The Italian composer Elisabetta Brusa (b. 1954) started composition as a child before attending the Milan Conservatory, where she studied composition. She graduated in 1980 and returned to Milan in 1985 to teach at the Conservatory. Fellowships (Fromm and Fulbright)

Franz Liszt first sought medical care in 1881, suffering from the early cardio-respiratory disease that would eventually take his life. Concurrently, Liszt also noted a gradual decline in the vision of his left eye. He had used corrective lenses for

Stepping into the footsteps of his idol Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler wrote to a friend in 1880.“For the last month, I have been a total vegetarian. The moral effect of this way of life, with its voluntary castigation of the

The Italian composer Franco Alfano (1875–1954) was one of the Italian ‘Generazione dell’Ottanta’ of composers born in the 1880s, the best known of which included Alfredo Casella, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Gian Francsco Malipiero, and Ottorino Respighi, who sought to bring back

Ever since I was a little child, I listened to recordings by Yehudi Menuhin. In every single note that phenomenal violinist produced fantastic intensity and emotion. I remember listening to Bach’s Air on a G string, and I had never

A product of a 19-year-old composer, George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, completed in 1901, is thought to be a loosely connected set of episodes sources on folk dances and folk songs. But although these are seemingly ‘as found’, Enescu

In Japanese architecture “moya” designates the core or central part of a residential building. When Buddhism was introduced to the country in the 6th century, “moya” became the designation of the sacred central area of a temple building. In the

Several pieces have the word ‘olden’ in their titles. We’ll look at 4 works and see that each composer carries a different meaning for the word. Henryk Górecki: 3 Olden Style Pieces Górecki combined elements of folk origins with modern