Women’s History Month

Clara Wieck Schumann was a German musician — a pianist, composer, and teacher who lived from 1819-1896. She started playing piano at age 5, and was a child prodigy. She and her husband Robert Schumann had 8 children, and she taught at Leipzig Conservatory, composed, and toured as a performer. Today’s Beautiful Music features pianist […]

Musician Holly Mathieson was born in Dunedin in New Zealand in 1981. She is a conductor who studied composition and analysis at The University of Otago, and orchestral conducting at The University of Melbourne Conservatorium, and earned her PhD in music from Otago. The award-winning conductor is Music Director of Symphony Nova Scotia in Canada,

In 2008, Jeri Lynne Johnson founded Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, and she remains its artistic director and conductor. She’s made history in 2005 as the first Black woman to win an international conducting prize when she was awarded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. Today’s Beautiful Music features Jeri Lynne Johnson leading Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra

Venezuelan viola da gamba player Laury Gutiérrez is an early music specialist. She is the founding director of La Donna Musicale, an ensemble dedicated to the research and performance of Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical, and Contemporary music by women composers. In addition to La Donna Musicale, Laury Gutiérrez also leads Rumbarroco, a Latin-Baroque Fusion Ensemble.

Today is INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY! In honor of the occasion, today’s Beautiful Music is by Joan Tower, a composer the New Yorker deemed, “…one of the most successful woman composers of all time.” The Grammy-winning New York-born composer, conductor, and pianist’s many notable compositions include her six FANFARES FOR THE UNCOMMON WOMAN. She wrote the

Cuban American composer and conductor Tania León has a prolific output of chamber music, solo piano works, orchestral music, and more. Her orchestral work STRIDE — a co-commission by commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Oregon Symphony — earned her the 2021 Pulitzer Prize, making Tania León the first African-American woman composer to win that

Today’s Beautiful Music features two dynamos — pianist Lara Downes and composer Dobrinka Tabakova. The American classical pianist is also the creator and host of the NPR Music series AMPLIFY, a prolific recording artist, and a sought-after collaborator. The Bulgarian composer was born in 1980, and at the tender age of 14 she won the

Although her older sister Nadia was much more famous (and long-lived), Lili Boulanger was a talented composer who showed great promise. Sadly, the promising young musician died in 1918 at the age of 24. Among her accomplishments, she was the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. It was 1913, and it

Minneapolis native Sharon Isbin began her guitar studies at age 9 and eventually went on to study at Yale School of Music. Sharon Isbin is an in-demand soloist, and has commissioned more guitar concertos than any other guitarist. She founded the guitar department at The Juilliard School in New York in 1989, and remains its

For today’s Beautiful Music I’m sharing a gorgeous performance of a compelling song –YOU ARE THE DUST — by Missy Mazzoli. Singer Emily d’Angelo and pianist Sophia Muñoz are the performers. The Grammy-nominated composer trained at Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague and Boston University, and is currently Composer in Residence