The 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition announced 19-year-old pianist American George Li as the recipient of the Second prize in the piano division. The judges praised his incredible technical skill and his passionate and sincere attitude towards music. “Li showed himself
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All music pages present a problem for the performer: how do you get to the other side? If you’re a pianist in a performance, you have a page-turner. A page-turner is a musically literate person who sits just behind you
Born in New York City on 23 August 1981, conductor Karina Canellakis has a number of firsts to her name. She was the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in London in 2019, and was
Like many of the Russian composers in the later 19th century, Victor Vladimirovich Ewald (1860–1935) had a day job. He completed his studies in St Petersburg in civil engineering and, in 1900, was a professor at the Faculty of Construction
In 1900, Grieg spent some time in Copenhagen, and he wrote to a friend, “although I am currently out of the country, my thoughts are only about Norway and Norwegians, about all our youthful pugnacity up there. Yes, it is
A little while ago, I wrote a blog on the 10 most beautiful piano trios and your response was overwhelming. Thank you so much for your encouraging comments, and also for suggesting additional works that should have been included. To
William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865) might not be a household name nowadays, but he was one of the major composers of Romantic English opera. And while his opera Maritana, which had a triumphant première at London’s Drury Lane Theatre on 15
It took Richard Wagner the better part of 26 years to complete Götterdämmerung (Twilights of the Gods). This final opera in the Ring cycle was originally called “Siegfried’s Tod,” and the resources and stamina demanded by the work from both