Have you had the horrible feeling when you’re playing a concert—“CRAP—I don’t know what comes next?” It’s demoralizing and embarrassing. A memory slip can destroy your confidence. Memorization is one of the biggest challenges for a musician—often causing panic, sweaty

Why do you attend concerts? Is it for the performer or the work being performed, or, is it because it’s the place you need to be to see and be seen? There’s nothing sadder than attending a fabulous concert and

Are you ready for a bit of specialist musical trivia to impress your friends? Here it goes! What is the name of the instrument that you can see, you can hear but you can’t touch? Performing on this instrument has

You can’t tell the players without scorecard, as the old baseball metaphor goes, and in classical music, we use the program for the same purpose – who’s singing / playing / responsible for what. In UK theatres, you still buy

The Shanghai Conservatory of Music is one of the most competitive musical education institutions in China. The Conservatory’s Vice President, Zhang Xiangping, and Zhou Xianglin, the director of teaching and study affairs, filled me in on how training at Shanghai

‘In this modern world, we are constantly confronted by this question of how best to spend our free time’, explains Sam Bodkin. ‘Are we going to engage with a challenging work of art?’ he asks. ‘Or are we going to

Who doesn’t know the story of Cinderella? The tale of a young girl tormented by stepsisters, who with the help of her fairy godmother, pumpkin carriages and glass slippers, goes to a ball and marries the prince. But is it

The dinosaur ate my homework. The dog ate my homework. The computer ate my homework. Through the ages teachers have heard extremely convincing excuses to not do their work. Dear music pupils: Don’t tell me you’ve practiced when you haven’t.