With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan began to modernize. Western systems and Western technology were adopted and Western music was allowed to return after a 250-year absence. The Tokyo Academy of Music opened in 1887 and one of its

He was born in 1845 in Vezprém, Hungary, and in the 85 years of his life, was one of the most important violin teachers of the late 19th and early 20th century. He taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory for

I started piano lessons at the age of six, and it was a lot of fun. There were so many exciting things to explore, and thankfully I had a very nice and knowledgably teacher. At that age, I didn’t get

Music has long been associated with royalty, from coronation anthems to music for royal fireworks, and much more. To celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), a UK music and education charity based in

In one way or another, this seemingly never-ending pandemic has greatly affected each and every one of us. It has severely restricted our freedoms and abilities to travel, affected our livelihoods, and occasionally left deep scars on our psychological wellbeing.

As soon as an opera hit the London stage in the mid-to-late 19th century and everyone was familiar with the tunes, it immediately became subject of humorous versions. Beethoven’s Fidelio was turned into Pizzarro the Great Tyrant or the Little

The violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) wrote his set of 24 Caprices for Solo Violin between 1802 and 1817. Dedicated by Paganini to ‘all artists’ upon its publication by Ricordi in 1820, his own score carries names of performers and

Metanoia, a change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion, can be considered one of the interesting offshoots of the whole COVID period. If we redefine it away from spiritual matters and make it “transformations in