Mona Seghatoleslami
Music Director and Afternoon hostMona Seghatoleslami is the Music Director, host and producer on WXXI Classical 91.5 FM weekdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. She also hosts the lunchtime concert series Live From Hochstein Wednesdays at 12:10 p.m., interviews musicians, produces special programs, and works on any project she can find that helps connect people and music in our community through WXXI.
Mona is originally from New Jersey; she ventured out to the Midwest for college, where she studied viola at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. She got her start in radio at WFIU in Bloomington, Indiana while in grad school studying musicology and library science at Indiana University. She also spent a few years as a radio announcer and producer in West (by God) Virginia, where she also wrote for the Charleston Gazette and taught American music at West Virginia State University.
When she’s not on the radio, you can find Mona attending concerts and movies, playing viola in community orchestras, occasionally strumming the ukulele, riding her bike everywhere, and reading as much as she can – especially The New Yorker and sci-fi novels. She also books the bands for one of the coolest live music venues in Rochester – The Little Theatre Café.
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It’s been a wild and creative season in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region. Here are four new albums that have come out of our community that are making waves locally and nationally. -
Scotland past and present meet in a pair of excellent recordings of baroque music by the Ensemble Marsyas, featured as WXXI Classical's CD Spotlight. -
A new recording of Heinrich Biber's strange and beautiful "Mystery Sonatas" with violinist Alan Choo and Apollo's Fire. Read more and tune in to WXXI Classical to hear this music on our CD Spotlight. -
A new recording from fabulous tuba player and educator Velvet Brown is in WXXI Classical's CD Spotlight, 2/27-3/11. -
Hear a world-exploring answer to the question "Where is Home" in the debut album from cellist Abel Selaocoe, who travels through 18th century Europe, African traditions, and new musical improvisations to create something truly special. -
Ready to get caught up in the wave of eclipse excitement in Rochester before we're in the path of the totality on April 8th? Here are some eclipse-themed classical concerts around town. -
Beethoven's back on the (CD Spotlight) menu, with a year-long series of recitals and recordings from pianist Alexander Kobrin, part of the faculty at the Eastman School of Music. -
Enjoy the expansive musical explorations of Rochester's fivebyfive in the group's recent album "Breath & Fire" and check out their eclipse-inspired concerts later this month. -
Seraphic Fire sings the season with lovely choral arrangements, and this new album is the CD Spotlight on WXXI Classical from mid-December through the new year. -
Hear the music that Joe Hisaishi has written for the Studio Ghibli films of Hayao Miyazaki in a lush new album that has been on the "must have" list for several announcers at WXXI Classical this year.
