The French choral movement known as the orphéons originated during the French Revolution. Within 15 years, the initiative was so popular that it led to the creation of the Paris Orphéon choral society, an organization eventually directed by Charles Gounod.

For the longest time, the Prix de Rome competition was a “good ole boys” affair. After a century of the compositional Prix de Rome being closed to women, the Education Minister Joseph Chaumié made the surprise announcement at a press

English composer Frederick Delius (1862-1934) first went to Scandinavia as a young man working for his father. He went first to Sweden and then, in his off hours, went to Norway and began a lifelong fascination with the country, its

Anton Rubinstein called Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) “the greatest violinist of his time.” A combination of French schooling and Slavonic temperament, Wieniawski had impeccable technique and produced a wonderfully warm and rich tone. As such, he made light work of technical

In 1827, Hector Berlioz went to a play and came away transformed. At the Odéon Theatre in Paris, a performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet took his heart. Everything about the play and the performance affected him – the raging

Camille Saint-Saëns was not a deeply religious man, and he certainly had “a repugnance for religious ceremonies.” On one occasion he even made arrangements for someone else to represent him at a baptism service where he was to become a

Bela Bartók once famously said, “Competitions are for horses, not artists.” Bartók’s quip draws attention to the fact that judging music competitions in artistic performance and composition are fundamentally, and unavoidably an inexact science. Judged by experts with different tastes,

Classical music has transformative power, as perhaps you’ve noted in the previous article, which features large symphonic works. A piece of music can transport you to a different time and place and the collective response for and from the audience,