The Mad Scientist's Auditory Laboratory

Most music history lessons are about people who lived a looong time ago, but this time Kiana and Fiona are celebrating music-history makers who are still alive today! Meet an opera superstar who once got a 42-minute standing ovation, a bass player you’ve heard on more hit songs than you’d think, a synth pioneer who made Bach sound brand new, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer.

All aboard the Music Box express! Kiana and Fiona time travel back to 1920s Los Angeles to find a haunted mansion, mysterious happenings, an elusive organist and a dog butler?! Everything is not what it seems in this chilling Halloween special. 

Kiana and Fiona interview electric piano technician Matt Blocher of the Chicago Electric Piano Company to learn all about his work. Find out about Matt’s day to day work, the differences and similarities between a Fender Rhodes and a Wurlitzer, advice for becoming a technician, and all the tricks of the trade. Although The Music Box is for everyone of all ages, we would recommend our Behind the Music episode for career-oriented high school-aged students and older, as it’s jam packed with lots of information.

Kiana and Fiona dig into the music and language of the Gullah Geechee people including the incredible true story of one song, one recording, a decades-later discovery thousands of miles away, and the history of some of the music we still sing today!

A wild night time traveling lands Kiana and Fiona somewhere they definitely weren't supposed to be, and they realize something huge: nobody around them knows the Happy Birthday song. That sends them chasing its real history, starting right here in Louisville, and a legal fight you won't believe.

Fiona is nowhere to be found on recording day, and Kiana tracks her down at a vinyl factory where things get weird fast! This episode is a zany adventure into how a song goes from a recording to a record you can actually play.

Kiana and Fiona hit the racetrack to help their friend Lightning Larry prep for a big race, and end up on a musical trip spanning the Kentucky Derby, an opera about a Swiss folk hero, a Lakota horse song, and Tuvan throat singers imitating a gallop. Turns out horses might have more in common with those singers than you'd think.Find out more at musicboxpod.org and follow us on Instagram @learnwithlpm

The Music Box will be back with a new season in the fall. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this special about shape note singing — one of the oldest musical traditions in this country. It’s a practice that began in colonial America, and after centuries of ups and downs in popularity, today it’s finding an expanded and surprisingly diverse new following… and some of its singers believe the music can teach democracy a thing or two. Join Louisville Public Media’s Laura Atkinson and Justin Hicks as they trace this tradition, from its origins 200 years ago to the largest Sacred Harp singing in living memory. “Shapes of America” is an hour-long special from Louisville Public Media and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom.

In the season 8 finale, Kiana and Fiona are taking you Behind the Music to learn about what it takes to be a professional musician. And we’re lucky to have a very special guest join us on this episode – bassist Christian McBride. Interested in knowing more about careers in music, the secrets of touring and playing music for a living? This one is for you!

This week on The Music Box, Kiana and Fiona find themselves on the case, investigating a haunted piano with a mysterious character. Everything is not what it seems in this Halloween episode. Help the gang find clues to uncover the ghost of music's past!