I never intended to be a piano teacher. I worked for ten years in art and academic publishing after leaving university and I continued to freelance in this sector when I stopped full-time work to have my son. But as

After his self-imposed exile from Spain with the defeat of the Republican government, cellist Pablo Casals started his concerts with a traditional Catalan Christmas song, El Cant dels Ocells (The Song of the Birds). The lyrics describe the joy of

The residential district of “Ziegelhausen” is situated at the eastern perimeter of the city of Heidelberg, Germany. Picturesquely located on the banks of the Neckar River it idyllically stretches into the “Odenwald Forest.” Dotted by charming bed and breakfast establishments,

Going against the grain of French musical life in the mid-19th century, Camille Saint-Saëns’ main love was instrumental music. Extraordinarily active in the field of chamber music, not only as a composer but also as a performer, he might rightfully

For a good many music lovers, Mozart’s Don Giovanni might well be the finest opera ever composed. The composer described it as a comedy, but the comic elements are basically driven by Giovanni’s devious schemes. Nevertheless, through Da Ponte’s libretto

Musicians and composers in the 19th century clearly understood that the orchestral tone color could be significantly enhanced by the sometimes subtle, sometimes seismic impact of the pipe organ’s commanding voice. In his famous treatise on orchestration, Hector Berlioz wrote,

How we consume and listen to music has been transformed by digital technology. Where once recorded music was available only on the radio and vinyl LPs, reel-to-reel tape (and later tape cassettes) and CDs, it is now possible to access

For almost 3 decades, Angelica Catalani (1780-1849) commanded the operatic stages of Europe. Her powerful soprano voice nearly covered three octaves in range, and it has been suggested “no singer ever surpassed her in chromatic scales, whether in velocity or