Glenn Gould claimed to “detest” audiences, regarding them as “mob rule” and “a force for evil” (he retired from performing in public at 31), but most performers take a far more positive and generous attitude towards audiences. Audiences – real

I met the American composer Libby Larsen when we were both just beginning our careers. I had joined the Minnesota Orchestra and with three other colleagues formed The Minneapolis Artists Ensemble, whose mandate was to play a variety of chamber

When it comes to Mozart operas, “The Marriage of Figaro” is one of my all-time favorites. Mozart composed this opera buffa in 1786 to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. The libretto is based on a stage comedy by

Imagine if you were listening to someone speak, perhaps reading out the news on television, or reciting a poem. The speaker’s voice sounds the same the entire time they are speaking, with no rise or fall in sound, no changes

Ill-timed coughs, un-silenced cellphones, rustling sweet wrappers… the frustration felt by some musicians towards their audiences at concerts is unfortunately all too well documented. You’d almost think some musicians prefer performing to an empty room. But, come to think of

The following article is the third and last of a three-part series on impressionism around the world; in France, in Europe and in our Modern World. In these articles, I explore the genre of impressionism. Born in France, it is

When I was having piano lessons as a child and teenager from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s I never played any piano music by women composers, except perhaps some very rudimentary pieces by the late Fanny Waterman (though I

Talk about a strange story. Calaf is one of three suitors for the hand of the prickly Princess Turandot. Her suitors must solve three riddles, with any single wrong answer resulting in execution. Calaf manages to solve all three riddles