The 2024 Olympic Games open today in Paris, and even if you’re not a sports fan, today’s Beautiful Music will still be stirring and exciting! It’s a spectacular presentation of BUGLER’S DREAM – OLYMPIC FANFARE, a joint effort by French composer and arranger Leo Arnaud and Grammy-winning American film composer John Williams. This thrilling performance […]

Alexandra Whittingham says that the groups that made her want to play guitar are Def Leppard and the Scorpions, while Julian Bream had the guitar sound she wants to emulate. She pursued her musical training at Chetham’s School of Music (where she is now a faculty member!) and at The Royal Academy of Music in London.

Born in the UK, soprano Olivia Warburton graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London, and became a young artist at the Georg Solti Accademia and the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar. The prize winner at the 1st International Haydn Competition in Vienna and Finalist in the 2022 Renata Tebaldi Competition, Olivia Warburton says that her career

Xiaowen Shang is a London-based pianist and harpsichordist from China. The Royal Academy of Music student’s debut album, MUSIC OF SILENCE, was released in April 2024. Xiaowen Shang’s bio is linked below. Today’s Beautiful Music features her MUSIC OF SILENCE program, performed in April 2024 in the Academy Wigmore Series. https://www.xiaowenshangmusic.com

Austrian musician Aaron Pilsan (b.1995) started playing piano at age 5, and says that Johann Sebastian Bach is the reason he is a musician today. Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier has a particular place in Aaron Pilsan’s heart and today’s Beautiful Music features this accomplished young pianist playing the Prelude and Fugue in C BWV846. There’s

Cellist Anastasia Kobekina is a rising young classical musician. Born in Russia in 1994, she started playing cello at age 4, and pursued her musical training at Moscow Conservatory, Berlin University of the Arts, Paris Conservatory, and Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Among her awards, Anastasia Kobekina was a third place winner in

Today’s Beautiful Music is a deeply moving performance in Maastricht by a young Dutch trumpeter — 13 year old Melissa Venema — with André Rieu. They’re performing IL SILENZIO by Nini Rosso and Guglielmo Brezza, a memorial piece commissioned by the Dutch and first played in 1965 on the 20th anniversary of the liberation of

Plinio Fernandes’ favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach. The Brazilian guitarist used his album BACHEANDO to illustrate blending and influence of Bach’s music on Brazilian music. Today’s Beautiful Music features a few selections from BACHEANDO. There’s also a link to an interview with Plinion Fernandes about his inspiration for the album.

Today’s Beautiful Music is a big WOW!!! Three-year-old Baby Barron — wearing a sequined jacket no less! — performs as the soloist with an orchestra. This October 2023 performance of Love Theme composed by Catherine Rollin took place at Hong Kong City Hall. This talented little one is an old soul, and it will be