Joan Szymko is a composer and conductor who specializes in choral music. The Chicago-born musician states on her website (see link below): “My goal is to compose music that invites the audience in while challenging the notion that accessibility and musical integrity are incompatible concepts. I have composed choral music to be performed with actors, poets, Taiko drummers, modern dancers, aerialists and accordion players. I have set texts by fourth graders and Pulitzer Prize winners, medieval mystics and contemporary poets. I am drawn to texts that invoke divine grace, speak to the universal yearning for good and that nurture a compassionate heart.” Today’s Beautiful Music is Joan Szymko’s choral composition IT TAKES A VILLAGE sung by Eastern New Mexico University Singers.