We’ve seen him with this tongue sticking out… we’ve seen him concerned with the implications of nuclear energy… and we’ve seen him behind the bow on the violin. But, as an inspiration, we have to take the words of one

Never underestimate the power of laughter! When Catalan pianist Carmen Bravo was asked what made her fall in love with Federico Mompou (1893-1987), she quietly confessed, “He made me laugh.” Mompou was quiet, shy and introverted, and Bravo extroverted, outgoing

Percussion can be anything from the lowly triangle to the majestic piano and all struck things between. In his recent work Conjurer, John Corigliano took on the difficult task of writing a percussion concerto. In his own words, he said

In a letter to his father, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made a reference to a seven-member Italian opera troupe visiting Vienna. That troupe arrived in the Austrian capital during Lent 1783, and first performed on 22 April 1783 in Antonio Salieri’s

Gaetano Donizetti followed the resounding success of Anna Bolena with two additional serious operas, Lucrezia Borgia of 1833, and Lucia di Lammermoor of 1835. Rossini regarded Lucia as Donizetti’s supreme operatic achievement. It epitomized the Italian Romantic spirit of the

By the late 1950’s George Rochberg was celebrated as America’s first and foremost master of composition in a serial language. One of the great leaders of the American avant-garde, Rochberg’s journey to a newly found language based on the tonal

One of the most prolific Italian composers in the second quarter of the 19th Century, Gaetano Donizetti’s (1797-1848) reputation invariably stands or falls with his 70 works for the operatic stage. Robert Schumann spitefully called Donizetti “a composer of music

He was one of the greatest performing artists of the 19th century! Ole Bull (1810-1880) was a child prodigy, and he gave his public debut as a soloist at age 9. Although intending to study theology and/or law, he decided