Opinion

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The Musician’s ‘Non-Negotiables’
This article is inspired by Episode 2 of Season 3 of ‘The Bear’, a drama series from Disney+ about a young chef, Carmy Berzatto, trained in the fine dining world, who comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich
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The 12th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition
Judgement
Between 1912 and 1948, art competitions were part of the Olympic Games. Initially, these competitions were grouped into five broad categories, including architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. In terms of music, subcategories encompassed mixed music, compositions for orchestra, solo
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Has The Leeds Piano Competition Gone Woke?
In my previous article about the Leeds Piano Competition in 2021, I insinuated some evidence of an “old boys club”, as there were 5 men selected to advance to the finals out of 10 semi-finalists comprising 4 women and 6
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Nurturing the Musical Brain
The musical — and to the extent, the artistic — brain needs to be continuously nurtured. Indeed, no other art form can have such an impact on the brain and how it perceives sounds. This nourishment and development should be
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Music for Life Skills
When I was studying music at school in the UK in the 1980s (I took music at O- and A-Level, in addition to studying the piano privately), I was often the butt of jokes that I had “taken the easy
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Alone Yet Together: The Shared Experience of Live Performance
I’ve been going to live classical music concerts since I was a little girl – and not just professional concerts, but also amateur performances when my dad (a clarinettist) played in a local amateur orchestra. As keen music-lovers, my parents
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Let’s Celebrate and Nurture Classical Music’s Core Audience
It’s well known and acknowledged that the core audience for classical music is in the age range from c55 to 80+. These are the people with the money and, more importantly, the time to engage with classical music. Fretting about
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Can Classical Music Make You Smarter? The Answer: Sort Of!
When it comes to music, few genres have stood the test of time like classical music. It has enthralled audiences for centuries and pulled millions into its orbit. But why has it been so consistently popular? What’s so attractive about
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