It doesn’t take long for visitors to realize that Austin, Minnesota, and Hormel Foods go together well. But there’s another link between the founding Hormel family, its well-endowed foundation and the city: music.


Classical Minnesota Stories

Provided

Beyond Spam: Hormel family's musical legacy thrives to this day

New Classical Tracks - Daniel Hope (Extended)

New Classical Tracks - Daniel Hope

Violinist Daniel Hope used music as a lifeline during the pandemic. With an abundance of time, and a message in his heart, he embarked on his most creative project to date with his new album, Hope.


New Classical Tracks

Nicolas Zonvi

Violinist Daniel Hope embarks on his most creative project to date

What is it about opera that makes us believe or feel it’s not accessible or enjoyable for us all? Writer Rebecca Garrett got a surprising reaction when she sang an aria at a recent karaoke night.  


Online USA/Getty Images

Why are people frightened by opera?

Listen to the Story

Saxophonist Tony Malaby, unlucky at the beginning of the pandemic after catching a very early case of the virus — the subsequent isolation imposed on his playing led him to a unique solution.


Randy Thaler

Saxophonist Tony Malaby's unlikely pandemic practice space: the New Jersey Turnpike

Classical Kids Storytime - 'El Violín de Ada'

Classical Kids Storytime - 'Ada's Violin'

Ada Ríos soñaba con tocar el violín. Sin embargo, ella creció con poco dinero en un pequeño pueblo de Paraguay construido sobre un vertedero. ¿Cómo pudo cumplir su sueño? Disfruta de la historia verdadera de la Orquesta Reciclada de Cateura, Paraguay, una orquesta compuesta por niños que tocan instrumentos construidos con basura reciclada, en el episodio más reciente de YourClassical Storytime, “El Violín de Ada,” narrado por Inés Guanchez en español e inglés.


YourClassical Storytime

Simon & Schuster 

'El Violín de Ada'

Share the joys of the music you love with young listeners through YourClassical Storytime — classic stories with a classical twist!


Nancy Carlson for MPR

YourClassical offers a variety of free email newsletters with exclusive content, giveaways and more for classical-music lovers. Sign up now!


Subscribe to our newsletters

YC Explore

A free, downloadable piece of classical music every weekday.


Get a free MP3 of Felix Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave). Can you guess this week’s theme? Let us know for a chance to win more free music. And don't forget to sign up for the Daily Download newsletter so you never miss a free classical track!


Felix Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)

Daily Download

Clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gloria Chien are 'Here With You'

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson wants to change how we think about Mozart 

New Classical Tracks: Most coveted releases of 2021

Lute and Viola Da Gamba Duo Ronn McFarlane and Carolyn Surrick Celebrate the Holidays

The Knights celebrate the holiday season with a Christmas album

Pianist Emanuel Ax makes music with lifelong friend Yo-Yo Ma

Conductor John Jeter continues to celebrate the works of Florence Price

Musical siblings Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason debut their first duo album

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho revisits Frédéric Chopin 

For young listeners and their families, hosted by Liz Lyon and produced by Melanie Renate


APM/MPR

Making Something Old, New: Arrangements and Variations

Xuefei Yang

The Road to The Guitar

Celebrations and Bells

Eric Whitacre

Melodies

The Human Voice

Calming Sounds

Sounds of Debussy

The Slow Lento

YourClassical Adventures

'Ada's Violin'

'Christmas Every Day'

'Stone Soup'

'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'

'KinderLute'

'Clover Kitty Goes to Kittygarten'

'Old Nasuk and the Flying Song'

'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'

'Old Mother Hubbard'

Max Bruch - Scottish Fantasy: Finale

Pablo de Sarasate - Airs Ecossais

Carl Czerny - Romantic Fantasy on Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy

William Vincent Wallace - Scots Wha Hae

Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier Suite

Richard Strauss - Romanze

Richard Strauss - Festmarsch

Richard Strauss - Don Juan

Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra: Introduction

Can you name the hidden tune and the composer whose style it copies?


Play the Piano Puzzler® for January 26, 2022

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 1/19/2022

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 1/12/2022

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 1/5/2022

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 12/29/2021

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 12/22/2021

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 12/15/2021

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 12/08/2021

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 12/01/2021

Performance Today - Piano Puzzler 11/24/2021

Piano Puzzler®

YC podcasts collection

Gary Cooper, organ; Oxford Camerata; Jeremy Summerly, conductor

Thomas Weelkes - Hosanna to the Son of David

Welcome to the Choral Stream Download, a handpicked, free, downloadable piece of choral music available every week for subscribers to the Choral Stream newsletter. This week, get a free MP3 of Thomas Weelkes - Hosanna to the Son of David.


Naxos

Choral Stream Download

YourClassical Adventures: Episode 69 - Arrangements and Variations

Pablo De Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy

Clara Schumann: Variations on a Theme

Maurice Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition

Like any artist, composers can be inspired by a variety of things. Sometimes composers are inspired by a piece of music and decide to make their own version. In this episode of YourClassical Adventures, we’ll learn about arrangements and variations and listen to pieces that composers made their very own.


Unsplash/Marius Masalar

Episode 69 - Making Something Old, New: Arrangements and Variations

Leonard Bernstein's contributions to the movies.  He only had one "original" soundtrack to "On the Waterfront", but we also listen to the two film versions of "West Side Story", "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town".

Bernstein in Hollywood

Leonard Bernstein's contributions to the movies.  He only had one "original" soundtrack to "On the Waterfront", but we also listen to the two film versions of "West Side Story", "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town".



Another glorious 'A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' has come and gone. On-demand audio is no longer available for the 2021 broadcast, but you can still explore the magic of the Christmas Eve service from King's College, Cambridge.


Keven Leighton

'A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols'

Host Christian McBride talks with vocalist and 2020 NEA Jazz Master Bobby McFerrin. We'll hear tracks from his vast catalog, stories from his illustrious career, and an impromptu jam with Christian. 


(Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Bobby McFerrin reflects on going from the hotel bar to prescribing 'medicine music'

Classical Kids Music Lesson: So many sound sources

Escuchen y piensen sobre cómo se produzcan los sonidos, y aprendan sobre varios instrumentos sudamericanos, incluyendo el charango, las zampoñas, y las pezuñas.


Patrick Brinksma/Unsplash

¡Hay tantas fuentes de sonido!

Welcome to YourClassical Music Lessons, offering hundreds of ways to teach children virtually about musical concepts and to hear world-class performances. Explore our library by category.


Nate Ryan/MPR

YourClassical Music Lessons: Directory

Classical Performances - St Paul Chamber Orchestra Jan 15th 2022

St Paul Chamber Orchestra Jan 15th 2022

Composer and bassist Xavier Foley made his SPCO debut with a program that included his work ‘For Justice and Peace,’ a double concerto for violin and bass that marks 400 years since the arrival of the White Lion, the first ship that brought enslaved Africans to Virginia. Listen now.


Beyond Spam: Hormel family's musical legacy thrives to this day

Felix Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)

Felix Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)

Shows

Performance Today

SymphonyCast

Composers Datebook®

Pipedreams

Saturday Cinema

Extra Eclectic

Curated Streams

YourClassical Radio

YourClassical MPR

Holiday

Relax

Lullabies

Choral Stream

Favorites

Chamber Music

Peaceful Piano

Hygge

Focus

Concert Band

YourClassical Children

Podcasts

New Classical Tracks

YourClassical Adventures

YourClassical Storytime

Daily Download

Piano Puzzler®

Explore

YourClassical Storytime

Subscribe to our newsletters