Music of the Day: 6–12 September 2026
From the convents of seventeenth-century Italy to the soundtracks of modern Hollywood, this week on Music of the Day travels through more than 300 years of musical history.
Our seven featured musicians are:
6 September – Isabella Leonarda
One of the most prolific female composers of the Baroque era, combining her religious life with an extraordinary composing career.
7 September – Ahmet Adnan Saygun
A pioneering Turkish composer who brought together Western classical traditions and the musical heritage of Turkey.
8 September – Peter Maxwell Davies
One of the major British composers of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and a former Master of the Queen’s Music.
9 September – Neil Chotem
A Canadian composer, pianist, arranger and conductor whose work crossed the boundaries between classical and popular music.
10 September – Henry Purcell
A towering figure in English Baroque music whose works range from opera and theatre music to songs and sacred compositions.
11 September – Arvo Pärt
The influential Estonian composer whose distinctive tintinnabuli style created some of contemporary classical music’s most recognisable sound worlds.
12 September – Hans Zimmer
One of modern cinema’s best-known composers, responsible for scores accompanying some of the biggest films of recent decades.
Music activities for September
Teachers can take the daily discoveries further with the September Music Reading Comprehension – 30 Composer Activities collection.
It contains all 30 September musicians, including everyone featured this week. Each activity combines a short biography with five reading-comprehension questions, suggested answers and QR-linked listening.
The activities can be used for daily music starters, reading comprehension, cover lessons, homework, independent work or simply as a way of introducing pupils to a much broader range of music.
September Music Reading Comprehension – 30 Composer Activities
Come back each day to discover another musician and another piece of music.
MusicOfTheDay.co.uk — one musician, every day.
