French composer Erik Satie was a curious, eccentric man. He had a penchant for grey corduroy suits (he had seven identical ones) and umbrellas, and apparently only ate white food. His response to a critic who said his music lacked

Playing a musical instrument is an amazing endeavor. It’s thrilling when a performance is everything we want it to be and the audience erupts in applause. If we’ve conveyed the beauty, meaning, and emotion of the music, and not the

When we look at Dvořák’s ninth symphony, From the New World, we often think that it exists in this peculiar Czecho-American bubble. Written when Dvořák was resident in the US as head of the National Conservatory, the work is much

Music fulfils a variety of functions today. It is used to communicate with and entertain audiences across the world. It is used as a means of social interaction, an instrument of instruction, artists use it to build inspiration for other

Sir András Schiff returned to Hong Kong after 11 years, this time with his “family”, Cappella Andrea Barca, and performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mozart’s Symphony No.39 for the first half of the programme, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto

The international news is full of reports of the battle of Hong Kong – students battling the government, destroying facilities, battling police, taking control of the streets – and yet, at the same time there’s another side. The streets may

The French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was a brilliant military strategist, but the ability to hold a tune eluded him completely. Betsy Balcombe, a friend during his exile at Saint Helena writes in her Recollections. “In fact, Napoleon’s voice was most

After first shaking up our entire concept of opera by taking the audience out of its comfortable chairs and putting on a La Traviata that was more like modern life, Rumiko Hasegawa and More than Musical are looking to improving