In our second annual Classical Classroom Summer Music Festival Series, we hit the (sound)waves at the Music Academy of the West in sunny Santa Barbara, California!

All good things must come to an end, and...here we are. The final installment of our summer music mini-series features New York Philharmonic concertmaster (who used to be Houston Symphony concertmaster), Frank Huang. He talks about the job of a concertmaster, and about his own story of a life in two cities with two orchestras. Frank also discusses first being a student and then being a teacher and visiting artist at the Music Academy of the West, and he talks about what he's been doing at the MAW festival this summer. At the end of the interview, we kidnap him and bring him back to Houston. It's an action-packed thrill-ride! JK. There's no kidnapping. That's illegal! But we think you'll enjoy the conversation anyway.

Music in this episode: - "We're Going to Be Friends," by the White Stripes. From White Blood Cells. - String Sextet in D minor "Souvenir de Florence", Op. 70 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Audio production by Todd "Triple Double" Hulslander with editing by Mark DiClaudio and three-wheel motion by Dacia Clay. Copious thanks to the Music Academy of the West for all of their help with this mini-series and for letting us crash their summer music festival, with special thanks to Kate Oberjat (oh-bur-yacht) who has not missed a spot and who’s done an awful lot, and to Emma Levine, Barbara Hirsch and Anthony Paggett. Thanks to Scott Reed, Richie Hawley, Matthew Sinno, Jeremy Denk, Bill Williams, Matthew Aucoin, Cynthia Phelps, Thomas Hampson, and Frank Huang without whom these interviews would have been monologues. Thanks to KCRW in Santa Barbara and to engineer Kathryn Barnes. 

May the Force be with you on your way back to school!