The violin, the best known of the instruments of classical music, is known by its shape – an hour-glass waist and an arched bridge. These are our first clues that this is a bowed instrument – the waist on the

Giuseppe Verdi was born 10 October 1813 in Le Roncole, Italy. Here are a few facts about his life to get you started: Verdi is most famous for his operas. Over the course of his six-decade-long career, he wrote twenty-eight

In its simplest form, a concerto is defined as a musical composition in which one or more solo instruments interact with an orchestra or ensemble. The term concerto is ambiguous because it originated from splicing together two Latin words. “Consere”

Lots of people say that less is more, and that rule of thumb can certainly apply to symphonies. Today, we’re looking at ten of the shortest symphonies ever written, dating from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. All are

One day in an antique shop, I found a small programme booklet for the Marlborough-Blenheim Quartet, Mr. Leo Sachs, director, which performed at the Marlborough-Blenheim hotel in Atlantic City. In looking further through the internet, I found three other programs

The violin and cello: like vanilla and chocolate, they’re two great tastes that taste great together! However, not everyone is familiar with the wide fantastic repertoire available to violinists and cellists who want to partner up and perform together. So

Credit: Joe Lennon

At the bottom of the brass section sits the tuba, the largest of the brasswind instruments. Oddly enough, for an instrument that is so fundamentally important, it, like the saxophone, was one of the last additions to the orchestra. It