K. He was hailed as a musician's musician, prizing the art well above glamor. -
On Wednesday, Jamie Spears was suspended as his daughter's conservator. Is all the media attention, including three new Spears documentaries, still welcome?
