Pietro Mascagni wrote fifteen operas, an operetta, several orchestral and vocal works, as well as songs and piano music. Yet, he is best remembered for his 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana. Cavalleria Rusticana became the prototype for operatic verismo, and its

In August 2019, pianist Alice Sara Ott shared the news on Instagram that she’d been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. In that report, she was optimistic that with the advances in medical treatment, people with this central nervous system disease could

Are there still works by great composers that are practically unknown? Let’s take Robert Schumann, for example, and I wonder if professional pianists really know every single work he has written for the instrument. Professionals probably do, but as an

The sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach are among the most profound and enduring works in the Western musical canon. They serve as both spiritual mediations and virtuosic displays of Baroque craftsmanship. Many of Bach’s cantatas are prefaced by sinfonias,

What is the most iconic work by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)? That’s easy, as just about everybody knows his Four Seasons. What makes these four concertos special is the accompanying descriptive sonnets, which provide the poetic narrative. Yet, beyond the composition

The legendary pianist and composer John Field (1782-1837), born somewhere between Beethoven and Schubert, was a new pianist for a new era. He is credited with writing music in a style closer to Chopin‘s and with inventing the nocturne. Field’s

Switzerland’s most prominent composer, Ernest Bloch, was born July 24, 1880, in Geneva. He emigrated to the United States and assumed the directorship of the Cleveland Institute of Music, later of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and of the

Described by critics as an “…immensely gifted pianist… with prodigious technique, myriad shadings, and scrupulous accuracy,” Vitaly Pisarenko came to international attention for winning First Prize at the 8th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht, and Third Prize at