I first discovered this wonderful set of variations through a concert pianist friend, who performed them in a salon concert some years ago. As a lifetime lover of Schubert’s music, I was struck by how “Schubertian” this music is, especially

Composer Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) has been called “the lady with the hammer” and is known for her connection to Dmitri Shostakovich. But she was so much more than this. She was also fiercely independent, staggeringly talented, and completely unafraid. She

If you’re looking for musicians who engage in real music-making, here’s a pianist you should keep an eye on. Currently residing in Brussels, Bulgarian pianist Plamena Mangova began her training at the Sofia State Music Academy. She later worked with

The Buddying Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff made his first tentative attempts at composition during the summer of 1886. The resulting piano piece is unfortunately now lost, but his piano-duet transcription of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony was later played to Rachmaninoff’s “musical hero.”

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi died from tuberculosis at age twenty-six, on 16 March 1736. He was first buried in a common pit next to the cathedral at Pozzuoli in Naples. His first biographer and friend installed a memorial tablet in the

Catalan soprano Montserrat Figueras, together with partner and husband Jordi Savall, was a leading voice in the early music movement by focusing on the vast vocal repertoire from the Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque periods. Her approach to these immense

In 1962, pianist Harriet Cohen told a story about composer Jean Sibelius on the radio. Harriet Cohen interview from 1962 “I saw him a lot in Helsinki. I got awfully friendly with him. I used to tease him a lot,

Throughout his career, Giuseppe Verdi considered numerous novels and plays by French, Italian, Spanish, and German writers as possible sources for operatic projects. He did contemplate setting several Shakespearean plays, including Hamlet, Cymbeline, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Romeo and