In our celebrity-obsessed, ‘image is everything’ times, it seems that the fledgling concert pianist’s path to the modern concert arena – the ‘Three C’s’ of Conservatoire, Competition and Concerto – has turned professional piano playing into a kind of Olympian

The moon is always there, hanging over the sleepy earth or visible in a blue sky, just to remind us of its presence, even during the day. The 21st century fashion for looking at the Supermoon or whatever this month’s

What kind of summer do you have? The burning summer of the Middle East? The humid summers of the Far East and the American Midwest? The ideal summers of sunny days and picnics, tennis and a hike? Or just the

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