The solo violin has long been acknowledged as the perfect instrument to express emotions like love, longing, heartbreak, rapture, and romance. The Romantic era lasted from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and produced numerous works that
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13 Facts You Didn’t Know About Fanny Mendelssohn July 4th, 2020 Most musicians don’t know a lot about Fanny Mendelssohn besides the fact that she was Felix’s uber-talented older sister. But she was a hugely important musical figure in her own right. We look at thirteen facts you (probably) didn’t know -
Opera for Everyone: In Memory of Carl Reiner (1922-2020) July 3rd, 2020 First broadcast on Caesar’s Hour on 19 October 1955 on NBC television, we have a version of Pagliacci that everyone will understand, even if they can’t understand Italian….and especially if they can’t understand Italian. In Sid Caesar’s inimitable pseudo-Italian, we -
The Freeing Disciple: Mime and Music July 3rd, 2020 What can a musician learn from a mime’s art and training? We were speaking the other day with Valérie Aimard, cellist with Cello Kids and learned that some 15 years ago, she’d taken up another discipline: Mime. As she said - Sustainability and Classical Music
How the Metropolitan Opera “Recycles” an Opera in a Good Way July 2nd, 2020I was asked the other day for some ideas for sustainability and classical music. Hmmm. Not a topic I’ve heard much on. In doing research on sustainability and music, two non-classical topics turn up: how to make rock festivals (think -
Nathalie Stutzmann July 1st, 2020 On Conducting: “I am risky, but not insecure” Not only is Nathalie Stutzmann one of the most renowned contraltos in the world, she is also highly in demand as a conductor, having worked with groups including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, -
The Madras Musical Association Through the Ages June 29th, 2020 Hailed as India’s longest-running music society, the Madras Musical Association (MMA) celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2018 with a series of concerts and tours illustrating its diverse musical repertoire and expanding membership and popularity. This year, the MMA embarked on - The Music of Poetry
Charles Baudelaire: “Harmonie du Soir” June 28th, 2020Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), according to TS Eliot was the first modern poet, “the greatest exemplar in modern poetry in any language.” He produced unprecedented expressions of a complex sensibility and of modern themes within structures of classical rigor and technical - The Complete Pianist
From Healthy Technique to Natural Artistry – Penelope Roskell June 28th, 2020The Complete Pianist is exactly that: a comprehensive, generous guide to playing and teaching the piano, and one of the most significant volumes on piano technique to appear in recent decades, written by renowned pedagogue and British concert pianist Penelope
