Once we get out of the string section, we enter the wonderful world of the woodwinds. Later we’ll explore the brass winds and then the loudest section, the percussion. The flute has a long history, going back to pre-time when

Hamburg, a Hanseatic city of 1.8 million inhabitants, previously a free city-state. It is part of the Hanseatic chain of ports, sitting on the Baltic Sea. (along with Lübeck, Antwerp, Bergen, Novgorod and London by extension)

Nessun Dorma was the caption on a colourful poster for the 13th annual CCSA ( Chinese Community Service Association ) Chinese New Year Gala held in Vancouver on 10th February, 2015, to celebrate the Year of the Goat, Sheep or

“…I don’t play for the audience, I play for myself, and if I derive any satisfaction from it, then the audience, too, is content.” Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) 20th March 2015 marks the centenary of the birth of Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter.

At the bottom of the string section stands the mighty Double Bass. With a body 45.5 inches (115 cm) and overall length of 74.8 inches (189 cm) the double bass both towers above and supports from below the string section

Aldo Ciccolini (15 August 1925, Naples, Italy; 1 February 2015, Asnières-sur-Seine, France) brought the world of Satie out of obscurity and showed his quirky qualities to a new generation of listeners. Ciccolini, who was born in Italy but made his

In a recital space somewhere in central London a group of people are seated in a rough semi-circle around a Fazioli 212 grand piano. Some lounge in their seats in a pretence of relaxation, others crane forward eagerly for a

The orchestra string section rests on two supports: the double-basses and their smaller cousins, the cellos. I say cousins because the cello and the double bass actually have different antecedents. The cello is part of the violin family and the