Suzanne Bona

I have had the great fortune to hear violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama perform in person. Her playing is transcendent. She is also a composer. And most of all, the Fulbright Scholar is a fascinating person with many interests that she actively nurtures, such as earning her Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University. Today’s Beautiful […]

Alcee Chriss is one of today’s leading young organists. He has won awards at numerous international competitions, including winning First Prize at the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition, 2016 Fort Wayne National Organ Competition, and 2014 Miami International Organ Competition. He is University Organist and Artist-in-Residence at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is also one

Many musicians who specialize in playing music from the baroque era (and before) use instruments that more closely resemble the ones used at the time the music was composed. Today’s Beautiful Music shows off an earlier incarnation of the trumpet, played by an outstanding baroque trumpet expert: Dr. Justin Bland. You can see him with

When I was in college, the acclaimed pianist Andre Watts came to perform there. My parents were big fans, so I invited them to attend the concert, which was magnificent. We went back the green room to meet Mr. Watts, and because his mother was Hungarian (as were my parents) they greeted and complimented him

Johann Sebastian Bach’s music is a touchstone for many musicians, including flutist Brandon Patrick George. He included Bach’s music on his 2020 debut cd — the Partita in a minor BWV013 — and today’s Beautiful Music offering is Brandon Patrick George playing the allemande and corrente movements from that Partita. You can also hear my

Jean Bernard Cerin was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and pursued his musical studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the New England Conservatory in Boston, in addition to earning his B.A. in Economics at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach is an important part of his repertory and

I recently bought a little bird feeder that suctions to my kitchen window. In return for my modest investment of birdseed, I’m repaid with priceless enjoyment in seeing the variety of birds that visit every day. It turns out that February is National Bird-feeding Month, largely because this is a difficult time of the year

Beautiful Music today by a composer whose name may be new to you: Joaquim Manoel da Câmara. He was born in Rio de Janeiro in around 1780 — three decades after the end of the baroque era — and he was especially known for writing modinhas, a form of popular Portuguese songs. These are a

SUSANNE UN JOUR is a secular chanson from the 16th century. It is Orlando di Lasso’s setting of a popular song that tells the bible story of Susanna and the elders. This Beautiful Music is an arrangement for voice and string quartet by Michael Hersch, performed by soprano Ah Young Hong with the Flux Quartet.

Wayne Marshall was already dabbling on the piano on his own by the age of 3, and he went on to get formal training as a pianist and organist. Then he branched out into conducting too! Today’s Beautiful Music offering features Wayne Marshall playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue BWV542 from a 2012 recording