Pianist Eileen Joyce was one of the twentieth century’s most glamorous pianists, famous for her designer wardrobe, appearances on film soundtracks, and marathon four-concerto concert performances. However, she came from modest beginnings, born to impoverished parents in Western Australia. Raw

Which woman composer has been played the most at the Proms? Would you believe it’s an obscure Englishwoman born in 1855 named Maude Valérie White? She was a prolific composer, writing over two hundred songs, a ballet, and an unfinished

Discovering Leoš Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path feels like finding a hidden diary in a forgotten attic. Each piece in this collection of fifteen miniatures evokes a vivid memory whispered through the keys of the instrument. Leoš Janáček: Po zarostlém

Worth Many Thousands, The Virginia Parker Award for Outstanding Talent, Musicianship, and Artistic Excellence Our previous article left you with a quiz to solve. Who was the recipient of the annual and prestigious Virginia Parker Prize in 2024, and what

There’s something thrilling about the opening of a great piano concerto. The big instrument gets rolled onstage; the soloist and conductor stride out to applause; the pianist sits and raises their arms and nods to the conductor to begin. Today,

Charles Ives (1874–1954) used his chamber music as experimental studies, trying out his ideas with a small ensemble. In his Piano Trio, written between 1904 and 1911 and revised in 1914, he brought out musical ideas that dated from his

The history of classical music is full of the stories of composers who have had energetic love lives. Many ended up having children out of wedlock, and many others have been suspected of having children outside of wedlock. Today we’re

After Tchaikovsky, Alexander Glazunov, born on 10 August 1865, was Russia’s greatest symphonist, who handed down this legacy to Dmitry Shostakovich. Being such a wonderful orchestral composer, it’s easy to overlook his achievements as a skilled and expert composer of