Writing about music is like dancing about architecture Oft quoted, frequently mis-attributed, this statement brilliantly captures the difficulty of writing about something abstract, what Ferruccio Busoni called ‘sonorous airs’ – the music itself. There’s an over-abundance of writing about music

During social distancing, musicians and arts organizations are coming up with ways to continue to reach our audiences and our students. We also always resort to some silly games. Here are a few that my colleagues and I are engaging

How does a person become a composer? What are the attributes you need to write music? Can music composition be taught, and perhaps more importantly, can it be learned? As many universities and schools around the world already teach music

Today is March 26th, 2020, the 15th day of a first self-imposed, and now state-imposed isolation period. And I’m already sick of the live-streaming pandemic that has hit us. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy solidarity as much as

My Beethoven Moment came by way of a Wagnerian dramatic soprano. The municipal theatre of the small town where I grew up – Bern, Switzerland – offered a rather limited operatic program. But they tried. When the Stadttheater Bern put

One of my best friends is a published author. With two popular and successful books under her belt, she gave up her day job to write full time and now her imagination and creativity seem to know no bounds. When

Musicians are very creative people. So creative, that when we get bored backstage, when we are waiting on tour for a bus or plane, when we pause while a conductor decides if he or she wants it louder or softer,

You’ve heard of pocketbooks, pocket watches, pocket battleships and pocket money, but what about pocket symphonies? According to Wikipedia, “a pocket symphony is a song with extended form. The term was popularized by English journalist Derek Taylor, who used it