As an aspiring young pianist, I played several Chopin compositions with varying degrees of success. I remember tackling a few Preludes and Nocturnes, but my teacher was never completely happy with my playing. Mind you, in the hands of experts,

The Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was born in the industrial city of Krasnoyarsk, in Soviet-era Siberia, on 16 October 1962. He surprised the world by winning the Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff in 1989, and he stormed from

In 1953, Leonard Bernstein became the first American to conduct an opera at La Scala. At the time, Bernstein was on a concert tour in Italy when conductor Victor de Sabata had to cancel his engagement in Milan. Bernstein was

On 14 October 2026, we celebrate a very special 100th birthday. Our birthday bear is friendly and steadfast, and though he is a little slow and naïve, he often comes up with clever ideas. Our celebrity is also a talented

Landscape and nature images have often featured prominently in the reception of Vaughan Williams’ work. However, as Daniel M. Grimley writes, “Vaughan Williams’ preoccupation with landscape emerges as a highly productive creative tension throughout his compositional output.” A new 2026

Late in life, Giuseppe Verdi called Alzira, a musical setting of a drama by Voltaire from 1845, “downright ugly.” The premiere performance on 12 August 1845 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples was only a partial success, and subsequent

Camille Saint-Saëns, born on 9 October 1835, was one of the greatest child prodigies in music, and Franz Liszt famously called him the world’s greatest organist. However, he was also a composer, pianist, conductor, expert in ancient music, playwright, poet,

Tōru Takemitsu, born on 8 October 1930, freely admits that his first real composition teacher was the radio. Nursing an extended illness, he listened to as much Western music as possible, broadcast on Armed Forces Radio. His first mentor was