Classical 103.5
WQXR · Est. 1976
New York's home for classical music — 24 hours a day, every day since 1976.
New York's home for classical music — 24 hours a day, every day since 1976.
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World
Movement II — Largo
On Air Today
A 27-year veteran of the New York airwaves, Margaret pairs late-Romantic showpieces with the morning's civic headlines, reading the arts desk of the Times aloud between Brahms and Sibelius. Listeners write in by the hundreds each week — she reads every letter on Friday.
10:00 AM — 12:00 noon · Weekdays
"We begin every weekday with a single piece of music chosen for the weather. Rain gets us Elgar. Clear skies, Haydn. Snowfall, Schubert's late piano sonatas. It's an old superstition — the listeners know, and they write in when I get it wrong."
Margaret Holloway has hosted the mid-morning shift since 1998.
See the full week with Margaret →Today's Schedule
Six programs across the working day, each anchored by a host with two decades or more behind the console. The late-night block runs uninterrupted overnight.
with David Chen · Symphonies, concertos, and the occasional choral prelude
with Margaret Holloway · Romantic repertoire paired with the morning paper
Chamber music, lieder, and listener requests from the inbox
with Robert Vasquez · Full-length concert recordings from Carnegie, Lincoln Center, and the Met
with Helena Brightmore · Opera broadcasts Tuesdays and Fridays
A continuous overnight sequence — no host, no interruptions, no commercial breaks
Concerts This Week
Curated by our hosts from the listings of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, and partner venues across the five boroughs and northern New Jersey.
Carnegie Hall · Stern Auditorium
The orchestra's annual New York residency opens with Brahms's Fourth Symphony and a pair of Strauss tone poems. Intermission feature by Robert Vasquez in the hall.
Metropolitan Opera · Lincoln Center
A new cast headed by soprano Lise Davidsen and tenor Jonathan Tetelman in Puccini's perennial New York favorite. Pre-performance broadcast commentary at 7:30.
Lincoln Center · David Geffen Hall
Dudamel's first Mahler Fifth with the Philharmonic, the work he has called "the most human of all the symphonies." Pre-concert talk at 7:00 with Helena Brightmore.
Carnegie Hall · Zankel Hall
The first of two evenings surveying the five Beethoven cello-and-piano sonatas. In conversation with the station last spring, Ma called these works "the diary of a man thinking out loud."
92NY · Kaufmann Concert Hall
A solo recital of American song from Copland to Carolina Chocolate Drops, accompanied by pianist Inon Barnatan. Recorded for later broadcast on Evening Edition.
Become a Member
Classical 103.5 has not run a single commercial advertisement in 48 consecutive years. The signal that reaches your radio — and the lossless stream that reaches 86 countries online — is paid for almost entirely by listeners like you. Ninety-four cents of every dollar we spend comes from this community. Forty-one thousand eight hundred sustaining members and counting keep us on the air each morning.
A monthly gift of any size keeps the music uninterrupted, the studio lit, and the broadcasts from Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Met coming to your living room in 320kbps AAC or lossless FLAC — free, forever.
From the Studio · In Their Words
"Classical 103.5 is the station where the music is allowed to finish. In a noisy city, that is a kind of generosity. I have been a guest in that studio for twenty years, and I have never once been asked to speak over a symphony."