Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest composers who ever lived, but he was also a human being, and one who was famously prickly. Friends, rivals, patrons, and even family members often found themselves embroiled in sundry fights and

On 17 February 2026, we celebrate the centenary of the birth of Friedrich Cerha (1926-2023). He was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher, and interpreter whose nearly eight-decade career made him a decisive figure in post-war European music. His work bridged

Do you remember the first piece of music you learnt as a child? The journey of learning to play the piano is a great deal more than the acquisition of a skill; it’s a wonderful voyage of memory and emotion.

British composer George Lloyd had one of the most striking biographies of any classical musician of the twentieth century. He began his career as a promising up-and-coming English composer. But when Britain went to war in 1939, Lloyd put that

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) is often painted as the polite and well-mannered Romantic. We certainly know him as the composer of fairy wings, sparkling scherzos, and elegant melodies. But as soon as you spend a little time at the piano with

Nineteenth-century piano giant Jan Paderewski called her “the most wonderful musician in the world.” Helen Keller called her “the most accomplished deaf and blind person in the world.” She was, to our knowledge, the first blind-deaf person to make a

Robert Schumann, one of the quintessential composers of the Romantic era, is renowned for his deeply expressive piano music, lieder, and orchestral works that embody the emotional intensity, poetic sensibility, and structural innovation of the 19th century. His compositions are

In classical music, it’s rare enough for one composer to become famous, let alone an entire family. However, there have been a handful of families over the past few centuries who together have had major impacts on the art. Today,