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Oct 13
59m 19s

Classical Guitar, Sax Quartet, & More

NPR
About this episode
We meet an award-winning saxophone quartet from Texas. A teen flutist who is also a talented figure skater performs Faure. An impressive 16-year-old performs a piece by a guitarist/composer who inspires him, and a violinist from Hong Kong studying in Los Angeles tells us about how a letter from a stranger impacted his life.

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