Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic games strongly believed that sports and the arts had become artificially separated. As such, he looked to integrate music alongside other art forms in the Olympic competition itself. The first “pentathlon of

Maurice Murphy (1935-2010) was born in west London, but spent his childhood in Yorkshire, in the north of England. He grew up playing in local brass bands, and in 1956 became the principal cornet of the internationally renowned Black Dyke

The concert is complete, the applause is given generously. The performer bows, acknowledging the audience and their applause, and leaves the stage. The applause grows more enthusiastic and the performer returns once again to take a bow and thank the

When Ravel wrote his piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin in memory of the soldiers of the Great War, the first performance in Paris in 1919 was given by the Marguerite Long, who was the widow of Joseph de Marliave,

With the passing of Kurt Moll (1938-2017) the world has lost one of its greatest voices. Internationally renowned for his velvety and deeply moving voice, Moll was capable of reaching into the infra-bass range. Reaching to the glorious depths of

Sometimes, and more frequently that you might imagine, my husband’s world (mountain-biking) and mine (music) intersect, with interesting results. At first sight, our respective passions could not be more different: he likes to hurl himself and his bike down the

Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963) was another of the great pianists who came onto the international stage in the 1930s and who brought an elegance of performance matched with a relaxed virtuosic style.

I never thought I’d write an article on “note bashing”. In general it’s not something I advocate – mindless repetitive practise, thoughtlessly hammering away at the same phrase or group of notes. However, during my work on one of Schubert’s