It all started pretty innocently. Gania, the young adopted daughter of Alexander Borodin asked her father to play a piano duet with her. Borodin objected by telling her that she did not know how to play. “But Daddy,” Gania replied,

A good many people decide to plan proceedings for their own funerals. Among the various options and choices there is always the question if music should be part of the service, and if so, what that music might be.

Do you know what happened when George Balanchine, tenderly referred to as the father of American ballet, teamed up with Igor Stravinsky? Unless you actually know the answer, this one is somewhat difficult to guess. Turns out, they were choreographing

The soprano Margarethe Bernbrunn, née Lang, who frequently performed under the stage name “Adalbert Prix,” was described in the following terms. “Gretchen possessed a little plump seductive form, was about twenty years of age, and, in addition to her undoubted

There are a number of celebrated anecdotes going around that George Gershwin habitually asked famous composers to give him lessons. Apparently he wanted composition lessons from Edgard Varèse, leader of the New York musical avant-garde. Although Varèse acknowledged Gershwin’s talent,

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) was supremely gifted, intellectually and musically. Even before reaching his teenage years, he spoke fluent French, German and Russian, and his interest in music and philosophy was insatiable. Receiving instructions from Gustav Neuhaus, Karol read Schopenhauer and

Johann Sebastian Bach and his older brother Johann Jacob shared a special bond. Their mother Elisabeth Bach died on 3 May 1694, and their father Ambrosius Bach followed her into the grave on 20 February 1695. Orphaned, both boys were

In December of 1857 Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria/Hungary magnanimously declared, “It is my will that the Vienna suburbs are to be connected to the center of imperial power.” And so he had the old city fortifications torn down, and