Blogs

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Piano Practice
Etudes for Intermediate Beginners
I started piano lessons at the age of six, and it was a lot of fun. There were so many exciting things to explore, and thankfully I had a very nice and knowledgably teacher. At that age, I didn’t get
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In Our Service – A Special Platinum Jubilee Commission From the Royal School of Church Music
Music has long been associated with royalty, from coronation anthems to music for royal fireworks, and much more. To celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), a UK music and education charity based in
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2nd Hong Kong Early Music Festival 2021: A Historical Journey
In one way or another, this seemingly never-ending pandemic has greatly affected each and every one of us. It has severely restricted our freedoms and abilities to travel, affected our livelihoods, and occasionally left deep scars on our psychological wellbeing.
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Making Fun of Opera: Victorian Opera Burlesques
As soon as an opera hit the London stage in the mid-to-late 19th century and everyone was familiar with the tunes, it immediately became subject of humorous versions. Beethoven’s Fidelio was turned into Pizzarro the Great Tyrant or the Little
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George Rochberg: Caprice Variations
Léo Marillier: Violin
The violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) wrote his set of 24 Caprices for Solo Violin between 1802 and 1817. Dedicated by Paganini to ‘all artists’ upon its publication by Ricordi in 1820, his own score carries names of performers and
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The Soul of the Composer: Simone Menezes’ Metanoia Project
Metanoia, a change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion, can be considered one of the interesting offshoots of the whole COVID period. If we redefine it away from spiritual matters and make it “transformations in
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The Lost Art of the Composer-Conductor
It is not only the essence of music which has evolved over the centuries, but also the manner in which it has and is being created, produced and performed — its medium. As music became more and more complex, its
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A New Year and a ‘New Normal’ for Live Concerts?
The word “normal” has shifted in meaning over the past nearly two years of the covid pandemic. For concert halls and opera houses, and other arts venues such as galleries and exhibition spaces, “normal” now has a variety of meanings,
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