The early Romantic Era, which roughly corresponds to the first half of the nineteenth century, brought an explosion of emotional depth and individuality to classical music. The stories we usually hear about the composers of the time focus almost entirely

In recent years, one of the most encouraging shifts in the classical music world has been a growing willingness to acknowledge its historical blind spots — and to actively work towards a more inclusive and diverse future. The statistics, however,

Peter Tranchell’s Twice a Kiss (1955) is not a work many of us will know. Composed for a performance during Cambridge University’s annual May Week celebrations – where Tranchell served as Precentor of Gonville and Caius College and Lecturer in

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) and his older sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847) shared an extraordinary musical bond. Trained together in childhood by the same teachers, the two prodigies developed strikingly similar foundations. As musicologist Angela Mace Christian told smithsonian.com in 2017,

In 1580, luthier John Rose created a new instrument that he named after the allegorical musicians Orpheus and Arion. Together, they personify the power of music, and in his new instrument, the orpharion, Rose created a rival for the lute.

On 15 April 1452, one of the greatest universal geniuses was born in a small village in Tuscany. As we all know, Leonardo da Vinci created some of the most iconic paintings of all time, and people will line up

Why do classical musicians play from memory, and when did the tradition begin? Believe it or not, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, playing from memory was actually considered bad manners. Most performers read from sheet music, and even

If you love Baroque instrumental music, you will undoubtedly have come across the “concerto grosso,” also known as the “big concerto.” It’s a specific form where the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists, called the “concertino,”