In the 1940s, Hollywood became the magnet for expatriate actors, writers, intellectuals and musicians. And it brought together two Russian composers who really didn’t like each other at all. Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky had no interest in each other’s compositions, but

“I love working in a multifaceted way because everything is connected” Annie Yim is a Hong Kong-born Canadian concert pianist, creative collaborator, and founder of MusicArt based in London. We caught up with her to talk about her latest project

Water, in its warm form, is the summer symbol (water in its cold form, i.e., ice and snow, is another matter). We start on the water’s edge as it laps around our feet, cooling us and inviting us deeper. In

The second string quartet by Pavel Haas (1899-1944) carries the unusual nickname “From the Monkey Mountains.” It references a popular holiday area in the rustic Vysočina highlands, popularly known as the Monkey Mountains, nestled between Bohemia and Moravia. A student

From his earliest years to the concert tours in the year he died, Edvard Grieg performed as a pianist playing his own composition. He was a great pianist but not a virtuoso, and according to a biographer, “his intimate familiarity

There’s something morbidly fascinating about last words: the idea that a life can somehow be summed up in a few words. The importance of those last words only grows when the men saying them are some of the most influential

The 1850s and 1860s were the start of operetta on the stages of Vienna. Following Jacques Offenbach’s lead, Austrian composer Franz von Suppé (1819–1895), who came to Vienna from present-day Croatia in 1840, found his career first in conducting and

As the director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts, Felix Mendelssohn was approached by the local Theatrical Pension Fund to provide them, free of charge, with some incidental music for a performance of Victor Hugo’s 1838 drama Ruy Blas. Specifically, they