The youngest instrument added to the orchestra is also the largest. At the bottom of the brass section, providing the support to carry all those other brass and wind instruments is the tuba. It made its appearance in the modern

Sadly, the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition, celebrating the 175th anniversary of the composer’s birth, ended this week. After numerous hours of intense music listening, from thousands of miles away via Medici TV, my adrenaline rush climaxed with the two final galas

Most musicians both amateur and professional aspire to play chamber music, some of the greatest works of classical music. It would be difficult to single out a favorite but my list would include the following works— Brahms Piano Quintet, and

The orchestra is assembled, the concertmaster comes to the stage, turns his back on the audience and signals the oboist. A pure clear note sounds and then lots of other notes. What is this all about?

School’s out for summer! Well, formal school, but practicing continues on forever. We know how influential our teachers can be so we thought we’d look at teachers of the past and see how curiously far they reach into the present.

The trombone, or large trumpet (Tromba= trumpet, -one= suffix meaning ‘big’) in Italian, is a lower voice in the brass wind ensemble. Unlike the trumpet that started as a simple tube and now has valves, the trombone was always operated

There once was a young man in our cello section, a very talented musician but a little green, who would practice all of my orchestral solos on stage, loudly, for all to hear. I tried not to get rattled—(did it

London occupies a unique place in the musical life of the world. It has been a focus for musicians and musical happenings since the 17th century and it was London that the leading composers of the day came to make