The narrator of Florence Price‘s achingly tender song “Brown Arms (To Mother)” seems to reach for something just out of reach. It is one of the most quietly devastating songs in the American art song repertoire – and once you

Born on 23 July 1944 in Lisbon, Portugal, Maria João Pires is one of the most introspective artists of our time. Her playing is a study in poetic refinement that reveals an almost spiritual connection to the music. Her recordings

Azerbaijani composer Kara Karayev (also Gara Garayev) (1918–1982) began his musical education in his home city of Baku and, at age 20, was accepted into the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied composition. He returned to Baku after graduation and began

Italian composer Maurizio Guernieri (b. 1962) wanted to explore the world of wind instruments, which he felt, as a string musician, was an unfamiliar corner of the musical world. His 2019 work Musicografie (Images in Music) starts each movement with

Composer Gustav Mahler is famous for his monumental symphonies that reshaped late-Romantic music. Yet he wrote his final symphonies in the shadow of a devastating tragedy: the 1907 death of his daughter Maria Anna Mahler, nicknamed Putzi. The loss shattered

For a composer who wrote one of the most beloved violin concertos ever, brought works by Bach and Schubert into the mainstream, and grew up as one of the most impressive child prodigies in music history, Felix Mendelssohn is still

When one of the most famous performance spaces in America came under threat in the 1960s, it was one violinist who marshalled support and stopped the imminent destruction of Carnegie Hall. Located at the corner of 57th Street and 7th

The twentieth century was a turning point in the history of the cello. For the first time, cellists could be widely heard through recordings, radio broadcasts, and international touring, allowing their playing styles to be preserved, compared, and debated across