Very recently, I attended a recital by a rather well known pianist. After the programme proper had concluded, it was time for the encore ritual. Audience members were clapping furiously, cheering, standing up from their seats, and demanding that the

The love story of Robert and Clara Schumann is one of the most famous in classical music history. Over the course of their marriage, Clara carried eight pregnancies to term. Today we’re looking at the remarkable stories of those children,

Opera is a unique mixture of music and theatre; singing and acting each plays an important role in the success of a production. One of the most testing roles is that of the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor. In

I admit it, I’m a fervent auto-didact, a “self-teacher” whose answer to “how do I do that?” is to either reach for a book or more likely these days, look it up on Google or YouTube. For me, self-teaching goes

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers for the piano in history, and his music is beloved and widely performed to this day. So what makes Rachmaninoff’s piano music so special? It probably helped that

Sometimes, when we listen to music from the Classical Era, we think, we suspect, we believe it might be a little, shall we say, formulaic? When you get involved with the phenomenon of Musical Dice Games, you can see how

The Czech composer Paul Wranitzky (1756–1808) moved to Vienna at age 20 to find new opportunities. His education combined music (singing, organ, violin, and viola) and then theology in Olomouc. After his move to Vienna, he led the choir at

Just over one year ago, Vladimir Putin ordered his armies to invade Ukraine, an independent country with a democratically elected government. Putin’s full-blown criminal invasion has left a trail of devastation, with towns and cities in ashes. Specifically targeting civilian