Compact Discoveries is an exciting new approach to beautiful classic music -- light, not formal... personal, not academic... friendly, not frightening. Each hour is based on a different theme, such as "Discs for Dishwashing," "Best Music for Back Rubs,""Musical Beasts," "Musical Feasts," "From Norway to Broadway," "From the Classics to Carmen Cavallaro," "A CATalog of Music," "The Color of Music," and "Music by the Numbers."

The series delights audiences from Alicante, Spain; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Port-au-Prince, Haiti; to Palm Beach, Florida; Eugene, Oregon; and St. John, Alaska. The host is award-winning writer and public broadcasting producer Fred Flaxman. He loves music and knows how to share that enthusiasm with his audience. He particularly delights in uncovering unjustly neglected composers and compositions that listeners will enjoy on first hearing -- thus inspiring the name of the series.

Compact Discoveries is made possible in part by Story Books, publishers of The Timeless Tales of Reginald Bretnor, and by Educate Yourself for Tomorrow. Re-editing and distribution via PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, of 26 early programs, originally distributed by the WFMT Radio Network, is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts -- a great nation deserves great art -- and by the Public Radio Exchange Reversioning Project. The Public Radio Exchange is at prx.org.

Our thanks to Koch International Classics for providing this web site's introductory music: Brejeiro by Ernesto Nazareth, performed by pianist Thomas Tirino. You can hear more music by Nazareth on Compact Discoveries programs 1, 90 and 91.