Conductors are the only musical performers that do not produce sound. Rather, they operate at the tip of a long chain of non-verbal communication from the composer to the audience. But conductors are hardly silent. Since conducting has always been

While it has been fashionable to separate the art from the artist—just think of Caravaggio, Woody Allen, Benjamin Britten, Richard Wagner and countless others—music and politics have always been intricately connected and entwined. As the great Isaac Stern famously said,

I was asked the other day for some ideas for sustainability and classical music. Hmmm. Not a topic I’ve heard much on. In doing research on sustainability and music, two non-classical topics turn up: how to make rock festivals (think

Hailed as India’s longest-running music society, the Madras Musical Association (MMA) celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2018 with a series of concerts and tours illustrating its diverse musical repertoire and expanding membership and popularity. This year, the MMA embarked on

Jessye Norman Any catalogue of the most spectacular black performers in the world of classical music has to begin with Jessye Norman (1945-2019). She possessed one of the world’s most beautiful and powerful voices with a glorious rich middle and

Protesters across the United States have taken to the streets in the wake of George Floyd’s death demanding an end to police brutality and systemic racism. And as the international human rights movement “Black Lives Matter,” that protest has resonated

All kinds of Beethoven’s music have been used in films – nothing quite says culture like our heroine sitting down at the piano and rippling a few tender tunes with her delicate fingers. The familiar sound of the Bagatelle No.

Can you imagine naming a whole class of trains after composers? That’s what British Rail did with its Class 92 electric locomotives. From Beethoven to Wagner (or, so cite British composers, from Britten to Sullivan), the names of composers from