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Mezzo-soprano Briana Elyse Hunter is a Malvern, Pennsylvania native who earned her music degrees from Davidson College and Manhattan School of Music. She is an award-winning and critically acclaimed musician and actress who has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Mostly Mozart, Seattle Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera, among many others. Ms. Hunter created the role of […]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité! Today is Bastille Day in France, so today’s Beautiful Music is a collection of French Baroque music performed by some of today’s most impressive musicians. They include French guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre playing L’aimable by Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, harpsichordist Jean Rondeau playing Les Sauvages by Jean-Philippe Rameau, and Daniela Dolci leading Ensemble Musica Fiorita performing the

Today’s Beautiful Music is a rousing concert featuring the United States Coast Guard’s Dixieland Jazz Band. It’s their 2017 Veteran’s Day performance on the Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center. This highly competitive ensemble was established in 1970. Their toe-tapping program includes Bourbon Street Parade, Basin Street Blues, West End Blues, Bye Bye Blues, Caravan, a

Today’s Beautiful Music demonstrates that classical music isn’t only “serious” music … and that young people are interested in and have fun with classical music! The Timpanogos (Orem, UT) High School choir singing (and acting out) the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. It’s great fun!

Violinist Yvonne Lam and pianist Deborah Moriarty were two of the featured performers in a concert called LIFT EVERY VOICE at Michigan State University’s College of Music in 2021. Their performance of the Allegro and Rondeau gracioso from Joseph Boulogne’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor, Op. 1b #3 is today’s Beautiful Music.

Today’s Beautiful Music features a composition that Johann Sebastian Bach originally wrote for keyboard. This performance features percussion marvel Adélaïde Ferrière playing Bach’s Toccata in e minor BWV 914 on the marimba. After you listen (and watch) her performance, I know you’ll want to learn more about the gifted percussionist, so there’s a link below

Michael Begay is a Diné performer/composer of Chamber Music, Experimental Sound, Native American Flute, and Metal music. He plays guitar, bass, piano, and various other instruments both Native American and orchestral. Today’s Beautiful Music features Michael Begay’s composition I WALK THE EARTH played by violinist Stefan Milenkovich and pianist Renata Yazzie. You can also enjoy

I’m a big fan of brass music — I love its spirited buoyance, and I especially love the Trumpet Concerto by Giuseppe Tartini. So today’s Beautiful Music features trumpeter Paul Merkelo as the soloist with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, conducted by their new Music Director, Rafael Payare. The Venezuelan conductor is himself a brass player

Augusta Mary Anne Holmès was a Parision composer of Irish descent who lived from 1847-1903. Her mother discouraged her from pursuing music seriously, but after her mother’s death she started studying music with Henri Lambert, who was the organist of Versailles Cathedral, and later with César Franck. She was talented, charismatic, and quite successful as a musician around

Today’s Beautiful Music is an elegant, buoyant performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #5. Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, flutist Anthony Robb, violinist Yuri Zhislin, and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra gave this 2015 performance at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, England. This lovely collaboration shows off what magnificent music Bach composed!