In classical music, a composition in its entirety is referred to as a piece or work, regardless of the length or number of movements. “Song” refers specifically to a genre within classical music called Art Song. An art song is a short(ish) piece of vocal music independent of a staged work (such as an opera) and performed in a recital setting.

For example, Franz Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise, is a piece or work. However, individual works within the cycle, such as “Gute Nacht” (Good Night), are songs.

A melody is an organized sequence of notes considered to be at the forefront of a piece of music. This is typically the part of a composition that the listener will remember and hum from time to time.

W. A. Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca features one of the most recognizable melodies in classical music.

Harmony refers to two or more notes played simultaneously to support the melody’s musical progression. In this video of Rondo alla Turca, the pianist’s left hand is providing the harmony.

Much like the theme of a book or piece of art, a theme in music is the subject of a work—the idea upon which a piece of music is written.

For instance, in her Gaelic Symphony, Amy Beach uses old Irish melodies as themes, inspired by her Anglo-American heritage.

A motif (pronounced “moh-TEEF”) is a small recurring unit in a piece of music that holds thematic significance. A motif is often, but not always, shorter than a theme.

For example, the repeating four-note pattern in the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is a motif.

Emilie Mayer was one of the most prolific German composers of her time, and yet her name rarely appears on concert programs today. Mayer took piano lessons from an early age. Though she had few examples to draw on as a woman, she decided, as a young adult, to pursue composition as a professional career.

Because women were barred from professional studies at most institutions, Mayer sought musical tutoring through private study. One of her most impactful mentors was composer Carl Loewe. Ultimately settling in Berlin, Mayer produced hundreds of well-regarded symphonies, chamber music, songs, and more. At first, she published her works under the name E. Mayer; however, once she began using her full name, Emilie Mayer, responses to her music became more critical.

Nonetheless, her career blossomed as she refused to relinquish her ambition. Her music was performed across Europe. Unfortunately, following her death, there was no one to carry on her legacy, and her music fell into obscurity.

Like Emilie Mayer, German composer Luise Adolpha Le Beau showed musical ability from an early age while learning to play the piano. She began composing during childhood, and as a concert pianist, she made her professional debut at 18. For a short period of time, Le Beau studied with Clara Schumann. Shortly after, she moved to Munich to study with Josef Rheinberger.

As a composer, Le Beau wrote a wide range of works, including orchestral music, operas, choral works, songs, piano solos, and chamber pieces. Unfortunately, because of her gender, Le Beau’s works were often met with skepticism, and career opportunities proved hard to come by. In her autobiography, she wrote, “It is difficult to come to terms with such circumstances when one has dedicated her entire life to a profession, but one must be satisfied with the consciousness of having helped to build the temple of art according to one’s best knowledge and with honest intentions.” As she fought to have her music performed, Le Beau championed equal opportunities for young female musicians.

French composer Henriette Renié is best remembered as a virtuoso harpist, though her accomplishments as a composer should not be overlooked. Renié began studying the harp at such a young age that her father had to engineer extensions for the instrument to help her reach the pedals. She began her performance career at 11, after winning first prize for harp at the Paris Conservatory.

As a composer, Renié wrote almost exclusively for the harp (or music that prominently featured the harp). In doing so, she helped elevate the instrument’s status and establish the harp as a solo concert instrument. As a respected teacher, Renié codified a method for playing the harp, called Méthode complete de harpe (Complete Method for Harp), which is still used today. She was never granted a professorship at the Paris Conservatory, but many of her students attended the institution where she had begun her professional trajectory.

Charlotte Sohy was a French composer who was incredibly influential during her lifetime but has since fallen into relative obscurity. Sohy completed her formal training at the Schola Cantorum, where she studied under Vincent d’Indy. While at the Schola Cantorum, she met her future husband, composer Marcel Labey. The couple enjoyed an unusually fruitful, collaborative relationship (for the time) – they both worked as musical professionals, while raising seven children, and frequently contributed to and advocated for each other’s compositions.

Sohy published 35 works, including a symphony inspired by World War I, an opera, chamber music, songs, and more. To avoid prejudice due to her sex, Sohy used her grandfather’s name, Charles Sohy, as a pseudonym.

Fun fact – Sohy’s cousin was fellow composer Louis Durey. Durey was a member of Les Six, a group of six composers who rebelled against the Romanticism and Impressionism that peaked around the turn of the 20^th century. Sohy herself was friends with composers Mel Bonis and Nadia Boulanger.

Madeleine Dring was an English composer, actress, singer, and pianist. Born into a creative family, Dring won a scholarship to study violin and piano at the Royal College of Music at just 10 years old. She continued her education there through her teens, studying composition under Herbert Howells and Ralph Vaughan Williams. While music proved to be a creative outlet for Dring from an early age, she also had a deep love of theatre and concurrently studied drama and mime.

As a composer, Dring often intertwined her love of music and theater, writing incidental music and songs for stage works that she would also perform in. She wrote many pieces for her husband, Roger Lord, who was principal oboist of the London Symphony Orchestra. She was known for her sense of wit, which regularly made its way into her scores. Unfortunately, following her death, much of Dring’s unpublished music has not been found.

Robert and Clara first met 13 years before their marriage. When Clara was just 8 years old—and already a virtuoso on the piano herself—the teenaged Robert began taking piano lessons with Clara’s father. Over the next several years, the two musicians grew to know each other well. In time, friendship turned into love. Robert and Clara’s courtship was long and not without challenges. Clara’s father vehemently opposed the match, and only after suing him were they finally able to make things official.

As a wedding gift, Robert compiled 26 songs into a collection called “Myrtles,” named after the herb associated with the Ancient Greek goddess, Aphrodite. Myrtle was also traditionally included in German bridal bouquets.

During the summer of 1812, Ludwig van Beethoven penned a letter that would unleash decades, if not centuries, of debate. The letter’s recipient was notably referred to as “Immortal Beloved,” though no actual name was ever used. The document was never sent and only discovered after the composer’s death. We may never know who Beethoven intended to bestow such sweet words, but the mystery around this romantic gesture is tantalizing…

Did you know that Gustav Mahler was not only a composer of massive symphonic works but also a hopeless romantic? The courtship of Mahler and the promising young composer and socialite, Alma Schindler, was quick and passionate. The two met at a dinner party, and Mahler was immediately infatuated with “the most beautiful woman in Vienna.” Within weeks of meeting, the couple was married in an intimate private ceremony.

Around the same time of the couple’s marriage, Mahler was working on his fifth symphony. The fourth movement, called “Adagietto,” may be one of the most romantic pieces of orchestral music ever written. No text accompanies this piece, yet it still contains an exquisite level of poetic expression. Gustav even sent Alma the score to this movement as a love letter, for what communicates affection more completely than music, especially for a composer?

The relationship between Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears is one for the ages. The two met through a mutual friend and remained together for nearly 40 years, until Britten’s death. While they could never publicly acknowledge their romantic relationship – they managed to build a rich and fulfilling life together. Letter writing was a regular form of communication. Britten and Pears left behind hundreds of handwritten documents as part of their romantic legacy. As a professional singer, Pears also became something of a muse for Britten and inspired many of the composer’s best-known works.

Leoš Janáček was 63 years old when we first met a 25-year-old woman named Kamila Stösslová. Janáček quickly became enamored with Kamila, obsessively writing to her on a regular basis and incorporating visions of her into his music. She was reportedly flattered by the composer’s affection. The problem, however, was that both Janáček and Stösslová were already married… to other people!

Kamila remained loyal to her husband, while remaining in touch with Leoš. He, on the other hand, would use his yearning for his unattainable love interest to fuel his writing. Over the next decade, Stösslová inspired some of his most famous pieces of music.

LOVE STORY and all of the handcrafted programming on All Classical Radio is made possible by listener support.

This special program is generously sponsored by CREO Chocolate. An award-winning small-batch chocolate factory and tasting room in the Lloyd district of Portland, Oregon, CREO Chocolate sources their beans directly from small farmers and craft with detailed attention to bring out interesting flavors. They offer high-quality products and tasting experiences.

Learn more at creochocolate.com.

Harry Thacker Burleigh is often overlooked as a formative American composer; however, his influence on the works of those who knew him is immeasurable. Burleigh was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and, through early exposure to music and his family’s lineage, he learned about African American spirituals. The melodies sung by his enslaved ancestors would become his most significant source of inspiration.

Burleigh received a scholarship to study at the National Conservatory of Music, where he became acquainted with Antonín Dvorák, the Conservatory’s director at the time. Dvorák was fascinated by Burleigh’s seemingly endless knowledge of spirituals and famously wrote themes based on these songs in his “New World” Symphony.  

As a composer, Burleigh wrote hundreds of arrangements of spirituals, including “Deep River,” in addition to original songs. His works have forever enriched American classical music and have lifted the spiritual from its horrific past into the light of the concert hall.

James P. Johnson spent much of his childhood in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he learned the piano and absorbed the musical influences around him. After his family moved to Manhattan’s San Juan Hill neighborhood when Johnson was a teenager, the young musician began formal study and was exposed to everything from ragtime to Eurocentric classical music. He studied classical repertoire and compositional techniques with Bruto Gianni, who also taught Scott Joplin.

By the 1920s, Johnson had become one of the most significant pianists in New York. He pioneered the Harlem Stride, an improvisational style of jazz piano involving the left hand “striding” large distances up and down the keyboard, made famous in works such as “Caroline Shout” and “Charleston.”

Throughout his career, Johnson constantly sought out a wide variety of skilled musicians to learn from. He explored ways to redefine American classical music through his symphonies, concertos, and other large-scale works.

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Julia Perry studied violin, piano, and singing from an early age. She went on to earn both her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Westminster Choir College. As an emerging composer and conductor, Perry sought additional training in Europe from Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger.

Early on in her career, Perry was heavily influenced by her Western classical education while still drawing on African American influences, including Spirituals and the blues. However, as the climate around race shifted in the late 1950s and early 1960s, her works became more outwardly expressive of her own experience as a Black woman. She also became bolder in calling out injustices she witnessed.

At 46 years old, Perry suffered a debilitating stroke that paralyzed her right side and made her unable to speak. She taught herself to write with her left hand so she could keep composing. Perry was an incredibly prolific composer; however, much of her work was lost after her death or has yet to be published. Additionally, many of her post-stroke manuscripts have left her advocates unable to read her writing confidently.

Michael Abels is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer known for reworking classical styles by adapting popular mediums. Abels grew up in South Dakota and took piano lessons from a young age. After studying at the University of Southern California and the California Institute for the Arts, Abels established himself as a leading composer of orchestral music.  

Abels is best known for his film scores, including the Oscar-winning Get Out, as well as the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar, based on the life of Omar Ibn Said, which he co-composed with Rhiannon Giddens.

In addition to his ever-growing body of work, Abels is the co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group that increases the visibility of composers of color in film, gaming, and streaming media.

Emmy Award-winning composer and vocalist Jasmine Barnes grew up in Baltimore, where she had access to a wide range of arts programs for young people—something she cites as essential to her ability to pursue a career in music. She has since exploded onto the classical music scene. Barnes’ music is performed worldwide, and she has collaborated with many extraordinary artists, including Lawrence Brownlee, Will Liverman, and Joshua Conyers.

As a composer, Barnes specializes in vocal music, with five operas (currently) under her belt, as well as choral works, chamber music, and art songs. In 2023, she received a Capital Emmy Award for the PBS documentary “Dreamer,” which featured her career and music.

Barnes was one of All Classical Radio’s 2021 Composers in Residence. Her work, Taking Names, was featured on the station’s inaugural album, Amplify, as part of the Recording Inclusivity Initiative. In addition to All Classical, Barnes has held residencies at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, American Lyric Theater, and Chautauqua Opera.

Joe Cantrell continues to be a pillar of the community, not only by sharing his time and wisdom with local arts organizations, but also through his astounding images.

In honor of the Artist Anthology’s second anniversary, Joe writes, “I felt the need to work up a commemorative image of my own as Bolero plays on the air. I AM TEAM BOLERO if they’ll have me, and this 225,000,000-year-old Ammonite child’s name is ‘Bolero’ too.”

Darrell Grant will be making his symphony soloist debut at the end of October, performing the world premiere of David Schiff’s Uptown/Downtown: Concerto for Piano & Orchestra with the Oregon Symphony.

Please enjoy this exclusive sneak peek at Darrell’s upcoming performance of Uptown/Downtown:

Hunter Noack’s IN A LANDSCAPE celebrated its tenth anniversary season with 49 concerts across Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. 

The New York Times traveled to Oregon’s Alvord Desert and Ketchum, Idaho to highlight IN A LANDSCAPE in a feature published online and in both national and international printed papers. Other recent press includes a segment aired on PBS’ Backroads of Montana, and stories in Fox Weather, Flaunt, Success, Airmail, and C Magazine. 

Forbes Magazine highlighted this season’s work with farmers, ranchers, and two culinary collaborators: An IN A LANDSCAPE ice cream flavor created in partnership with Salt & Straw’s Tyler Malek to be eaten with Scriabin’s Nocturne No. 9, available only at the Rose Garden Amphitheater concert; and picnic baskets curated by the James Beard Award–winning restaurant Kann for all Portland concerts.

In June, Hunter released his second album, IN A LANDSCAPE: LIVE, featuring eleven live recordings from the past decade of IN A LANDSCAPE concerts. Special guest artists include James Edmund Greeley and May Arden.

Corinna Luyken’s latest picture book, The Arguers, is a delightfully preposterous fairy tale about a community that forgets how to get along. Called “A charming illustrated parable about the absurdity of self-righteousness” by Maria Popova of The Marginalian, “Thoroughly enchanting, without argument” by Kirkus, and “Stangely beautiful [with] art that can be pored over time and time again” by Booklist, it was published this past summer by Rocky Pond Books of Penguin Random House.

Get a special preview of the book in the animated trailer for The Arguers on Corinna’s Instagram!

“Two years ago, I was in a very different place. I had come through a season of loss and depression, and I remember wanting to share that truth openly—because even as artists, surrounded by beauty and creativity, we can still face moments of deep struggle. I wanted others to know they weren’t alone, and that healing is possible, even when it feels far away.

“Today, I’m creating again from a place of joy and purpose. I’ve moved into a larger studio where I continue to create one-of-a-kind couture pieces. Each garment feels like a collaboration, a shared story told through fabric and form.

“I’ve also begun offering private fashion design and couture lessons, sharing the craft and techniques that have shaped my career. It’s been rewarding to connect with students who are eager to learn the art of creating with intention and excellence.

“My hope is that my story reminds others that even after the hardest seasons, beauty and purpose can return in richer, more unexpected ways. Much like the vintage pieces I take apart and bring back to life, I’ve done the same with myself—transforming what once felt broken into something entirely new and beautiful.”

The wonderful team at Chef Gabriel Rucker’s restaurant, Le Pigeon, will be opening a new outpost of Canard in Beaverton, Oregon in mid-October. The new location have all the Canard staples—oysters, oeufs, steam burgers, and the duck stack—alongside playful new, west side specific creations like a smoked s’more icebox cake. Dustin Cavin will be the chef de cuisine. 

Learn more at canardrestaurant.com.

Kim Stafford co-edited a book that contains fifty translations of his poem, “A Proclamation for Peace,” into Yoruba, Tagalog, Zapotec, Tamil, Nepali, Roma, and other languages. The book contains QR codes that empower readers to hear translations read aloud. 

Takeshi Yonezawa is currently working on pieces for his first solo exhibition, which will be held in 2028 at a museum in Wyoming and will run for several months. He has been creating a new war bonnet, as well as new bonsai and skateboard pieces, and each day feels full of challenges and discoveries for the artist.

Born in Cuba, violinist and composer José White Lafitte showed signs of musical talent from a young age. At 19 years old, White Lafitte performed the violin publicly for the first time with American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk. The performance’s success led to White Lafitte’s enrollment at the Paris Conservatory, where he won the First Grand Prize for Violin within his first year of study.

White Lafitte went on to enjoy a fruitful career as a touring performer, composer, and educator. Fun fact: one of his students was George Enescu.

For over a decade, White Lafitte worked as the director of the Imperial Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the court composer of Emperor Pedro II. As a composer, his works often feature the violin and elegantly straddle the traditions of the romantic era with musical features from his homeland.

The prolific career of Mexican composer and conductor Carlos Chávez spanned over 50 years. Appreciated as one of the most influential musical figures in Mexican history, Chávez created a distinct sound world that honored his home country. His emergence into adulthood coincided with the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1921, after which a new cultural nationalism emerged that made a significant impression on the young composer.

Chávez wrote over 200 works, from ballets and symphonies to pieces for piano and small ensemble. As a conductor, he led nearly every major orchestra in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. However, perhaps his most significant impact was his advocacy for increased access to the arts in Mexico. As founder and head of the Orquesta Sinfónica de México (OSM), Chávez organized concerts for workers and children. He even took the orchestra out to rural Mexican provinces, bringing classical music to many audiences for the first time.

Speaking of Carlos Chávez, the illustrious composer taught our next subject, José Pablo Moncayo, at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. Moncayo was a pianist and percussionist, though he is best remembered today as a conductor rather than a composer. His orchestral piece, Huapango, is a popular choice for the concert hall. Along with three other Mexican composers, Moncayo formed the “Group of Four” to foster a nationalist school of Mexican music, similar to France’s “Les Six” and Russia’s “The Five.” He championed idioms from Mexican folk music in his works and sought to incorporate these sounds into the Classical vernacular.

Fun fact: Moncayo was invited to study composition with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood during the summer of 1942.

Argentinian composer Carlos Guastavino showed talent for the piano from an early age. A self-proclaimed lover of melody and song, Guastavino would write hundreds of songs over the course of his career (many of which have not been published), leading admirers to claim him as “The Argentine Schubert.” He was devoted to tonal harmony and traditional musical forms amid the rise of experimental musical styles in the mid-20^th century, and he was inspired by the folk music of Argentina. Guastavino felt that simple, memorable melodies were the way to a listener’s heart.

Guastavino set words by León Benarós to music in over 60 songs and maintained a long, collaborative friendship with the poet. In addition to art song, Guastavino also wrote works for orchestra, piano, and guitar.

Violeta Parra was a highly influential Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, and artist. Her father taught her and her siblings to sing and play the guitar from a young age. Unsurprisingly, Parra took to songwriting right away with passion. She was particularly inspired by Chilean folk music, which led her to co-create a new musical genre—Nueva canción chilena (“Chilean New Song”), merging native folk music with themes of social justice. Parra endeavored to keep the traditions of Chile, especially those from rural regions, alive for future generations.

Recognized as the “Mother of Latin American Folk,” Parra mastered the art of storytelling through her songs. Parra’s work as a folk musician also proved that the boundaries between classical and popular music are artificial, with recordings of her music by classical artists such as Elīna Garanča and Yo-Yo Ma.

Composer José Elizondo was born in Mexico and currently resides in the U.S. He holds degrees in Music and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); he also studied music at Harvard University. Elizondo has built a dual career for himself as both a composer and an engineer—his engineering work focuses on speech-recognition technology, combining his interests in computer science, linguistics, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence.

As a composer, Elizondo has become best known for his compositions written for cello despite never learning how to play the string instrument. While studying music in college, Elizondo was introduced to the cello after hearing a performance by Carlos Prieto and becoming immensely inspired by the musician. Elizondo’s music is regularly performed by distinguished artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Allison Eldredge, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and many more. Elizondo prides himself on writing music that is joyful, heartfelt, and accessible to all audiences.

Known as the “valkyrie of the piano,” Teresa Carreño was a Venezuelan concert pianist, singer, and composer. Born in Caracas, Carreño and her family moved to New York when the musician was still a child in response to growing political instability. Spending time in both New York and Paris during her upbringing, Carreño was able to pursue an international musical career. She became one of the first female pianists to tour the United States, quickly becoming a role model for subsequent generations of American woman musicians. As a composer, Carreño wrote around 80 works, many of which were for the piano and performed herself in concert.

Fun fact: In 1863, when Carreño was still a child, she performed for Abraham Lincoln at the White House. Decades later, in 1916, she returned to the White House to perform for Woodrow Wilson.

French composer and organist Fernande Decruck made her gift for music known early on in life. Having won several prestigious accolades by her teens, Decruck entered the Paris Conservatory, where she excelled in composition and piano studies. As she began to make her mark as a working professional, Decruck spent a period of time touring throughout the United States, giving impressive concerts on the organ where she would improvise for the audience. This period in the U.S. also proved fruitful for composing, resulting in many new works for piano and organ, as well as her first works for saxophone—Decruck’s husband, Maurice, played the instrument and successfully earned a position playing with the New York Philharmonic.

After returning to France, Decruck continued to devote her life to music: composing, performing, and teaching. Despite her successful career, her legacy fell into obscurity following her death and has only recently begun gaining attention once more.

Grażyna Bacewicz was a Polish-Lithuanian violinist, pianist, and composer who created a unique path for herself (at least for a woman at the time) by pursuing performance and composition on relatively equal terms. Having studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Bacewicz would go on to premiere many of her own works in concert. The bulk of her catalog consisted of chamber music works, particularly music written for strings. She became well-known and appreciated in her native Poland but had a harder time breaking down barriers on the international stage. Unfortunately, for the last 15 years of her life, Bacewicz was forced to retire from performing and focus exclusively on composition because of injuries suffered from a car accident.

Fun fact: In addition to writing music, Bacewicz also wrote novels and short stories.

Trailblazing American composer Joan Tower’s career has spanned more than sixty years, making a significant mark on the world of classical music in the States and beyond. When asked about her musical voice, Tower has responded, “My music is about rhythm, predominantly, the rhythm of ideas. And it’s also organic, and it has a large-scale narrative…  It’s also very important for me to be clear: I don’t think my music ever gets complicated enough that you don’t hear everything.”

In 2020, Tower was chosen as “Composer of the Year” by Musical America, and in 2019, the League of American Orchestras awarded her its highest honor, the Gold Baton. She currently serves as the Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972. All Classical Radio listeners likely know Tower best for Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is dedicated to women who take risks and who are adventurous.

Born into a family of artists and intellectuals, Victoria Yagling was a Russian cellist and composer who made a name for herself as a major force in the USSR. Unfortunately, she would have to wait until 1990 to break beyond her native barriers when she was able to emigrate to Finland. While continuing to compose, Yagling also taught cello at the Jean Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Unsurprisingly, her works for the string instrument have become the most prominent part of Yagling’s compositional legacy. Stylistically, her music embodies a Romantic essence unmistakably born out of the influence of her fellow Russian predecessors, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Errollyn Wallen CBE is a Belize-born British composer who recently became the first Black woman to be appointed Master of the King’s Music, an honor that endorses her exceptional musical contributions. Wallen’s works have also been performed at the BBC Proms, the 2012 Paralympic Games, and the late Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees. As an emerging composer in the 1980s, Wallen struggled with breaking down barriers for women in the field, especially women of color. Consequently, she co-founded, along with other female composers, musicians, and administrators, the organization Women in Music, promoting works by underrepresented voices in the field.

As a composer, Wallen has written over 20 operas in addition to a large catalog of works for orchestra and chamber ensemble.

Based in Los Angeles, Indian-American composer Reena Esmail connects the worlds of Indian and Western classical soundscapes in her music. With a focus on works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and choir, Esmail uses her music to address humanity in art and create a sense of belonging and inclusivity among its listeners. After earning degrees from both The Julliard School and Yale School of Music, she subsequently sought a return to her cultural roots and attained a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India.

Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence. She also currently serves as Artistic Director of Shastra, an organization that fosters cross-cultural dialogue between Western music and the music of India. In 2022, Esmail’s life and career were featured on an episode of the PBS Great Performances series, “Now Hear This.”

Naomi LaViolette is an American composer, pianist, and singer-songwriter whose music is influenced not only by her classical education but also by her study of jazz, folk songs, soul, pop, and gospel. As a singer, Naomi attributes songwriting in her early 20s as a way to process strong emotions and experiences. With four albums of original music under her belt and many more singles, Naomi writes songs filled “with the stories, emotions, celebrations, and struggles of what it means to be human.”

LaViolette is based in Portland, OR, and has collaborated with several local organizations. Since 2004, she has been the pianist for the Oregon Repertory Singers, in addition to working with the Oregon Symphony as a songwriter and arranger for The Lullaby Project. Her work with Saving His Music, a project preserving the music of a talented pianist suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, received prominent coverage both locally and across the country.

Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in Drummondville, Ontario, a community founded by freedom-seekers who escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Dett received a substantial musical education, first from Oberlin Conservatory where he was the first person of African descent to graduate with a double major in piano and composition, followed by a master’s degree from Eastman School of Music many years later. A significant part of Dett’s legacy lies in his work as a choral conductor at the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), where he led the program to a new level of artistic achievement and excellence. As a composer, he published around 100 works, many of which were arrangements of folksongs and spirituals written for the Hampton choir.   

Recommended recording: The piano suite, In the Bottoms, performed by pianist Luke Welch on the album, Northern Magnolias: Robert Nathaniel Dett Piano Works.

American composer Dorothy Rudd Moore knew from a young age that she wanted to compose, a dream that was lovingly supported by her family. Following this dream with persistence, Moore became one of her generation’s leading female composers of color. As a composer, she wrote works for chamber ensemble, piano, and orchestra, in addition to art songs and an opera. Moore also played an essential role in uplifting Black artists by co-founding the Society of Black Composers in 1968 alongside her husband, cellist Kermit Moore. Her work as an educator at several New York-based institutions inspired a new generation of up-and-coming musicians.

Recommended recording: 3 Pieces for Violin & Piano performed by Dawn Wohn (violin) and Emely Phelps (piano) on the album, Unbounded: Music by American Women.

East London native Shirley J. Thompson is a pioneering composer whose music has been claimed as “the present and future of British classical music.” Despite a string of successes early on in her career, Thompson was shut out of the classical music world for many years, during which time she worked in television and composed on the side. However, by the early 2000s, Thompson began establishing herself once more as a compositional force and welcomed a long list of prestigious commissions, including a symphony for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002. In 2019, Thompson received an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to music. Her works for orchestra, stage, chamber ensemble, TV, and film are performed all over the world.

Recommended recording: “Marshes, Hamlets and Roaming Cows,” the first movement of Thompson’s innovative symphony, New Nation Rising, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on the album, New Nation Rising: A 21st Century Symphony.

Stewart Goodyear is a Canadian pianist and composer whose prestige on the keyboard instrument has long garnered attention, including his infamous “sonathons” where he performs all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in one day. Goodyear’s work writing music, on the other hand, is a more recent development in his career trajectory. However, in doing so, Goodyear joins a long lineage of concert pianist-composers in classical music, such as W. A. Mozart, Clara Schumann, and Sergei Rachmaninov. Goodyear channels his virtuosic piano playing into many of his own works and regularly programs them in concerts alongside well-known classical music standards, proving the genre’s timeless influence and merit.

Recommended recording: The Kapok for Cello and Piano performed by Inbal Segev (cello) and Stewart Goodyear (piano) on the album, 20 for 2020 Volume IV.

Los Angeles-based composer Derrick Skye has made a name for himself integrating musical practices and connections across cultures from around the world into his work. A student of West African drumming and dance, Persian classical music, Hindustani classical music, Balkan music theory, and more, Skye layers outwardly disparate traditions into groundbreaking works for the concert hall. He uses rhythm, and the embodiment of rhythm through movement, as a unifying feature for much of his music, often collaborating with choreographers and even synchronized swimmers. Skye’s compositional oeuvre includes works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, and film.

Recommended recording: The orchestra work, Prisms, Cycles, Leaps, performed by Bridge to Everywhere on the album, Prisms, Cycles, Leaps.

Jon Batiste is a musical artist of many trades – singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and TV personality. Batiste rose to prominence as the musical director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015-2022, though he has been releasing recordings of his works since 2005 (several of which have won Grammy Awards). Batiste grew up in Louisiana, the son of a jazz musician and professional singer, and was consequently exposed to a wide variety of musical influences throughout his upbringing. Since emerging on the professional scene, Batiste has redefined what it means to be a modern-day musician and is consistently breaking down barriers. In 2020, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the Disney/Pixar film, Soul. The film also earned Batiste a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, an NAACP Image Award, and a Critic’s Choice Award.

Recommended recording: Chopinesque performed by Jon Batiste on the album, Hollywood Africans.