Suzanne Bona

As Hanukkah ends, this is Beautiful Music by Salamone Rossi. The violinist and composer was a trailblazer in composing liturgical music in Hebrew. This is Rossi’s setting of Psalm 118, a psalm of praise that is frequently used, including during Hanukkah.   https://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/salamone-rossi    

I’m so pleased to share this Beautiful Music exploring some of the history of Spain and the Spanish Jewish people. La Rondinella explored this Sephardic Journey with their 1999 recording, and it’s just as fresh as exciting as ever. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LL06Kd5TX5s&list=OLAK5uy_mp9w1MwX4argcUjgX3bGzAnlZKMFhy6W4        

This Beautiful Music coincides with Hanukkah, which continues until December 18th. It’s a baroque style arrangement for trumpets of the familiar liturgical song Ma’oz Tzur, aka Rock of Ages. Ma’oz Tzur – YouTube      

Some cool and different Beautiful Music today: an electronic interpretation of music by German baroque organist and composer Georg Böhm. This site has a terrific variety of these interpretations of music by baroque composers created by Baroquenoise. The musician behind these interpretations is Bobby Bancalari, and you’ll find a link to his bio below. Bonus:

Here’s more Beautiful Music for Hanukkah, which continues until December 18. Long Island Baroque Ensemble music perform HAZEREMOS UNA MERENDA (We are making a meal), a Sephardic traditional song. The singers accompany themselves on an assortment of instruments: vielle, oud, guitar, and darbouka. Hazeremos Una Merenda – YouTube  

Wow! This is Beautiful Music that demonstrates EXACTLY how powerful music is to lift the spirits!  Apollo’s Fire – The Cleveland Baroque Ensemble performs Sephardic music in Ladino. You’ll not only hear the joy in the music, you can see the joy on the faces of the performers. I keep playing this over and over

I only recently learned about pianist Philippa Duke Schuyler. Born in New York in 1931, she was a child prodigy — not only as a musician, but also for her ability to read and write at age two, and because she was composing music by the age of five.  She had an extraordinary life that

Happy Hanukkah! The Jewish Festival of Lights began on December 10 and continues through December 18. George Frideric Handel borrowed some of the Hanukkah story for his 1746 oratorio JUDAS MACCABAEUS. Today’s Beautiful Music is a performance of the complete oratorio by Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and Harvard University Choir, conducted by Edward Elwyn Jones.

Today’s Beautiful Music offering is from just one year ago today: a sublime performance on December 10, 2019 by pianist Kyle P. Walker of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Keyboard Partita #1. It is from his recital at Berkeley Piano Club in California. You will also find (below) a link to Kyle P. Walker’s website, so you

When I interview musicians, I almost always ask them about their early introduction to music — what instrument they first learned, at what age, and how & when they knew that music is their life’s work. And almost always, the best musicians report being smitten with music from early childhood. Some were so young that