Pianist Amy Fay was born in Louisiana in 1844. She began studying piano as a child and quickly proved to be very talented. She studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in the 1860s and, in 1869, took the

The relationships between composers and their family members are always fascinating. Those family dynamics tell music lovers valuable information about the so-called Great Composers’ characters, priorities, and inner lives: what things meant the most to them, what moved them, and

Audiences are always fascinated by composer love stories, especially when there’s an element of tragedy to them. Today, we’re looking at ten of the shortest marriages in classical music history, and all of them have that element of tragedy. Despite

Perhaps the most famous film about a composer, Miloš Forman’s 1984 Amadeus, brings to life the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The only film about a composer to win an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture, Amadeus

Klaus Mäkelä is a sudden superstar in the classical music world. Born in 1996, he is the most successful twentysomething conductor in the world today…and accordingly, one of the most controversial. Everyone in the field is asking: is he at

Friedrich Wieck (1785-1873) is best-known as Clara Wieck Schumann’s litigious father, the man who did everything he could to keep his daughter from marrying Robert Schumann. However, he was also a well-respected piano teacher. Despite the fact that he only

Classical musicians often put music into boxes. Sonatas and symphonies are considered Serious with a capital S, whereas waltzes and dance music are often dismissed as mere light trifles. So it may come as a surprise to find out that

Composer Dmitri Shostakovich had a tumultuous professional life, surviving discouragement and denunciation by the Soviet government over a period of decades. He also had a tumultuous personal life. He was married three times to three very different women: Nina Varzar,