Suzanne Bona

Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv is Chief Conductor of Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra. Her international career accomplishments include being the first female conductor in the history of the Bayreuth Opera Festival and first female chief conductor of an Italian opera orchestra. Since 2022 Oksana Lyniv has been the General Music Director of the […]

Close your eyes before watching/listening to today’s Beautiful Music offering, and you are unlikely to realize that the piano solo is being played by a 12 year old! Elisey Mysin is a prodigy who has already won numerous international competitions. Today you can enjoy his performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s PIANO CONCERTO #12 K.414. You

A listener recently recommended a trumpeter whose playing he particularly admires: Eric Aubier. I was unfamiliar with this instrumentalist, and was impressed when I found a few of his performances online. The French trumpet player primarily specializes in playing French wind repertory, but I was able to find a sample of him playing some baroque

Yesterday I had the great fortune to interview singer Tammy McCann for my series of podcast interviews, SundayBaroque Conversations. [subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!] The internationally acclaimed musician is known for her jazz performances, but she began as an opera singer! She was charming, insightful, wise, and delightful, and we’ll be releasing the full

Kaddish is the Jewish prayer of mourning. Composer Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony #3 is subtitled KADDISH, and the 1963 composition was dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy. It is an expansive work scored for a large orchestra, choirs, soprano soloist and narrator. On this solemn 9/11 anniversary, today’s Beautiful Music is a performance of

You are probably at least somewhat familiar with the flute. But did you know how many DIFFERENT types of flutes there are? Today’s Beautiful Music showcases some of them … check out the Pennsylvania Flute Choir playing Jonathan Cohen’s FLUTE JOY from a concert on April 15, 2023. And if you’d like to know more

Gateways Music Festival was founded in 1993 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina by Juilliard-trained pianist Armenta (Adams) Hummings Dumisani. She later joined the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music faculty as associate professor and Distinguished Community Mentor. Today’s Beautiful Music is from the 2019 Gateways Music Festival — a dynamic performance of Carlos Simon’s AMEN!

I especially love sharing concert recordings in this blog, particularly when it’s a stage work such as an opera. The live performance allows us to “attend” something that could be anywhere on the planet, and the multi-media nature of these performances allows us to absorb and appreciate the acting and stagecraft as well as the

Today’s Beautiful Music is the tender aria THE TREES ON THE MOUNTAIN from Carlisle Floyd’s opera SUSANNAH. This recording is from a June 2023 dress rehearsal for OperaTheatre STL. Soprano Janai Brugger’s luminous voice and artistry are so perfect for this music. American composer Carlisle Floyd wrote the opera libretto and music when he was

American bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is a remarkably talented singer with an equally remarkable life story. He transcended a traumatic, abusive childhood, and time in a juvenile detention facility, to become an acclaimed, sought-after opera star. Today’s Beautiful Music features Ryan Speedo Green singing Young Emile Griffith’s Act I aria WHAT MAKES A MAN A