Tuesday Afternoon Classics, Noon - 3:00 PM

Voice & Orchestra, Mondays 9:00 - 11:00 PM

Evening at the Opera, Tuesdays 8:00 pM - Midnight

Peter is also the cohost, with fellow WMNR Evening at the Opera host Octavio Choi, of the opera podcast “Opera for All.” Click here to listen.

In December of 2024, Peter Shimkin wrote a personal essay about the importance of classical music radio and WMNR’s place in the cultural landscape. “We generally define a “Golden Age” in music as when several great artists or ensembles performed. In opera, such a time existed at the Metropolitan Opera from 1890 to 1920 when Rosa Ponselle and Enrico Caruso sang and Arturo Toscanini and Gustav Mahler conducted. With instrumental music, such a period occurred… click to read on…”

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Biography…

Peter, a retired physician, was first introduced to classical music by his mother and by his grandmother, who was a professional organist and piano teacher. Peter began his personal music collection at age 8 when he diligently saved his allowance to purchase a recording of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.

Although Peter stopped taking piano lessons as a teenager, he never stopped listening to and enjoying orchestral and chamber music. His interest in opera came later when he attended live performances. Over the years, one of his favorite ways to socialize with fellow physicians was to attend concerts and operas in NYC. In 1990 he organized five of his fellow physicians to attend all of the performances of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Met.

Peter’s musical tastes are actually quite eclectic. He has enjoyed seeing and hearing a number of memorable performances, including concerts by Luciano Pavarotti, Leontyne Price and Alicia DeLarrocha, as well as the taking in the wonderful artistry of Leonard Bernstein conducting the NY Philharmonic, Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Emerson String Quartet.

Peter tells us that “after hosting Evening at the Opera for eight years I proposed a non-operatic vocal program, initially known as Voice & Orchestra which later changed to The Voice in Concert to accommodate recitals with single instruments and a cappella choral pieces.” Click here to read on about how Peter creates programs for our The Voice in Concert series.