The philosophical argument titled the “lottery of birth” avers, “no one chooses the circumstances into which they are born.” Essentially, we do not choose to exist and we are faced with a world that we played no part in creating.

The city of Atami is located in Shizuoka Prefecture, at the northern end of the Izu Peninsula. Built on the steep slopes of a partially submerged volcanic caldera, the name of the city literally translates as “hot ocean.” That name

The harpsichordist and conductor William Christie is internationally famous as the founder of “Les Art Florissants.” This vocal and instrument group, performing English, French, and Italian Baroque repertory and Classical opera, takes its name from the 1685 opera of the

In October 1878, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky resigned from his post at the Moscow Conservatoire. The resignation followed on the heels of the disintegration of his disastrous marriage to his former student Antonia Miliukova. Psychologically and sexually mismatched, the couple lived

Zoltán Kodály was born in the Hungarian city of Kecskemét on 16 December 1882. His father worked for the railroad, having risen to the rank of stationmaster by 1883. He was described as “a plump, reticent man of medium height,

On 2 November 1788, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote to a friend, “Since 18 September I have been very ill with gout and other ailments. Now my health is beginning to improve.” However, this period of improvement was short-lived, as

The French coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe was born on 12 December 1985 in Ifs, near Caen, in the Calvados region of Normandy. Her parents are specialized educators, and music was not an integral part of the Devieilhe household. She received

Hector Berlioz was born at 5pm on Sunday, 11 December 1803 in the small village of La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère. His father, Louis-Joseph Berlioz was a hardworking town physician who advocated such progressive cures as hydrotherapy and