Emily Boyer

Do you feel like you're rushing from one thing to the next? “Here will we sit and let the sounds of music creep in our ears.” Let sweet harmonies have a place in your day with the Serenade to Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Scientists tell us the vast majority of the ocean remains unexplored, leaving the deep sea a mystery to discover. You can dive into the swells and waves of Claude Debussy’s La Mer, or The Sea, this morning.

Leaves are green one day then scarlet the next, warm days make way for sweater weather. Pair the drama of autumn with Ernst von Dohnányi’s expansive Sextet. Bold chamber music to ground you in the changing season.

Have you noticed pumpkins, skeletons, and cobwebs appearing in your neighborhood? Spooky season is here! Watch out for a hungry spider lurking in those cobwebs, dining to the sound of The Spider’s Feast by Albert Roussel. Prepare yourself by listening this morning!

Johannes Brahms had the glowing recommendation of trusted critic Robert Schumann and he closely studied scores by his role models Beethoven and Mozart. From this, he delivered an outpouring of melodies his Serenade #1, which we’ll hear this morning.

You probably recognize the opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Those four insistent notes. There’s a symphony by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky that starts with the same driving intensity, so intense that it’s called the “fate theme”. Don’t try to fight fate—hear the symphony this morning on 91.1, 107.5, and our music stream.

You never know which evening will be the last warm summer night before the season comes to a close. Composer Gwyneth Walker celebrates fleeting moments in her piano piece Cantos for the End of Summer.

Are you drawn to music that shimmers, with an atmosphere of otherworldly beauty? I have the impression that you will love Claude Debussy’s spectacular Dances Sacred and Profane for harp and strings.

Pianist David Fung is an international artist—growing up in Sydney, appearing with orchestras from Israel to Los Angeles, and making his home in Vancouver and New York City. He even lived in our region while attending school at Yale. He brings it home with a performance for today’s Midday Mozart.

Margaret Bonds chose the song “I Want Jesus To Walk With Me” as the basis for her 1964 orchestral variations reflecting the ongoing civil rights movement. Her powerful music honors the anniversary today of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing.