We are exquisitely attuned to sound from our very beginnings. In the womb, a baby eavesdrops on their mother’s soft cooing voice. When she starts singing lullabies, sound leads us to language, and when she rhythmically rocks her child it

We start the year with Spring, even though any year starts in the throes of Winter, be it the frosty Winter of the Northern Hemisphere, or the burning Winter of the Southern Hemisphere. Spring is awakening, is renewal, is a

Princesse Edmond de Polignac, synonymous with the heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune Winnaretta Singer holds the distinction of commissioning the most frequently performed organ concerto not written in the Baroque period. The Princess envisioned a work for chamber

During the second half of the 19th century it was common for young talented American composers to finish their musical education in Europe. New England born Horatio Parker (1863-1919) initially studied composition in Boston with George Chadwick, and in 1882

“A woman must not wish to compose” – Clara Schumann Clara Schumann (then Clara Wieck, 1819-1896) began her Piano Concerto in A minor at the age of 13 and premièred it three years later at the Leipzig Gewandhaus under the

If you are appointed as organist at a major church at the age of 7, and you compose a three-part mass with organ accompaniment shortly thereafter, you’ll probably have some kind of professional musical career ahead of you. And that’s

Since the invention of the piano in the 18th century, composers have placed the instrument centre stage, pitting it against the might of an orchestra to create music which ranks amongst the greatest in the repertoire.

“In my eyes and ears,” wrote Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “the organ will forever be the King of Instruments.” And Ludwig van Beethoven apparently considered organists superior musicians “because of their improvisatory skills and multi-limbed virtuosity.”