The pianist Friedrich Gulda, born on 16 May 1930 in Vienna, studied under Bruno Seidlhofer and Joseph Marx, and would in time become the highly esteemed teacher of Martha Argerich. Gulda would, arguably, also become the greatest Beethoven interpreter of

Following his First Prize triumph at the 2018 Queen Elisabeth Competition, baritone Samuel Hasselhorn has established himself as one of the most versatile artists of his generation. He is equally at home on the operatic stage, in art song, and

After losing his right arm in a teenage hunting accident, Géza Zichy became one of the first professional one-handed concert pianists. His international career would take him to the capitals of Europe, earning praise from critics and audiences alike, while

From intimate Classical Era salon instruments to modern concert grands, the piano has continually grown alongside composers’ ambitions and builders’ ingenuity. While most concert halls are designed for instruments around nine feet long, a handful of piano makers have pushed

I am a guest curator at the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival from 15 to 23 May. In discussing what theme we might choose, various ideas have come to mind – Kurtag’s anniversary, The Northern Landscape? Perhaps unsurprisingly – given my

Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 14 May 1988, Nadine Sierra was six when her mother borrowed a video of Zeffirelli’s La bohème from the local library. This experience started a love affair with opera that continued to grow. As

Arthur Sullivan, born on 13 May in London, trained at the Chapel Royal, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Leipzig Conservatoire. He composed in virtually every musical genre, ranging from the oratorio to the symphony, and from chamber and

We often imagine the great masterpieces of classical music as being the result of years of painstaking labour. But history tells a more complicated story. Some of the most enduring works in the classical repertoire were written at astonishing speed: