Blogs

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If You Like Saint-Saëns, You Might Like Aldo Ciccolini
Camille Saint-Saëns, a titan of French Romantic music, is renowned for his vibrant compositions, technical brilliance, and stylistic versatility. His works, spanning symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, have captivated audiences for over a century with their elegance, wit, and
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Cancellations and Returns to the Stage
Why Musicians are Susceptible to Injury and What to Do When it Happens
Recently, it seems more artists are cancelling performances due to injury. Although injuries are not new, perhaps we are seeing more openness in elite performers to admitting to vulnerability, and there is more awareness of the risks and potential long-term
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Simple Gifts
Simplicity, Song, and the Gifts of Christmas
During the Christmas season, streets glow with lights, homes fill with ornaments and wreaths, and the air carries the scents of pine, spices, and festive baking. It is a season of abundance, of gatherings and generosity, of celebration and reflection.
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Hear Eight Great Composers Performing Their Own Works
It’s always thrilling to hear a great composer interpret their own music. During the twentieth century, a number of great composers recorded performances of their own works. These recordings reveal their approaches to phrasing, tempo, and colour that simply can’t
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All Hail the Christmas Turkey
A Very Merry Gobble
For Christmas dinner, the centrepiece of countless dining tables is the unmistakable turkey. Big, golden, and proudly perched on a platter surrounded by sides, this bird is a symbol, a tradition, and for many, the ultimate test of culinary skill.
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Frances Nash Watson: The Gutsy American Pianist Who Played With Albert Einstein
Frances Nash Watson was a forgotten twentieth-century pianist who suffered unfathomable loss, proved to the world that a wealthy heiress could become a great artist, played chamber music with Einstein, and was so magnetic that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rescheduled
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Khatia Buniatishvili
Master Pianist or Master of Hype?
Few contemporary pianists divide opinion quite as sharply as Khatia Buniatishvili. To her admirers, she is a magnetic, instinctive musician whose playing can ignite a hall with its emotional immediacy and fearless colour. To her detractors, she is the product
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An Ode to the Cello: the Early History of the Instrument
As December assumes its full hegemony and all the familiar thoughts of Christmas come swirling in, a highlight of my days has been an activity that feels like a kind of daily Christmas present to myself: learning the cello. I
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