A Mysterious Envelope Arrives. On 14 November 1849, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz opened an envelope. Ludwika Jędrzejewicz was having a bad month. Her marriage was in shambles because she had left Poland to be at her brother Frédéric Chopin’s deathbed. She had

“It’s not the mountain we conquer but ourselves” This quote by the renowned mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary speaks to the internal journey one embarks on when pursuing a challenging goal. Arthur Benjamin: Conquest of Everest Suite – III. The Great

Every now and then, the people who enjoy, love, or seek out music undergo a very special kind of occurrence. It could happen at an exciting concert or festival or merely in the fabric of day-to-day life: listening to algorithm-recommended

When Antonín Dvořák was a young man, he gave piano lessons to make ends meet. One of his students was a young woman named Josefína Čermáková. She was very beautiful and talented and would become one of the best-known theatre

Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, born on 14 January 1970 in Ankara, has compiled a discography notable not only for its impressive range of classical repertoire but also for his own compositions. His ability to blend traditional Turkish sounds with classical

Robert Russell Bennett, a serious composer but better known for his orchestration of over 300 Broadway and West End musicals, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma and South Pacific, rose to a challenge issued by violinist Louis Kaufman. Kaufman thought that

Johannes Brahms had trouble with women. He objectified most of them, thought of them as either Madonnas or whores, and heartily agreed with prevailing social attitudes that they should concentrate on Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church), to quote a

I have listened to a lot of music by Sergei Prokofiev, and to my ears, four distinct elements are nearly always present. There seems to be a lyrical, classical, innovative, and a strong motoric or toccata element that shapes his