Tom Cole
Tom Cole is a senior editor on NPR's Arts Desk. He develops, edits, produces, and reports on stories about art, culture, music, film, and theater for NPR's news magazines Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered. Cole has held these responsibilities since February 1990.
Prior to his work with the Arts Desk, Cole worked for three and a half years as an associate producer for NPR's daily classical music program Performance Today, and also for Morning Edition, where he coordinated, edited, and produced arts and culture stories.
From April 1979 to July 1986, Cole worked for NPR Member station WAMU-FM in Washington, DC. He was the production manager for the daily operation of studios, and also served as a reporter, writing and producing music features that were broadcast locally and nationally. In addition, from October 1985 to November 1986, Cole worked for Voice of America as a producer for VOA Europe.
Since 1977, Cole has been the host and producer of a weekly three-hour program of music and interviews broadcast on public radio station WPFW-FM in Washington.
Over the course of his career, Cole has produced or collaborated on a number of public radio projects. He co-edited the Peabody Award-winning NPR documentary, "I Must Keep Fightin': The Art of Paul Robeson." He was also an advisor, contributor, and co-editor of the Peabody Award-winning series, "The NPR 100," the top 100 songs of the 20th century.
A native of Washington, DC, Cole has studied classical guitar at The American University and privately. He also studied comparative literature at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
-
Renbourn co-founded the popular folk/jazz group Pentangle and was one of the most respected and influential acoustic guitarists in the world. He died this week at his home in Scotland; he was 70. -
Music was an afterthought for Paramount Records, a short-lived label founded by a furniture company. But in its final years, it gave vital exposure to the artists who would come to define Delta blues. -
The guitarist said he didn't "really have all that much technique anyway," but it was clearly enough to influence half a century of jazz musicians. Peers and proteges like Sonny Rollins, Julian Lage and John Scofield reflect on one of the finest ever on his instrument. -
Though mainly a jazz player, wrote the surf guitar anthem "Walk, Don't Run," which became a Top 10 hit for The Ventures on two occasions. -
Richie Havens had a long career as a musician, but he's still most famous for one set he played to hundreds of thousands in New York in 1969. -
It's not easy, even for audio recorded in the last 10 years. The Library of Congress has released a plan for preserving the country's long but fragile archive of recorded audio. -
In 2008, NPR's Tom Cole was assigned to profile Elliott Carter for the composer's centennial. Cole was terrified. He needn't have been. To mark Carter's passing this past Monday at the age of 103, Cole has a remembrance of what it was like to meet the storied composer.
-
The composer, who was born in 1908 and won two Pulitzer Prizes for music that could be challenging and adventurously modern, died in New York.
-
Janet Feder has built a career on unusual instrumental guitar playing. Her new album, Songs With Words, is the first to feature her singing — a bold choice that may alienate her old fans. -
The seminal Scottish folk guitarist, singer, and composer passed early Wednesday morning after a battle with lung cancer.
