Category: Instrumental

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held in 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2024 is Planet vs. Plastics.

This Pretty Planet, a song composed by Tom Chapin and John Forster, was played to wake up astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle. It is sung first in unison and then in a round.

The Planets is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the solar system and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst. In 2016, a flashmob from the Berklee Contemporary Symphonic Orchestra assembled to perform Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.

Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson’s legendary career is celebrated in this Heritage Minute. The minute-long video chronicles the seven-time Grammy winner’s rise from a working-class Montreal family to becoming a world-renowned piano virtuoso. It touches on his encounters with greatness, such as being dubbed the man with four hands, and acknowledges the racism he faced at jazz gigs in the 1940s.

Sir James Galway is a virtuoso flute player from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is recognized for his remarkable technique and ability to blend classical, folk, and popular music traditions. Galway played on the soundtracks for The Lord of the Rings film series, composed by Howard Shore. Watch his flute and tin whistle performance here.

Also, enjoy his thrilling performance of Flight of the Bumble Bee, composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

In 2019 Emma Stevens from Eskasoni, Cape Breton recorded this beautiful rendition of Blackbird by The Beatles in her native Mi’kmaq language.