I stumbled across this haunting performance and found it so captivating that I knew I had to share it with you. It’s an amalgam of ancient and modern, performed by soprano Meredith Hall with La Nef and Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer. It’s Beautiful Music to transport you to another place and time for a few […]

Every year, May 10 is celebrated as DIA DE LAS MADRES, aka Mexican Mother’s Day. This is Beautiful Music by Juana Ines de la Cruz, a nun born in 1651 in Tepetlixpa, Mexico. She was a self-taught writer, philosopher, and composer. Juana Ines de la Cruz composed this villancico — MADRE, LA DE LOS PRIMORES

Happy Mother’s Day! Today’s Beautiful Music will introduce you to something clever, creative and (most likely) an instrument that’s new to you! It’s a modern copy of an instrument called a “mother and child virginal” … I won’t give away the secret. Just watch the video and enjoy! Ruckers mother-and-child virginal, instrument of the month,

If you need something toe-tapping and fun, this Beautiful Music is for you! It’s the period instrument orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, led by their founder, Jeannette Sorrell, playing some Appalachian Fiddle Tunes. Icing on the cake is seeing the pure joy and enthusiasm on the performers’ faces! Hop High Ladies & June Apple (Appalachian fiddle tunes)

Teachers and mentors are so important in every field, and the one-on-one exchange that happens in a Master Class is particularly intense and intimate. Today’s Beautiful Music features renowned mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato coaching a young musician — the remarkable countertenor Key’mon Murrah — singing the aria WHERE’ER YOU WALK from George Frideric Handel’s opera SEMELE.

WOW, just WOW! I can’t wait for you to hear this extraordinary performance of an excerpt from Antonio Vivaldi’s Winter Concerto from the Four Seasons! It features Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra with Wen Zhao (Chinese pipa), Aruna Narayan (Indian veena) and Aqsamiit (Inuit throat-singing) — an exciting and virtuosic multi-cultural collaboration. You can also learn more

This is Beautiful Music to put a smile on your face! It’s a musical genre called a “guaracha” and the title of this one is AY QUE ME ABRASO. It was composed by Juan García de Zéspedes, a singer, composer, an viol player who was born in Puebla and lived from around 1619 until 1678.

May 4 is National Teacher Day, an opportunity to celebrate and thank the dedicated teachers who inspire and mentor, and power through whatever the circumstances might be. One of the great baroque era music teachers was Johann Sebastian Bach. He taught his own children and other students in his lifetime, and he continues to teach

Today’s Beautiful Music was composed by a musician whose name may be new to you, as it was to me. Caterina Assandra lived from c.1590 until after 1618. She was an Italian organist and a Benedictine nun. There’s a link below so you can read more about her.  This is one of Caterina Assandra’s few