What’s the Difference? Here’s My Approach Last month I gave a masterclass at George Mason University School of Music in Fairfax, Virginia, the largest 4-year public university in Virginia. I heard four young cellists, and later addressed the full University

The bandit leader Michele Pezza (1771-1806) defended his native Naples against the invading French using his native knowledge of the territory and his inadvertent army duty. Pezza, who had received the moniker of ‘Fra Diavolo’ as a child because he

When it comes to unconventional classical music, there are several composers that can be singled out. Some who would fit the bill are Philip Glass, Erik Satie, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and my favourite unorthodox composer, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber. Born in

Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin can play anything just about better than anyone else on the current international piano circuit. Or so it would appear from his fascinating recitals whose diverse and ambitious programmes range from Alkan to Ives, Liszt to

“It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted” During her lifetime, she was as famous as Charles Dickens. Her novels, which appeared in rapid succession from 1859, held Victorian readership spellbound for decades. Most of her fiction dealt

You might be surprised of just how many unique Christmas traditions you can experience in Germany. A big part of the Christmas season starts at the end of November or early December with Advent celebrations in preparations for the arrival

“To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.” When Le Corbusier said that sentence about architecture, he could have been talking just as much about music. While the architect practices the art of

The very idea of making music inspired by the art form known as Abstract Expressionism seems an anathema. How do you pin down the undefinable? The music style that might match the art form of expressionism has come and gone