The German polymath genius Johann Kuhnau was born on 6 April 1660 in Geising, in the Erzgebirge. His family, fleeing the Counter-Reformation, originated in Bohemia and settled in the area known as Saxon Switzerland. Kuhnau was a major figure in

For centuries, the specter of tuberculosis – once known as “consumption” – haunted every person’s life. In fact, in the 1800s, tuberculosis caused about a quarter of all deaths in Europe and the United States. If you yourself didn’t die

The Baroque Era, lasting roughly from 1600 to 1750, was a golden age for classical music, yet the names most often celebrated today are almost entirely male. However, a remarkable group of women composers were writing music for royal courts,

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach has played a central role in the illustrious career of Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski. Born in Warsaw on 4 April 1969, Anderszewski spent part of his childhood in Paris, and then continued his studies

A little-known chapter of the Second World War is the subject of the recently premiered and stunning new work Émigré. It’s an oratorio about the thousands of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany seeking a haven in Shanghai in the

I know a lot of people who are almost afraid of the symphonies by Johannes Brahms. Everybody keeps telling them how wonderful and how great these pieces are, but it can be a little difficult to connect with them. Brahms

Some of opera’s biggest box-office champions began life as spectacular misfires. From Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (heckled by a claque in 1786) to Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (booed off the La Scala stage in 1904), opera performances have been ruined

As a young girl, I just couldn’t stop reading the fabulous fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, and The Princess and the Pea feature 3-dimensional characters who offer timeless lessons