Anika Paulson’s love for music permeates her understanding of herself, her surroundings and the mysteries that make up the smallest and biggest parts of life.

With his membership platform Patreon, YouTube star Jack Conte may have solved a perennial problem of content creators -- getting paid for digital media.

Known for her role in the Broadway revival of "The Color Purple," Cynthia Erivo received two Academy Awards nominations in 2019 for her work on the movie "Harriet," about the life of Harriet Tubman.

A jazz icon since the late 1960s, Naná Vasconcelos contributed Latin percussion to some of the world’s most cerebral, soulful music.

Tom Thum whirls together beatboxing, performance and an array of mouthsounds.

Rodrigo y Gabriela fuse metal, jazz and world music into an exhilarating cocktail of complex arrangements and virtuoso musicianship.

John Linnell and John Flansburgh are They Might Be Giants: multi-instrumental, tech-savvy and implacably prolific, they are the musicians of choice of geeks, tinkerers and curious kids of all ages.

Scott Rickard is passionate about mathematics, music -- and educating the next generation of scientists and mathematicians.

Violinist Robert Gupta joined the LA Philharmonic at the age of 19 -- and maintains a passionate parallel interest in neurobiology and mental health issues. He's a TED Senior Fellow.

José Bowen is an accomplished musician and teacher who explores how technology has shaped the history of music.

Percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie lost nearly all of her hearing by age 12. Rather than isolating her, it has given her a unique connection to her music.

Brothers Ryan and Hays Holladay explore the intersection of art and technology with an emphasis on music and sound, with projects ranging from multichannel audio installations to interactive performances to mobile apps.

Whether they’re sung in in English or his native Faroese, Teitur laces his deceptively innocent songs with often stinging hooks.

Young piano player Joey Alexander has an old soul's gift for jazz.

It all started as a practical joke: Geert Chatrou's sister-in-law entered him in the International Whistler's Convention in Louisburg, NC. To save face, he went … and won!

Joshua Roman is an internationally recognized cellist.

He’s sold more than 100 million albums and earned 16 Grammy Awards, yet Sting continues to surprise. His fourteenth solo album, The Last Ship, features songs from his Broadway-bound musical of the same name.

With a rich voice and an equally rich sense of history, Rhiannon Giddens animates American folk tradition with her electrifying song interpretations.

Megan Washington has won two ARIA Awards, the Australian equivalent of the Grammys. A popular singer/songwriter, she has recently come clean with a secret—that she has a speech impediment.

Father-daughter beatboxing duo Nicole Paris and Ed Cage mix beats across generations.

Onyx Ashanti is the inventor of "beatjazz" -- a new way to make music.

Jill Sobule isn't just another singer-songwriter with catchy tunes and smart lyrics, she's one of the more insightful satirists of our age. Each of her fanciful songs captures an issue or irony, an emotion or epiphany that helps us understand what it's like to live now.

Equally talented on cello and vocals, Caroline Lavelle has created a performance style all her own. Her expansive talents, channeling the best of both classical and contemporary influences, have earned her comparisons to both Kate Bush and Jacqueline du Pré.

Eric Lewis (aka ELEW) fuses a highly intricate style of jazz improvisation with physical, rocking grooves in a musical cocktail he calls "Rockjazz."

A real-life circus composer, Sxip Shirey makes haunting melodies from familiar objects and reconfigured sounds.

Both a musician and a computer scientist, Ge Wang turns ordinary MacBooks and iPhones into complex instruments.

At MIT's Media Lab, Tod Machover creates boundary-breaking new music, often using new instruments and music technologies he has invented.

Alexis Charpentier (aka Lexis from Music Is My Sanctuary) believes record collectors, music curators and DJs serve a crucial role as cultural preservationists and alternative voices to mainstream music platforms.

A composer and music teacher who has long worked with children with special needs, Adam Ockelford is interested in the psychology of music.