When you attend a symphony orchestra concert, the first instrument you see, on the left of the stage, are the violins. No classical music concert is complete without a violin. Violins are small string instruments that are played with a

Classical music has a bad rap. Despite current research that indicates music education enhances all learning, reverses the effects of poverty and dementia, and encourages empathy, publicity departments seem to think they must exert themselves to market classical music. Their

Just about every product on sale in a modern supermarket offers consumers a money back guarantee. The concept is not new. It originated with the 18th-century entrepreneur Josiah Wedgewood as a marketing strategy to shift more goods. Since then, the

I was at a concert the other evening where the opening work was Schubert’s Fantasia for Piano 4-hands. Two pianists, sitting side by side, at one piano performed one of Schubert’s greatest pieces. The two pianists angled their benches carefully

Aren’t you just sick and tired of lazy and unimaginative programming justified by the eternal excuse, “I am just giving my audience what they want to hear!”

We forget how much the English contributed to the beauty of orchestral music through their lush pastoral string writing. And the Bridge is Love, a new recording by the English Chamber Orchestra led by Julian Lloyd-Webber, brings all of this

The Kronos Quartet is famous for commissioning works that cover the widest possible range of musical and experimental genres. The founder David Harrington once explained, “I’ve always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool,

Buying a piano for home use is a highly personal choice. It depends on a number of variables, including instrument style, brand, color and shape. Generally speaking, however, we look for instruments within a certain budget range, and one that