Throughout music history, the viola has often been overshadowed by its flashier, smaller sibling, the violin. The viola hasn’t often appeared as a solo instrument, and when it has, its player has usually been a man. However, not every viola

If Italian Baroque music had a gift for conversation, Baldassare Galuppi (1706–1785) would be one of its most charming talkers. He is often remembered today as an opera composer, but that misses out on something intimate and quietly revolutionary. And

Today, we’re going back in time to hear ten of the earliest and oldest classical music recordings of all time. Long before streaming services, records, or radio, engineers were experimenting with ways to preserve sound on fragile wax cylinders. The

Thomas Hewitt Jones’ anthem of kindness and connection still resonates six years after lockdown. Originally composed during the UK Covid lockdown in 2020, Can You Hear Me? by award-winning British composer Thomas Hewitt Jones still has the power to resonate

Throughout music history, music critics have often elevated (or eviscerated) a composer’s reputation. Sometimes critics and composers have found themselves in public feuds. Other times, the composer and critic in question became unlikely friends. Today, we’re looking at four of

As the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) prepares to celebrate its centenary in 2027, a major new musical milestone is on the horizon – a significant new choral commission, Songs of the Spirit, written by the award-winning and newly-awarded

Few teachers have had as profound an influence on modern conducting as Finnish conductor and pedagogue Jorma Panula. Born in 1930 in Kauhajoki, Finland, Panula studied music and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He served as the music

Joseph Haydn earned his nickname “Father of the Symphony” while working as the Kapellmeister in the Esterházy household, where he worked for decades, overseeing the court orchestra. However, when Haydn first joined that household at the age of twenty-nine, he