Classical music's Taylor Swift, Janine Jansen, give a fearless performance of the mean Violin Concerto in the red key of G minor, by a composer with whom she's never ever getting back together, Max Bruch, at 4 this afternoon. - DJ

It's coming up just past 4:30 this afternoon to help you on your way to the weekend. --- Rich C.

Happy Friday! Watch out for angry tubas this weekend. -Brian

A pictorial clue to the PIECE I'm playing around 10:15am PDT. Reminder: The clue may or may not include the first and/or last name of the composer. --Alan

Dueling Overtures this morning at eight pits Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio vs. Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers. Vote here with your comment, or with your email to morning@kusc.org. Good luck to both overtures! - DJ

He's in the forest at quarter past 6...and he's not alone. An orchestra is there to back him up. -- Rich C.

Remember the Alhambra! Francisco Tarrega did. We'll hear his memories coming up this afternoon circa 2:20. -Brian

A pictorial clue to the composer whose music I'm playing around 11:23am PDT. Hope this is more of a challenge than yesterday's. --Alan

Three L.A. Philharmonic maestros have been voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame - Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini and Gustavo Dudamel - for their "influential and inspiring contributions" to classical music recording. See the entire list of Hall of Famers. - DJ

Camille Saint-Saens liked exotic vacation destinations. He really liked the exotic part of that sentiment. Several times he traveled to this area and one of the musical results of his wandering comes up this afternoon just after 4:30. -- Rich C.

Everything's going to be okay...a big hug from Papa (Bear) Haydn is coming up at 3:00 this afternoon. -Brian

A pictorial clue to who's PERFORMING around 11:50am PDT. --Alan

Recording in the 19-teens was an intimate enterprise. Hear George Szell describe it this morning with A Few Words at 8:15, and his latter-day record with the Cleveland Orchestra of Dvorak Slavonic Dances. - DJ

Wait, is this accurate? (via our friends across the pond at Classic FM.) -Brian

LA Opera On Air is back on KUSC this Saturday at 10AM! Duff kicks off the news season with The Two Foscari. More about the broadcast series here:Opera broadcasts set to return to classical KUSC-FMwww.latimes.com"L.A. Opera on Air" returns to classical music station KUSC-FM (91.5) for its seventh season Saturday, beginning with a broadcast of Verdi's "The Two Foscari" (I Due Foscari), starring Placido Domingo (the opera company's general director), Francesco Meli and Marina Poplavskaya.

The early bird gets the clue. A pictorial clue to the composer whose music I'm playing around 9:29am PDT. --Alan

The Number One selling classical album in the U.S. is this new one by violinist Rachel Barton Pine. We'll sample it at 8:30 this morning. - DJ

We've been saying it for days and I'll write it again here: Thank you so much for your generous support during our just completed pledge drive. Tell you what we'll do - in order to atone for all of those mentions of our phone number last week we'll offer, at 6 o'clock sharp, music from the film "Atonement." By the way, just in case I forgot to write it earlier - Thanks! -- Rich C.

Careful who you trust. Music from Verdi's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, coming up this afternoon at about 3:25. -Brian

Thank you for your generosity during our spring membership drive. And now: the return of the pictorial clue! This one is a clue to who's PERFORMING around 10:00am PDT. --Alan

Who is the maestro with the wild whiskers in his frisky younger years? We'll hear A Few Words at 8:15 from him, and his interpretation of a Mozart symphony. - DJ

Ravel's father Joseph made no secret that he favored his younger son Édouard over Maurice, but Ravel's mother Marie doted on her first born. Even when he was in his late thirties she tried to stand in the way of Maurice joining the French army to fight in The Great War. Ravel said she became "a monster" in her efforts to dissuade him from enlisting. He managed to join the hospital corps anyway and drive an ambulance near the front lines. Marie died during the war. Ravel was devastated. She was a nurturing influence from the day he was born until the day she died. Happy Mother's Day, Marie. - DJ

Without Anna Maria, there'd be no Wolfgang Amadeus. Happy Mother's Day, from your friends at KUSC! -Brian

Friends, it's the last day of KUSC's Spring Membership Drive. Have you donated yet? Do it now and you'll be entered to win a $2,500 Amazon gift card. -Brian

I'm very excited to be hosting this concert by my friends of the Salastina Music Society. Tomorrow night in Santa Monica and Saturday night in Downtown LA. Hope to see you there! -Brian SalastinaSociety.org

Newly discovered opera! Lady Macbeth of the Hogwarts District. Scholars debate: Is it authentic, or a piece of former Soviet wizardry? - DJ

I know quite a few trombonists. This is not inaccurate. -Brian

I hate it when this happens. -Brian

Fashion trends among the fiddles in Be-More City. The Parsons Festival and the Mannes New School of Music have worked with the Baltimore Symphony to devise a new outfit for the orchestral ladies that is, says BSO Maestra Marin Alsop, "functional and fashionable performance attire." Yes or No? - DJ

Trust me, it's not really that simple. -Brian

Here's Esa-Pekka Salonen and Witold Lutosławski back in the day. On tonight's LA Phil concert broadcast, Salonen celebrates the Lutosławski centenary with a performance of the Polish composer's Symphony No. 1, plus music he wrote for the LA Philharmonic. Also...Beethoven! 7pm on KUSC. --Brian

This could be yours! When you give to KUSC today (Sat. 5/4) between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. you will be entered into a drawing for "Verdi: The Complete Works," a box set of 75 CDs containing everything Giuseppe Verdi ever wrote. Call 1-800-421-1717 or visitto enter.

Do you love your job as much as Lenny? -Brian

I roll my eyes at fundraisers, but let's not forget they are for the benefit of us all. Because of your support of Classical KUSC my music gets played and my music can be heard by you. Win-win. - WAM (1-800-421-1717, or kusc.org)

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra cellist Armen Ksajikian is hard core. Here he is playing cello for bears in Alaska. -Brian

Our all-important Spring Membership Drive begins this morning! Join your friendly DJ and USC Radio President Brenda Barnes in supporting the station you love. With your contribution you can help assure that there will always be time for classical on the Southern California airwaves. - DJ

Can this activity be depicted in music? You had to ask? It's coming up at quarter to 5 this afternoon and it is wild and wooly music (not to put too fine a point on it). -- Rich C.

Because who doesn't love a good conductor joke. (The one for Gustavo Dudamel looks a little different.) -Brian

A pictorial clue to the PIECE I'm playing around 10:14am PDT. Reminder: The clue may or may not include the first and/or last name of the composer. --Alan

What is your favorite May Day music? Is it about Maypoling (do they still do that?) or marching? Tulips or workers' rights? This morning, we're playing a wide range of music for the world's favorite month (when all things seem possible). - DJ

At quarter past 5 this afternoon you can hear one these approach from the distance and then pass right by. -- Rich C.

Scotland. Let's go there, shall we? Say 3:25ish? -Brian

Another story from our partnership with Artbound. This one is written by our intrepid Arts Alive producer, Katie McMurran.Fotos de la biografíaNo one has to pay to get through the door. Not charging admission was their intention from the beginning. the wulf. is a space for experimental arts and music. Check it out:

A pictorial clue to the composer whose music I'm playing around 10:50am PDT. --Alan

Would you let a goose babysit your children? This morning at 8:30 we offer the sitting services of Maurice Ravel. - DJ

At quarter to 5 this afternoon....If you guessed Mother Goose, we really do need to talk. -- Rich C.

There's still time to submit a poem to the Arts Alive Poetry Contest. All this week, we'll be posting entries on the Arts Alive Blog. Today, three poems that capture the experience of listening to Los Angeles.KUSC Arts Alive Blogwww.kusc.orgEarlier this month, Arts Alive announced its first ever Poetry Contest. We asked you to help us celebrate National Poetry Month by sending us poems about music and Southern California. We've received nearly an inch of entries (about 70 poems) and they're still coming in (the deadline to submit a poe...

Remember when Audi partnered with Bösendorfer to design a piano? (http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2009/07/08-audi-design-grand-piano/) What about the Steinway & Sons BMW? (http://www.steinway.com/news/articles/bmw-unveils-individual-7-series-composition-inspired-by-steinway-sons/) Now, Pleyel and Peugeot have teamed up to design their own futuristic grand piano. Cars + Pianos. What do you think? Hey, they both have pedals and wheels...that's a start, right? -BrianMaking of - Peugeot Design Lab pour PleyelInteresting point. I have no idea about the technical side. But I don't think this is a mass production piano and the aesthetic appeal was actually more important than the practicality of service access.. Like a working concept car that is nevertheless impractical for mass production.

So far, we've received an inch of poems for the first ever Arts Alive Poetry Contest. Thanks to all the talented folk who've shared their work with us! We'll start posting some of our favorites today on the Arts Alive Blog.

A pictorial clue to the composer whose music I'm playing around 10:00am PDT. --Alan