These listening lists introduce students to a wide range of composers, styles, and repertoire. Use them as a starting point for musical exploration—there’s no need to listen in order or complete every selection.

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Young Children & New Listeners

Recommended for children age 6 and under and beginning listeners of almost any age

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Ballet music: 

Nutcracker

Swan Lake

Sleeping Beauty  

 * Listen to highlights from the ballets not the entire ballet.

 

Sergei Prokofiev

Peter and the Wolf  (orchestral fairy tale with narration)

  

Edvard Grieg

Peer Gynt suite  (excerpts)

“In the Hall of the Mountain King”

“Anitra’s dance”

“Morning Mood”

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Camille Saint-Saens

Carnival of the Animals (two pianos and ensemble)

  

Gioachino Rossini

William Tell  (opera overture)

La Gazza Ladra  (opera overture)

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Marriage of Figaro (opera overture)

Sonata in A major K 331 (piano); III movement “Alla Turca”

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Leopold Mozart (Mozart’s father)

“Kinder Symphonie”

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Franz Joseph Haydn

Symphony No. 94 in G major “Surprise”

I movement  Adagio cantabile- Vivace assai

III movement  Menuetto (Allegro molto)

  

Johannes Brahms

Hungarian Dances

No. 1 in g minor

No. 2 in d minor

No. 5 in f-sharp minor

* there is also an orchestral and a piano and violin version of these dances

  

Antonin Dvorak

Slavonic Dance in C minor Op. 46 No. 7

Humoresque Op. 101 No. 7

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Ages 7+

Explore recommended repertoire for piano, orchestra, and violin.

Piano

Ludwig van Beethoven

Bagatelles Op. 33, Op. 119, Op. 126 (the famous … or infamous Fur Elise is a bagatelle in

A minor Woo 59)

 

Frederic Chopin

Waltzes

Nocturnes

 

George Gershwin

Rhapsody in Blue (piano and orchestra)

 

Claude Debussy

Clair de lune from Suite Bergamesque

Arabesque No. 1 from Deux Arabesques

 

Robert Schumann

Kinderszenen Op. 15

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Sonatas for piano

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Seasons Op. 37b

Children’s Album Op. 39

 

Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik KV 525

 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op.67

Symphony No. 6 in F major Op.68 “Pastorale”

Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op.125 “Choral”

 

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Scheherazade Op.35

 

Paul Dukas

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

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Violin

Antonio Vivaldi

The Four Seasons (for violin, strings & continuo)

 

Felix Mendelssohn

Concerto for violin in E minor Op.64

 

Jules Massenet

Meditation from Thais

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