In his 1853 collection of stories for children, Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen told the story of the Princess and the Pea, or, as in his title, The Princess ON the Pea. He had first told the fairy tale, which

In November this year, the first Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Festival took place at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In my role as founder and artistic director this involved months of planning, complex preparations and a few deep breaths too.

Professionally, Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) was known as an accomplished singer and the inventor of a new musical style that had the power to “move the affections of the soul.” Privately, he seemed to have been a difficult and proud man,

Approaching his 80th birthday, Camille Saint-Saëns was appointed by the French government as “First Delegate to the Franco-American Commission for the Development of Political, Economic, Literary, and Artistic Relations” for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. Organized to commemorate

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) called his opera La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West) his “greatest work.” Puccini must certainly have felt a sense of accomplishment as the opera was seven years in the making, and originated during a

Erotic, murderous and biblical themes combine in the opera Salome by Richard Strauss (1864-1949). And as you surely know, it all climaxes in Salome’s declaration of love and kiss for the severed head of John the Baptist. Based on a

The Louisiana territory was a huge tract of land in North America, stretching from the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi River and the city of New Orleans. From 1699 until

When we consider the role musician as “curator”, we tend to think of someone who organizes a concert series or music festival, much in the same way as a museum curator organizes exhibitions.