“So far as musical pedagogy is concerned —And by extension of musical creation — Nadia Boulanger is the most influential person who ever lived”- Ned Rorem High praise indeed! Nadia Boulanger influenced an amazing and diverse group of artists during

Musical instruments in China were traditionally classified into 8 groups delineated by the material used in the instrument: Silk, Bamboo, Wood, Stone, Metal, Clay, Gourd and Hide. We will look at selected instruments in six of these groups in this

Composer Gabriel Fauré, once called Marguerite Long, “a shameless woman who uses my name to get on.” Nonetheless she became the foremost woman pianist of France during the first half of the twentieth century, performing and teaching at the Paris

I always had issues practising when growing up. I hated the idea of anyone being able to hear me practice, no matter what stage I was at with a piece. Standing in our living room playing scales terrified me for

We are familiar with instruments made of wood and metal, but there are also some instruments made from the far more fragile material of glass. Some instruments were more showpieces of a glass-maker’s art, but instruments such as glass trumpets,

I’m going to face up to a harsh reality here. The clarinet repertoire is small. Admittedly, it’s not as meagre as certain other instruments’ (which I will not list here for fear of opening up innumerable cans of worms), but

Who’s on your banknote? We took a survey of European bank notes and found a gratifying number of women singers and one composer who’ve appeared, past and present. Between 1996 and 2003, the Swedish Riksbank produced the Jenny Lind 50-kronor

We are very familiar with the instruments of Western classical music, most of which appear in Western orchestral music. This new series will look at musical instruments outside the American / European tradition, beginning with China.