Enjoying the shores of Lake Como with Marie d’Agoult in 1837, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) immersed himself in a close reading of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The idea of composing a symphony to Dante’s Divine Comedy, one that would combine music, poetry

autonomy: the ability to make your own decisions without being controlled by anyone else – Cambridge Dictionary definition As musicians, we may seek external endorsement and extrinsic motivation through examinations and assessments, the accrual of qualifications such as diplomas, and

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was one of the first successful female composers in 19th century France. That opinion is not only based on 21st century assessments, but also on views expressed by her contemporaries. Robert Schumann wrote for example, “her works

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky arrived in St Petersburg on 22 October 1893 to oversee the first performance of his Sixth Symphony. Tchaikovsky was elatedly optimistic and wrote, “I think it will be successful; it is rare for me to write anything

Ah, Vienna! The city of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and the waltzing Lanner and Strauss families. Even today, Vienna likes to promote itself as the eternally waltzing city. While that may be the case to some extent, in the period between

Although Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) had suffered from poor health for a number of years, he maintained a hectic performing schedule in the early months of 1847. He conducted Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig, and presented a series of four historical concerts

Long before George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) became a Nobel-prize winning dramatist and author of more than sixty plays, including Man and Superman of 1902 and Pygmalion of 1912, he worked as a music critic. He wrote his first musical criticisms

Since 1994, World Vegan Day is celebrated on November 1. It commemorates the 50th anniversary of the UK Vegan Society devoted to non-dairy vegetarianism. Donald Watson and his future wife Dorothy Morgan coined the word “vegan,” and veganism is defined