There is a wonderful richness and variety in Western music before the year 1700. The Early Muse is a weekly program created for HPR in 2004 by music volunteer Ian Capps, who brings fresh programming to listeners each week. It explores the critical formative years of European music, from Medieval chant, song and dance, through the rich polyphony of the Renaissance and into the Baroque ‘revolution’ of the 17th century with its invention of the opera, oratorio and orchestral music as we know it today.

Born in London, Ian has been performing early music since childhood, and during a career as an international media executive until retirement in Hawaii. He is also President of Early Music Hawaii, a non-profit organization which has presented professional performers, both local and from the mainland, in annual concert series of early music since 2006.