Jiahu Bone Flutes: the early sounds of h...

This episode follows Mustafa Alim, a musician from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, who fell in love with the accordion. Actively promoting accordion culture, he has engaged in cross-cultural exchanges through domestic and international accordion festivals and ... Show More

Over the past decade, Liu Yuening, a Chinese dulcimer professor with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, has committed herself to using music as a bridge to enhance intercultural communication between China and India. She believes cultural exchanges between the two g ... Show More

The Chinese Orchestra of Renmin University of China brings together students from diverse majors like finance, mathematics, information management and more. Bound by a shared love for music, they cherish and create music with passion, drawing solace and strength from every note t ... Show More

Sound on! From conch shells to bone flutes, humans have been making musical instruments for tens of thousands of years. What did prehistoric music sound like? In an episode originally published in November 2021, follow us on a journey to find the oldest musical instruments and co ... Show More

There is absolutely no need for music—speaking in terms of evolution, anyway… As far as scientists can tell, there’s no compelling reason for humans to make and enjoy music…neurologically, we could get along quite well without it…sure, our world would be very dull, but we’d be ... Show More

Sound on! From conch shells to bone flutes, humans have been making musical instruments for tens of thousands of years. What did prehistoric music sound like? Follow us on a journey to find the oldest musical instruments and combine them into one big orchestra of human history. F ... Show More

As the music industry reckons with racial inequality, one of the first old structures to fall has been a term that dates back to the 1970s. Guest: Nelson George. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at ... Show More

After years of studying classical music overseas, a Peruvian composer returns home and decides to write an opera incorporating classical instruments as well as Andean ones like the zampoña and the quena — both types of flutes. A transcript of this episode is available at https:// ... Show More

The Ubo-aka is one of Africa’s oldest musical instrument and keeping the sound of this ancient instrument alive has been challenging. Musician Gerald Eze says the number of young people playing this instrument has declined and that he wants to make sure this Igbo tradition surviv ... Show More

A 3,500 year old song was found on a clay tablet by archaeologists in Syria in the 1950s. Often called the Hurrian Hymn, it had been unearthed amid the ruins of an ancient palace which belonged to the ancient Hurrian civilization. It is the oldest complete song ever found. The ta ... Show More

We would not be sitting here talking about rock music if it weren’t for people of African descent…if you start in the present and begin to trace things backward to important innovations and accomplishments, nine times out of ten, you’ll end up exploring something from black cultu ... Show More