Collection of music videos

Georg Friedrich Haendel ( 1685-1759) was born in Halle , Germany. Naturalized English, he is one of the leading figures in the history of music and, of course, of the Baroque. As a child, he began to receive harmony and counterpoint lessons from Friedrich Zachow , organist of Halle , with whom he also learned to play the oboe, violin and organ. At the age of 18 he moved to Hamburg where he wrote his first two operas. After three years he traveled to Florence and then to Rome . In 1710 he returned to Germany and from there to London where he settled for life. Despite the total silence with which he protected his privacy, his homosexuality seems clear. Of his abundant musical production, we must highlight the Oratorio Messiah , one of the masterpieces of history . He died at the age of 74 at his home.

Ombra mai fu is the opening aria of Handel 's opera Xerxes, premiered in 1738. The opera was a commercial failure, with only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century , however, this aria was rediscovered and has come to be one of Handel 's best-known pieces. Originally composed to be sung by a castrato (in modern performances of Xerxes it is sung by a countertenor, contralto , or mezzo-soprano ), in the version we offer today, the aria is sung by the Italian artist Cecilia Bartoli , a light mezzo-soprano of refined technique, who has performed in the world's major halls with the most renowned conductors.

José Dámaso Pérez Prado (Matanzas, Cuba, December 11, 1917 - Mexico City, September 14, 1989), known as the "King of Mambo", was a Cuban musician, composer and arranger who became a Mexican citizen.

Dámaso Pérez Prado is best known for his contributions to the mambo genre, which has its origins in the Cuban danzón and which would pave the way for the emergence and development of cha-cha-chá , as well as the music that emerged in the late 1950s and later known as salsa in the early 1970s. He was not the creator of the rhythm, which was already being played in Havana in the late 1930s, but he was its greatest international disseminator.

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. He was the first American -born conductor to achieve worldwide fame, famous for his performance of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra , for his Young People's Concerts broadcast on television between 1958 and 1972, and for his many compositions, including West Side Story (1957) and Candide . He was also a pivotal figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler , the composer who most interested him passionately. As a composer, he wrote piano music, chamber music, choral music, religious music, numerous stage works for ballet, film, opera, and musicals, as well as extensive orchestral work. Regarding his sexuality, some critics claim that he was pansexual; although at the time the term was not yet in common use.

Today we present the work Mambos , which is an orchestral arrangement by Leonard Bernstein of Dámaso Pérez Prado 's Potpourri of Mambos , performed by the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra , conducted by the internationally admired maestro Gustavo Dudamel , educated and emerged from the System (National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela).

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was a Polish virtuoso pianist and composer. As a pianist, he is considered one of the most important in history and as a composer, one of the leading figures of Romanticism . He was born into a vocationally musical family; his mother played the piano and his father, the violin and flute. His first teacher was a sister with whom he enjoyed playing four-handed pieces. At the age of eight, he gave his first public concert at the Radziwill family palace in Warsaw . Chopin 's work focuses exclusively on the piano, solo or concertante, with which he embarked on a solo career of technical perfection, expressive splendor and deepening his knowledge of rubato, until he became the musical reference for this instrument.

Musical historiography and popular culture have left us with an image of Chopin as a weak and asexual being. This stereotype has even influenced the work of thinkers such as Sartre in his work Nausea . However, a reading of the composer's correspondence gives us the profile of a human being with quite "normal" sexual concerns. In his youth, Chopin maintained a close relationship, which some would define as homosexual, with Titus Woyciechowski , and years later he frequented the circle of Altophelphe de Custine , a prestigious aristocratic scholar and recognized homosexual. The correspondence—possibly fraudulent—between Chopin and Delphina Potocka reveals a serious, albeit unsuccessful, attempt to heterosexualize the composer. Ultimately, Chopin 's sexual life has never ceased to arouse the curiosity of aficionados and generate debate among experts. (Antoni Pizà, Musicologist, The City University of New York)

Frédéric Chopin 's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, is one of two piano concertos by the Polish composer. Although published second, it actually predates the Concerto No. 1. It was completed in late winter 1829, when the composer was 19 years old, and is dedicated to Countess Delfina Potocka . It was premiered by the composer himself on piano on 17 March 1830 in Warsaw . Overall, it is more dramatic in tone than the Concerto in E minor . All in all, it is a wonderfully inspired melody, rich in romantic expressiveness and rhythmic flair.

Yuja Wang (1987), our soloist today, is a Chinese classical pianist who began studying piano at the age of six. She entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing a year later. By the age of 21, she was already internationally renowned and giving recitals all over the world, performing with the world's leading orchestras. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times , she said: "For me, playing music is transporting me to another way of life, another way of being. An actress does that."

Mohammed Fairouz (1985) is one of the most frequently performed American composers of his generation. Fairouz studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music . He first set Oscar Wilde 's poem " The True Knowledge " to music at the age of 7 and has written hundreds of songs and over a dozen song cycles. In Poets & Writers magazine, he described himself as text-obsessed and thus writes song cycles with Middle Eastern -related texts . He also wrote an oratorio entitled Zabur , with a libretto by Najla Said and texts in both Arabic and English, premiered in April 2015. Despite his young age, he has so far written chamber music, four symphonies, several concertos, and three operas.

The Queer Urban Orchestra (QUO) is a musical institution founded in July 2009 and dedicated to the promotion of fine arts in the New York City metropolitan area, open to all adult musicians, regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. QUO strives to entertain and educate its members and audiences alike through classical and contemporary music performances, promoting equality, understanding, acceptance, and respect.

The Queer Urban Orchestra , today conducted by maestro Ian Shafer , offers us Mohammed Fairouz 's 2nd Symphony .

Elton John (born 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, pianist, and musician. With a career spanning over 50 years, he has sold over 300 million copies worldwide, being one of the most successful artists in history and the only one to keep at least one song within the Billboard Hot 100 for 30 consecutive years, from 1970 to 2000. His 1997 song "Candle in the Wind" , rewritten on the occasion of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, sold over 33 million copies, being the second best-selling single in history. He has won five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends Award, two Oscars , and a Kennedy Award. In 1996, he was knighted after being appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire , and the title Sir was added to his name. In 1976 he came out as gay, which made him even more popular, and in 1992 he created the Elton John HIV/AIDS Foundation .

Ricky Martin (Enrique Martin Morales, San Juan, December 24, 1971) is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, actor and writer. He is known for his musical versatility, with a discography that spans the genres of Latin pop, pop, dance, reggaeton and salsa . Nicknamed the "King of Latin Pop", the "King of Latin Music" and the "God of Latin Pop" , he is considered one of the most influential artists in the world. He began appearing in television commercials at age nine and began his musical career at twelve, as a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo . He began his solo career in 1991 while with Sony Music Mexico , gaining recognition in Latin America with the release of his first two studio albums, Ricky Martin and Me amarás , both focused on ballads. Martin is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time, having sold over 70 million records worldwide.

He is ranked among the Top Latin Artists of All Time, Top Music Video Artists of All Time, and Most Influential Latin Artists of All Time by Billboard . His philanthropy and activism focus on LGBT rights and the fight against human trafficking. In 2004, he founded The Ricky Martin Foundation , a non-profit, non-governmental organization that focuses on denouncing human trafficking and educating about the existence of the crime. In 2019, he publicly addressed his fans: "Writing these lines is the approach to my inner peace, a vital part of my evolution. Today I accept my homosexuality as a gift that life gives me. I feel blessed to be who I am."

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) was a French pianist, organist, composer and military man, committed to the French musical renewal as well as to teaching; students such as Fauré and Messager passed through his classrooms. He was a precocious child who at the age of 11 made his first public appearance with works by Handel , Mozart and Beethoven . At thirteen he enrolled in organ and composition classes at the Paris Conservatoire and at eighteen he composed his first symphony. He was a multifaceted intellectual: musician, writer, mathematician, philosopher, archaeologist, geologist, botanist... Just as multifaceted as his numerous musical works (more than 400) in which he tackled all kinds of genres, among which we must highlight the novelty that film music represented at that time.

The Bacchanale , from the opera Samson and Delilah, is a percussion-driven orgiastic dance that precedes Samson 's destruction of the Philistine temple in Act III. (Excerpted from an article published by the LA Phil)

Today we witness the choreography proposed by Kenneth von Heidecke .

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), born in Ciboure (Basque Country, France), inherited his meticulous work ethic from his father, an engineer of Swiss origin, and his passion for music from his mother, born in Mendata (Bizkaia), with the folk songs that adorned his childhood. A few months after his birth, the family moved to Paris , where he began his piano studies at the age of six. At the age of 14, he entered the Paris Conservatoire , where he had the opportunity to study with Gabriel Fauré . In 1901, he premiered his Jeux d'eau , a piano work with which he began to make his way in Parisian musical circles, where the influence of Ravel on Debussy and vice versa was discussed. In 1921, he settled in a mansion near Paris , where eminent musicians and intellectuals met, until his death. Regarding his sexuality, some of his biographers claim that Ravel was obsessed with his mother, which had caused in him a kind of asexuality that prevented him from having intimate relationships with women or men.

Ma mère, l'oye (My Mother, the Goose) is a musical work by Maurice Ravel composed for piano four hands; he originally wrote it as a piano duet for children, having dedicated an earlier work, Sonatine , to his parents. It was transcribed for solo piano by Ravel 's friend Jacques Charlot in the same year it was published (1910). Both piano versions bear the subtitle Cinq pièces enfantines (Five Children's Pieces). In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the work; later that year he expanded it into a ballet, separating the initial five pieces with four new interludes and adding two movements at the beginning, Prèlude and Danse du rouet et scène . The ballet premiered on 29 January 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts, Paris .