“Pepi (Josef) is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the more popular…” When it comes to dynasties in classical music, it’s difficult to upstage the Viennese Strauss family. They were musical megastars of international reputation whose dance

December’s Artist of the Month is Icelandic-American cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir. Currently based in Seattle, she has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester. Sæunn also teaches cello at the

“My Music Is Like a Garden” Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996), who was born in Tokyo 90 years ago, once likened his music to a walk through a garden. “I am the gardener,” he writes, “who experiences the changes in light, pattern

Heart and Home American soprano Jacquelyn Wagner is getting ready for her first opera appearance since the Coronavirus pandemic, singing Alice in Verdi’s Falstaff in Malmö, Sweden. After a long enforced break she is excited to be back, and talks

“Music is the Language of God” Celebrating his 75th birthday in 1906, the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim declared that Germany had four great violin concertos. Among the four—of course including the superb singular efforts in this genre by Beethoven, Mendelssohn

Keeping Connections Present Andrés Orozco-Estrada is about to commence a five-year music directorship of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the city where he has lived for more than 23 years. Moving in 1997 from Colombia to study at the Vienna Hochschüle,

“Music is natural law as related to the sense of hearing” Throughout his short life—having been accidentally shot by an American soldier in 1945—the music of Anton Webern (1883-1945) was almost totally unknown. With the end of WWII, however, the

Widor, Vierne, and variety in life ‘My hands and feet are full of notes again!’ exclaims Iveta Apkalna, as her concert diary is beginning to fill up again into the autumn. And as it should; Iveta has played with some