Blogs

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Wigmore Hall: London’s Sacred Shoe-Box
Opened on 31 May 1901, Wigmore Hall, nestling unobtrusively just a stone’s throw from the bustle and litter of Oxford Street in a row of tall Edwardian façades, is London’s pre-eminent venue for chamber music, song recitals and solo piano
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Forgotten Pianists: Agnelle Bundervoët
French pianist Agnelle Bundervoët (1922-2015) started to learn the piano age age 4 and by age 7 was enrolled in the Conservatoire National de Marseille and by age 10 was at the leading school in France, the Paris Conservatoire. She
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Ali Ben Sou Alle: A 19th Century Frenchman in Mysore
In the mid-19th century, a great many French musicians were forced to leave their homeland and seek their fortunes elsewhere, sometimes far from Europe. Many of these were refugees from the events of the Third French Revolution of 1848, which
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Forgotten Pianists: Henriette Faure
French pianist Henriette Faure (1907-1985) made the music of Maurice Ravel sing on the performing stage. One of the first to play his music in public, she made recordings of his works from the 1930s to 1950, but died before
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Sing Like Everyone’s Watching
It’s a sunny afternoon in Delhi and I am wandering around the Qutub Minar with my cousin sister, who asks me about the origins of the minaret. Before I can answer, a confident voice pipes in and prattles off the
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Forgotten Pianists: Gina Bachauer
Greek pianist Gina Bachauer (1913-1976) started her studies at the Athens Conservatory before attending the Ecole Normale de Musique to study with Alfred Cortot. In Paris, she was also able to study with Rachmaninov. Her professional debut was made at
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Music Lab at Wilton’s Music Hall
The Hong Kong Music Series is part of a wider series of events marking the twentieth anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China. The Hong Kong Special Administrative
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Pierre Henry (1927-2017)
“The Father of Modern Music”
A substantial number of classical music lovers have probably never heard the term “musique concrète.” It was coined by the French experimental musician and composer Pierre Schaeffer in 1948, and describes electroacoustic music that uses natural sounds—not electronically generated tones—as
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