Suzanne Bona

August is “HAPPINESS HAPPENS MONTH.” It’s intended to celebrated things that make us happy, so today’s Beautiful Music features Bobby McFerrin, whose song DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY became a captivating “earworm” in 1988. Mr. McFerrin is an accomplished and multi-talented musician and thinker. Watch his brilliant and entertaining presentation at the World Science Festival about […]

Pianist Samantha Ege is an award-winning researcher, internationally acclaimed concert pianist, and compelling public speaker. Dr. Ege is Anniversary Research Fellow at The University of Southampton, and is a leading interpreter and scholar of the African American composer Florence B. Price. Today’s Beautiful Music features Dr. Samantha Ege from a 2019 performance playing the Andante-Allegro from Florence

Pianist Lara Downes offers today’s Beautiful Music. It’s her delightful performance of NORA’S DANCE by Nora Douglas Holt. Kansas-born Holt was a pianist and composer, and a singer and performer in the 1940s Harlem Renaissance. She also worked as a music critic for the Chicago Defender from 1917-1921, and she co-founded the Chicago Music Association.

Today’s Beautiful Music is a fantastic blend of music, education, and technology. Renowned conductor Dean Dixon leads the orchestra in a wonderful demonstration of musical concepts, and a performance of Franz Josef Haydn’s FAREWELL SYMPHONY (with a vivid and hilarious illustration of why it has that nickname). The 1972 concert was adapted from a 16mm

Today’s Beautiful Music is a marvelous introduction to a musician whose name and music SHOULD be better known. Grażyna Bacewicz was an accomplished 20th century Polish violinist and composer. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s Associate Leader Lena Zeliszewska tells us a bit about Grażyna Bacewicz, and introduces the RSNO’s performance, led by Elim Chan, performing

Rachel Barton Pine is such a marvelous musician, teacher, entrepreneur, and activist. You may know her as a violin player. She also plays a much more unusual instrument — viola d’amore. Today’s Beautiful Music features Rachel Barton Pine playing and teaching about the viola d’amore, the “14-string cousin of the violin.” She plays music by

Francisco López Capillas was a musician in Mexico in the 17th century. He’s thought to have been born in Mexico City (although some sources suggest he may have been born in Spain) and was active as a church musician — singer, organist, and composer — in Mexico City and Puebla. Music of the Americas Director

Delyana Lazarova’s mother is a pianist and composer, so Delyana began her musical training as a 5 year old taking violin lessons. She says she pursued music as her career because she “… couldn’t imagine doing anything else.” As her passion for music evolved, she began conducting, too. She has earned numerous awards as a

Baritone Joseph Parrish is a Baltimore native who earned his Bachelor of Music degree from College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati in 2020, and continued as a Master’s student in Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School. Mr. Parrish is one of the winners in New York’s 2022 Young Concert Artists Audition, and his February 2021

Pianist Sandra Rivers has made her career as a collaborative pianist, performing internationally with some of the world’s most distinguished classical musicians, including leading soloists including Itzhak Perlman, Kathleen Battle, Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Anne Akiko Meyers, Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, among others. Sandra Rivers is Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of