When we truly respect someone’s intellect, our first instinct is to treat them with the utmost reverence: to place them on a pedestal and see them as somehow more than human. With composers we admire, especially those well cemented in

Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, born on 5 January 1920 near the town of Brescia, Italy, was renowned for his impeccable technique, precision, and expressive restraint. A recluse and perfectionist, Michelangeli was a master of both technical virtuosity and emotional

Isolated from the surrounding carnage of WWI, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) began to synthesise elements of German Romanticism and Eastern Exoticism through an exploration of Greek mythical subject matters and concepts from the French fin de siècle of Debussy and Ravel.

The highly acclaimed pianist Olga Scheps was born on 4 January 1986 in Moscow, but she moved to Germany at a young age. She won several local competitions and played her debut performance with orchestra at the age of 14.

It was December 1950: composer Morton Feldman was doodling on a napkin, waiting for John Cage to finish cooking some wild rice. What Feldman had been drawing on this scrap of paper stuck with him and eventually became his landmark

Victor Borge, born on 3 January 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark, was a formidable pianist. His playing was described as “warm, rich, and highly nuanced, achieved through pedal mixtures and the formation of his large, spatula hands with cushions on each

Michael Tippett composed his final opera New Year in the mid-80s, during a time of social unrest in a Britain fearful of multiculturalism and increased ghettoisation of its inner cities. The opera, however, is explicitly about dreams and about the

The Gold Medal winner at the 2015 XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, Andrei Ioniță is one of the most admired cellists of his generation. A versatile musician focused on deeply felt performances, Andrei is internationally recognised for his passionate musicianship and