To frame the subject of can music be intelligent, we must first disregard most music that has lyrics or words from the subject. Studies have shown that people who received musical training displayed improved intelligence. But can music by itself

It seems a simple question, doesn’t it? And the simple answer is that music lessons are for learning music / a musical instrument. But learning an instrument, either via formal music lessons or self-teaching, offers so much more. Gustav Holst:

A natural process for the creative artist is to reproduce what he admires. In the case of composers, it translates as composing the music that they heard and enjoyed, or the music that they want to hear. Of course, the

Part Two of this article series was originally going to explore the mindset of musicians with regards to financial support during the Covid-19 pandemic – a call to action for artists to choose innovation and creative thinking over consistent begging

The quote in the title is from celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher, who died in August 2020 at the age of 92. In the many tributes to him, his wisdom and good sense, as a musician and a human being, and

British pianist Stephen Hough thinks it is, and he makes a persuasive case for it in an article for The Guardian, reminding us that coronavirus has forced us to rethink how we organise and attend concerts. Those who decry the

We missed our audiences in the year of pandemic and when they returned, they were sparser than usual due to social distancing. But they are coming back to the concert halls and opera houses, their appetite for live music apparently

This quote by English conductor Mark Wigglesworth, from a recent British newspaper article, has resonances with the philosophical statement “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?“ Francis