Emily Boyer

To say that British composer Ethel Smyth was determined is putting it lightly. She dove into her music lessons as a kid, and then begged her father to let her study composition in Germany. Hear her first published piece, a string quintet that is filled with tenacity and grandeur.

We’re sending well-wishes to college graduates with a piece called Congratulations this morning, followed by music that expresses students’ and parents’ sighs of relief...Alleluia.

Andrew Armstrong is a concert pianist who grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. He's now the Artistic Director of New Canaan Chamber Music. He takes us to a smoky jazz club with George Gershwin’s Three Preludes.

Thomas Edison was an innovator for the light bulb and phonograph. Grace Hopper was an innovator for computer programming. Who are American musical innovators? Find out in this week’s America 250: The American Experience, a weekly program getting into the people and stories behind American music.

Often musicians in orchestra sections don’t get a turn in the spotlight. Sarah Willis plays fourth horn in the Berlin Philharmonic, and her career goes far beyond holding down the low notes in the horn section. Hear her as a concerto soloist this morning.

Happy May Day! We’ll celebrate with an uplifting song from the Renaissance and the overture to an opera about intrigue at night after May Day revelry.

Procrastinators, take note. Franz Schubert, who was a well-respected composer, didn’t finish one of his symphonies and it’s had a long, successful performance run. So put off something on your to-do list, and listen to Schubert’s "Unfinished" Symphony this morning.

If you’ve heard of Abbey Road Studios, you might think of the Beatles. They aren’t the only famous artists to record there. Hear a recent recording from Abbey Road Studios of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, which was also performed at the studio’s opening celebration back in 1931.

You see the horizon in the distance and you feel free under the expanse of the wide-open sky. This morning, America 250: The American Experience takes us across the land, from the High Sierras in California to Niagara Falls in New York.

Have you seen any butterflies yet this spring? You never know when you’ll see one. I promise you can catch that magical glimpse listening to Winged Creatures by Michael Abels.