Nowadays, children are expected to start all sorts of extra-curricular activities even before they can utter ‘ma-ma’ and ‘da-da’. If you haven’t got your act together yet, fret not. Here is a guide to helping you choose the right instrument

Mozart’s Divertimento K522 (also nicknamed ‘A Musical Joke’) is said to be inspired from his pet bird, a starling. The awkwardness of the piece is said to mimic the way starlings whistle off-key. Likewise, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony incorporates the song

A recent concert by the distinguished Emerson String Quartet (Eugene Drucker, violin; Philip Setzer, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola; Paul Watkins, cello) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. paired Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144

We’ve already looked at Modest Mussorgsky’s creation for piano, Pictures at an Exhibition. This best-known of Mussorgsky’s works had an afterlife as an orchestral work that has resulted in dozens of orchestrations. There are also arrangements for other performing forces

An engaging interpreter of baroque and contemporary music as well as of the mainstream symphonic repertoire, Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado maintains a busy schedule in the concert hall, opera house and recording studio. He holds the position of Principal Conductor