Brooklyn-born soprano Marie van Zandt (1858-1919) “outshone her competitors with her extraordinary ability to learn parts quickly and to sing them perfectly.” Her mother was a well-known singer who traveled extensively across Europe, and she had professional connections with Paris

The expression “small but perfectly formed” is rather over-used, but in the case of this new book How to Practise Music (Hal Leonard) it is entirely apt. Written by Andrew Eales, a highly respected British music educator, piano teacher and

The Fishamble Street Musick Hall in Dublin was abuzz with jittery electricity on 13 April 1742. The musical superstar George Frideric Handel was ready to present his oratorio Messiah to the public, and the audience reached a record 700 listeners.

Easter is the most important holiday for Christians around the world. But you don’t have to be seriously religious to enjoy that particular time of year, as the coming of Spring, at least in the Northern hemisphere also signals a

More and more women composers come to our attention in the 17th century. Part of this was the increase in the wealthy middle class that required entertainment and the increasing power taken by women over their resources. Francesca Caccini A

The percussion ensemble is a relatively new performance genre among all classical music ensembles. Even though percussion instruments were used in orchestral works as early as in the Baroque era, music written only for percussion instruments did not come into

Ukrainian composer Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) trained with Glière at the Kiev Conservatory and became the most important Ukrainian composer through the mid-20th century. He also taught at the Kiev Conservatory from age 25 through to his death, with occasional

The American novelist and short story writer Philip Milton Roth is known for fiction that “features intensely autobiographical characters, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its sensual, ingenious style and for its provocative explorations