31 Jul Press Release: SalonEra Season Six

Announcing SalonEra’s 2025-26 Season

Now in its 6th season, Les Délices’ award-winning early music webseries and podcast SalonEra will release eight new programs during the 2025-26 Season. Four new video episodes will highlight a diverse range of repertoire and artists from across North America while four podcast exclusives will feature insights and recordings from Les Délices’ 2025-26 Concert Season: Metamorphosis.

Les Délices’ Artistic Director and SalonEra Executive Director Debra Nagy comments, I’m particularly excited about the unique and original content in our video episodes this season. February’s Sounds of the Western Frontier will include modern premieres of songs and other tunes from America’s earliest decades recorded in recent live performances featuring acclaimed baritone Tyler Duncan and members of Les Délices. Likewise, April’s Women at the Keyboard, brings to light fantastic, little-known music by 18th century women pianist-composers with featured recent live performances by Shelby Yamin and Mark Edwards [pictured left] on violin and fortepiano, respectively.”

Adds podcast host Hannah De Priest, “I love hosting the SalonEra podcast exclusive episodes. They are such a great way to make the magic of Les Délices concerts accessible because we always include excellent audio recordings from live performances along with our interviews. I especially love highlighting Debra’s creative process as she has such a gift for programming and there’s so much to learn from hearing her discuss how she puts together a concert.”

Each episode of SalonEra streams free with a suggested donation of $15/episode. Video episodes stream from their premiere date through June 30, 2026, with podcast versions of the same episodes are available in perpetuity at salonera.org and wherever podcasts are heard.

Season Overview

Four New Video Episodes:

• Musical Vision, Oct. 6, 2025: SalonEra considers the legacies of blind and visually-impaired historical composer-performers like Jacob van Eyck, Turlogh O’Carollan, and others and talks with vision-impaired harpsichordist & violinist Albano Berberi, lutenist Lucas Harris, and Braille music engraver Kathleen Cantrell.
• Music & Labor, Dec 15, 2025: Together with conductor Anthony Trecek-King and ethnomusicologist Gibb Schreffler, SalonEra probes the history and evolution of sea shanties and related work songs from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. Featuring live concert recordings by Seán Dagher with Les Délices and more.
• Sounds from the Western Frontier, Feb 16, 2026: Guests Kim Gruenwald and Dominic Giardino consider the music and sounds that reverberated across the western frontier as French, English, new American settlers, and Native Americans pushed westward in the decades following the Revolutionary War.
• Women at the Keyboard, Apr 13, 2026: Guests Yiheng Yang, Aisslinn Nosky, Mark Edwards, and Shelby Yamin join SalonEra for music & conversation centering late-18th century female pianist-composers Marianne Mozart, Jane Mary Guest, Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen, and others.

Four Podcast Exclusives:

• Bohemian Rhapsody, Nov 3, 2025: Czech music scholar Martin Nedbal explores how 18th century Bohemian composers subtly incorporated folk tunes and inflections of their homeland despite cultural suppression under Hapsburg rule in this audio-only episode featuring live performances from Les Délices’ October program Bohemian Rhapsody.
• Musical Menagerie, Jan 26, 2026: Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! Harpsichordist Mark Edwards and LD Artistic Director Debra Nagy share Baroque music inspired by the animal kingdom in this audio-only episode featuring recent live performances of music by Biber, Pasquini, and others.
• Bridging Heaven & Earth, Mar 23, 2026: Nicaragua’s awe-inspiring volcanoes and vast caldera lakes have inspired countless myths and legends. We focus on the Legend of the Masaya Lagoon in this audio-only episode featuring live performances from Les Délices’ February program La Diosa and excerpts from a new commission by Nicaraguan-American composer Gilda Lyons.
• Sacred & Profane, May 18, 2026: The lines separating earthly desire from holy rapture become blurry in this audio-only episode featuring music by Handel from Les Délices’ April program Starstruck featuring Hannah De Priest.

Support SalonEra

SalonEra continues its SE Membership Program in its sixth season. With a $125 donation, patrons can join or renew their membership, receiving exclusive access to “the vault” to enjoy Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on-demand throughout the season. (New episodes remain free to access with a suggested donation of $15/episode, which directly supports compensation of guest artists and production costs.) SalonEra Memberships will be available starting August 15th.

To discuss other opportunities to support SalonEra, including artist and episode sponsorships, reach out to LD’s Executive Director Laura Potter at laura@lesdelices.org.