Hélène Grimaud is a woman of multiple talents, intellectually sparkling in various directions. While she is a critically acclaimed performance and recording artist, she is also a committed wildlife conservationist, and a compassionate human rights activist. She campaigns on behalf

It seems a simple question, doesn’t it? And the simple answer is that music lessons are for learning music / a musical instrument. But learning an instrument, either via formal music lessons or self-teaching, offers so much more. Gustav Holst:

What’s your local subway system like? Like being in a tiled basement, somewhat dimly lit, and all you hear are the rumbles and screeches of the trains? In a new collaboration between the HK Philharmonic and the MTR in Hong

Our popular series forgotten cellists from 2018 continues with several outstanding artists you may not know of. One-thousand students claim cellist Harvey Shapiro the “cello doctor” was the single greatest influence in their lives. The esteemed pedagogue taught at Juilliard

I have always loved songs in the key of B-flat major. For me, songs in that particular key always sound very bright and cheerful. I was really happy to discover that important musicians and theorist think about that key in

After almost a lifetime of music-making and trying to figure out what it is saying, I’m coming closer to the thought that the message of music is the music itself. For an experiment in discovery, I’ve been listening to all

The winner of the 1966 Leeds International Piano Competition, Spanish pianist Rafael Orozco (1946-1996) was born into a musical family and enrolled at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Córdoba at the age of 7. He later studied at the

Evoking the rush of water, the stroke of oars and the motion of the ocean, the Barcarolle was a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers (the word comes from “Barca” meaning “boat”). Characterised by a rocking rhythm, suggestive of the