Pop Classics

The world’s best-loved, classical melodies. Beethoven’s simple “Für Elise,” Tchaikovsky’s stirring 1812 Overture, Strauss waltzes. The greatest music of the past 200 years all in one place. There has always been a ‘popular music’ and these Pop Classics have stood the test of time.

For 14 years, Rick Phillips was the Host and Producer of SOUND ADVICE, the weekly guide to classical music and recordings, heard across Canada on CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two every weekend. Rick was affiliated with CBC Radio for 30 years, working in Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto in a career that spanned production to on-air to management. As well as broadcasting and webcasting, he is also a busy freelance writer and reviewer, lecturer, panel moderator, consultant, tour guide and concert host. He’s often a juror in the classical music categories for the Juno Awards, and is the programmer of the Popular Classics channel at www.galaxie.ca. Rick is the author of “The Essential Classical Recordings – 101 CDs” published by McClelland & Stewart, and leads a variety of Music History & Appreciation courses at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Toronto and other venues. He holds a B. Mus. from McGill University and a M. Mus. from the University of Toronto. He is married with one child – has 9 year old son. He grew up in Montreal, and has lived and worked in Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto. He offers a lot of adult Music Appreciation courses and has done so for 25 years. There’s a list on his website. He is also producing a lot of promotional pod/webcasts now for the Toronto Symphony Orch., Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Opera Atelier, the online edition of EnRoute magazine and others. He writes articles on music regularly for Roy Thompson Hall and other presenting organizations. And, as you see on his website he is a published author of a book on classical music recordings.