Renee Montagne talks with Miles Hoffman about the history of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite. Hoffman is the violist of the American Chamber Players, and authored The NPR Classical Music Companion.

As temperatures descend, something inevitable is in the air. The time of year has arrived for productions of "The Nutcracker" to proliferate around the globe. Prepare for an onslaught of rising ...

Members of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in a production of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." It’s a perennial holiday favorite but it took a long time to grow into a classic. The United States was ...

How did Tchaikovsky’s ballet become a staple of the festive season? Clemency Burton-Hill goes in search of The Nutcracker’s universal appeal. So how did a work that has nothing to do with the nativity ...

Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote music for the soul. Yet The Nutcracker – the balletic equivalent of a Terry's Chocolate Orange – has seemingly few claims to profundity. Snowflakes and Sugar Plum Fairies are ...

Gustavo Dudamel is the dad of a son turning 3 in April, the husband of a classically trained ballet dancer, and a Tchaikovsky nut whose next big project will be a “TchaikovskyFest” with the Los ...

Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to make an impression worldwide.

It’s impossible to imagine the Christmas season without “The Nutcracker,” a beloved ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Written in 1892, this two-act classical ballet remains a symbol of the holiday ...

The Nutcracker ballet by Tchaikovsky is loosely based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's fantasy The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. A girl befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and wages a ...

Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky’s famed 1812 Overture was first performed, outdoors, at the base of the majestic Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. His beloved ballet, the Nutcracker, was introduced ...

Gustavo Dudamel is the dad of a son turning 3 in April, the husband of a classically trained ballet dancer, and a Tchaikovsky nut whose next big project will be a “TchaikovskyFest” with the Los ...