Early Music Now with Sara Schneider

Series produced by The WFMT Radio Network

Series image

Early Music Now with Sara Schneider is a one-hour program showcasing music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque: from sonorous medieval chant and polyphony to delightful renaissance madrigals, dances, and consort music to magnificent baroque cantatas and keyboard music.

Please login to PRX.org to preview program audio.


This series is available free of charge to all affiliate stations for one broadcast through June 24, 2023.

Click here to listen to a 10-minute sample of Early Music Now on our Website!

For more information, please contact:

Estlin Usher at eusher@wfmt.com (p) 773-279-2112

Early Music Now with Sara Schneider is a one-hour program showcasing music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque: from sonorous medieval chant and polyphony to delightful renaissance madrigals, dances, and consort music to magnificent baroque cantatas and keyboard music.

Host and producer Sara Schneider brings knowledge, charm, and passion to her presentation of seven hundred years of music history. From the latest recordings by today’s vibrant young ensembles, to classics from the dawn of the early music revival, Early Music Now makes this repertoire accessible and enjoyable to a wide audience.

About the Host, Sara Schneider

After studying musicology at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Michigan native Sara Schneider put her love of music to work at Classical 89.5, KMFA in Austin, Texas; first as an announcer and producer, and subsequently as Music Director until 2014. From 2014 to 2016, Sara lived in Lübeck, Germany, where she researched and authored a novel, The Eagle and the Songbird.

Sara has interviewed numerous early music luminaries, including Ton Koopman, Anonymous 4, Jordi Savall, and the late Gustav Leonhardt. She is a two-time Gracie Award® winner: in 2011 she received the award for her program Michael Nyman: Motion and Emotion, and in 2018 for Her Name Shall Endure, a program about medieval woman of letters Christine de Pizan.

Sara serves on the board of Texas Early Music Project. In her spare time, she enjoys travel, hiking, and writing historical fiction, and she recently completed a teacher training program in Kundalini Yoga. Hide full description

Please login to PRX.org to preview program audio.


This series is available free of charge to all affiliate stations for one broadcast through June 24, 2023.

Click here to listen to a 10-minute sample of Early Music Now on our Website!

For more information, please contact:

Estlin Usher at eusher@wfmt.com (p) 773-279-2112

Early Music Now with Sara Schneider is a one-hour program showcasing music from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque: from sonorous medieval chant and polyphony to delightful renaissance madrigals, dances, and consort music to magnificent baroque cantatas and keyboard music.

Host and producer Sara Schneider brings knowledge, charm, and passion to her presentation of seven hundred years of music history. From the latest recordings by today’s vibrant young...

Show full description

42 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Piece image
The centerpiece of this week's show is a 2023 release from Scandinavia's terrific triumvirate, Trio Mediaeval. They're presenting English music fro...

  • Added: Nov 06, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
Charles the Bold was more enamored of the art of music than anyone else, according to his court chronicler, and was even a composer himself. We'll ...

  • Added: Oct 30, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
Music from Italy is on deck this week, including works by Jewish composer Salomone Rossi, who was known as 'il Mantovano Hebreo', performed by Prof...

  • Added: Oct 24, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
This week's show honors the life of one of the great music patrons of the Italian Renaissance: Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara from 1471-1505. We'll...

  • Added: Oct 18, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
In celebration of the 300th anniversary of Bach's appointment as cantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1723, we'll hear music that he wrote earl...

  • Added: Oct 11, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
This week we're sampling a Carolingian soundscape with Per-Sonat. Their recent release, Orpheus' Echo, presents organum from the 9th-10th centuries...

  • Added: Oct 04, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
This week's show presents selections from an exciting new release of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers for the Blessed Virgin of 1610, featuring Pygmali...

  • Added: Sep 27, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
Host Sara Schneider takes us to Spain this week, for a survey of music including Mozarabic Chant, polyphony from the 12th century Codex Calixtinus,...

  • Added: Sep 20, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
We're enjoying the grandeur and elegance of French Baroque music on this week's show, including one of the grands motets by Jean-Joseph de Mondonvi...

  • Added: Sep 12, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
Baldassare Castiglione was a courtier, diplomat, and author, whose Book of the Courtier provides fascinating insights into courtly life in 16th cen...

  • Added: Sep 05, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
This week's show presents music from the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and James I. The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford teams up with Fretwo...

  • Added: Aug 28, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
The music of the eccentric composer Antonio Zacara da Teramo (1355-1416) has been compared to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch due to his surreal,...

  • Added: Aug 22, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
We're discovering recently released recordings this week, including Unicum: New Songs from the Leuven Chansonnier, performed by Ensemble Leones, an...

  • Added: Aug 15, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
This week's show celebrates the Feast of the Assumption with music written in honor of the Virgin Mary, including Compère's Ave Maria and Ockeghem'...

  • Added: Aug 09, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
Stylus Fantasticus was a wildly imaginative musical style that swept across Europe in the 17th century. We'll discover its Italian origins and foll...

  • Added: Aug 01, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
The Bavarian State Orchestra traces its history back to the year 1523, when composer Ludwig Senfl arrived in Munich to take up the post of court mu...

  • Added: Jul 25, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
We're sampling instrumental music from various sources this week, including music for cornetto and keyboard from the Italian duo Seicento Stravagan...

  • Added: Jul 19, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
This week we're taking a whirlwind tour of medieval music, with polyphony from the Notre Dame school, Ars Nova, Ars Subtilior, and songs by Troubad...

  • Added: Jul 12, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
According to the 16th century theorist Heinrich Glarean, the music of Jacob Obrecht has "a certain wonderful majesty" about it. Obrecht's Missa Mar...

  • Added: Jul 03, 2023
  • Length: 58:30
Piece image
One of the greatest composers of the English Renaissance passed away 400 years ago this week: William Byrd. He's the focal point of this week's sho...

  • Added: Jun 27, 2023
  • Length: 58:30