Based between Beijing and Paris, Qigang Chen’s music has been praised for achieving a ‘sustained dialogue between Chinese and Western classical and cultural traditions’ (The Guardian), drawing inspiration from both the music of his native China and the European classical

The Leeds International Piano Competition is frequently described as “one of the world’s foremost music competitions.” It first launched in 1963 with the aim to discover the finest young pianists, and to prepare them for the challenging and ever-changing professional

Classical music movies are having a moment. Last year, Cate Blanchett played a renowned conductor in Tár, and Bradley Cooper is set to portray Leonard Bernstein in 2023’s Maestro. But the next big classical music movie due to hit our

Alexander Borodin (1833–1887). Like many of his fellow composers in mid-century St Petersburg, had a professional career and a side career. Professionally, Borodin was Professor of Chemistry at the Medico-Surgical Academy, and in his spare time, was a composer. This

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) celebrated his seventieth birthday in the Alrae Hotel in New York City on 5 March 1957. The New York Times published a glowing editorial in his honor on 4 March. “Heitor-Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s most famous composer and one

Throughout history, there has been no shortage of composers who were also brilliant performers. Even away from the obvious examples such as Mozart, Chopin, or Liszt, other composers such as Schumann, Ravel, or Richard Strauss had a prodigious talent for

Germaine Tailleferre is a composer who often flies under the radar for a number of reasons. She was a woman, and women composers have historically faced a harsher battle for recognition. She was part of a larger group of composers

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787), working at the Habsburg court in Vienna and at the Parisian stage, completely reformed operatic traditions. At a time when virtuoso singers dominated the operatic stage, Gluck set out to return opera to its origins by