Blogs

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The B Minor Madrigal
It’s often a puzzle for us how to hear very familiar music with new ears. When you’ve heard countless blah recordings of the Vivaldi this or the Bach that, it’s hard to get them back into our ears to being
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The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music – XIV Wanda Landowska
Virtuoso, musicologist, distinguished author, a woman who was, “in love with her audience,” Wanda Landowska’s dynamic and powerful playing single-handedly revived interest in the harpsichord. Her performance of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at New York’s Town Hall, in 1942 was
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Snafus Happen: Even with Kol Nidrei
Of all the pieces that I’ve performed over my career Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei is the one I’ve performed most. It’s been my privilege to play this work each year for three decades. This melody is probably one of the
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Chinese Musical Instruments: Wood
Musical instruments in China were traditionally classified into 8 groups delineated by the material used in the instrument: Silk, Bamboo, Wood, Stone, Metal, Clay, Gourd and Hide. We will look at selected instruments in six of these groups in this
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What Music Does Your Favorite Fictional Character Like?
As much as pop music seems to be part of everyone’s life today, classical music also has its place, although it may be much more difficult to find. Often it’s a writer’s reflections on the place of classical music in
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The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music XIII- Nadia Boulanger
“So far as musical pedagogy is concerned —And by extension of musical creation — Nadia Boulanger is the most influential person who ever lived”- Ned Rorem High praise indeed! Nadia Boulanger influenced an amazing and diverse group of artists during
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Chinese Musical Instruments: Bamboo
Musical instruments in China were traditionally classified into 8 groups delineated by the material used in the instrument: Silk, Bamboo, Wood, Stone, Metal, Clay, Gourd and Hide. We will look at selected instruments in six of these groups in this
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The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music XII – Marguerite Long
Composer Gabriel Fauré, once called Marguerite Long, “a shameless woman who uses my name to get on.” Nonetheless she became the foremost woman pianist of France during the first half of the twentieth century, performing and teaching at the Paris
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