Women performers were accepted well before they were recognized as authors or composers. Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn are cases in point who achieved success more for their performing than music writing. Amy Cheney Beach defied traditional conceptions. She became

Big hair, eclectic jewelry and high heels are her trademark. Ida Haendel is considered one of the greatest violin soloists of the twentieth century— born to play the violin. When she appeared earlier in my career with the Minnesota Orchestra

John Dowland (1563 –1626) brought the art of weeping to an exquisite height in the early 17th century. This English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer became famed for his melancholy songs that have an inherent darkness that stands in contrast

The next of the brass winds is the trumpet, which developed much on the same lines as the horn: first a simple structure, then with the addition of valves, an instrument more suited for ensemble work was created. The process

Spanish pianist Alica de Larrocha was a favorite artist at our home when I was growing up and not just because of her diminutive stature. (She was less than five feet tall—like me!) Later in my life I was privileged

Spiegel im Spiegel has to be the best-known of all the music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt who is 80 this year. Composed in 1978, just before Pärt left Estonia for Berlin, it was originally written for single piano and

In the back of the orchestra are the brass-winds: the wild brass instruments that have been tamed and brought into the orchestra, but who remain with the potential to put a wild call out over the rest of the ensemble.

Last weekend, unconfirmed reports hit the internet about the great Swedish tenor’s death. By the following Monday the reports were denied by publicists and friends: Nicolai Gedda (born July 11, 1925) is alive and well.