When he was thirty-one years old, Ludwig van Beethoven cracked. In a touristy town just outside of Vienna, he sat down and wrote arguably the most famous letter in classical music history. It was a cry from the depths of

Lutenist and theorbist Thomas Dunford has brought a new life to music that seems to have had its best exposure about 20 years ago. His skill on these two Renaissance instruments brings back many pieces of music we’d heard long

The new interior designs of the 1930s, particularly in space-conscious New York, reduced the size of many rooms of the apartment and created the three-piece dinette (a table and two chairs) to replace the 8- to 10-seater dining table, with

American composer Ulysses Kay (1917–1995) studied with Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood and Yale and, following WWII, With Otto Leuning at Columbia. From 1946 to 1952, he was in Rome, having won the Prix de Rome not once but two times

Over the years, we’ve had the honor of talking with many of the greatest musicians in classical music today. Today, we’re gathering some of their best advice for musicians in one article. If you ever find yourself stuck in a

The German composer George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) worked in Britain and was good friends with the painter Joseph Goupy (1689–1759). In London, Handel lived a good life and was considered one of the great voluptuaries of the age, known for

Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006) was a master of the English light classics and wrote a great deal of his music for that ultimate British ensemble, the brass band, and he himself played the trumpet. In 1964, he was commissioned by the

Opera in London in the 1790s was a cut-throat competition. Handel had abandoned Italian opera in 1741, and the quality began to fall. The high fees that singers such as the castrati Senesino and Farinelli and the soprano Cuzzoni commanded