During his formative years in Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1828) took organ and keyboard lessons from Christian Gottlob Neefe. Concurrently, he received instructions on the violin and viola from the court musician Franz Georg Rovantini and from Franz Ries, Electoral-Court

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy, on 22 December 1858. He was the sixth of nine children by Michele Puccini and Albina Magi, and his birthplace was on the second floor of the historic

The Japanese author and writer Haruki Murakami is quite passionate about music. So much, that his works are filled with quotations, references and inspiration from the music world, and some of them even take their structure in musical works. He

The pianist and composer Peter Ritzen, born in Ghent, Belgium in 1956 might not be a household name in Europe and the United States, but he certainly enjoys high acclaim in Mainland China and in Taiwan. In fact, between 2009

Depending on your location, there might already be a touch of frost in the air. Days are getting shorter and the nights much darker and longer. There might even be a whiff of snow in the air. Judging by the

Born on 20 December 1950 in the colonial town of Álamos deep in the Sonoran desert, Arturo Márquez has “always been enthralled by the music bubbling out of cafes and dance salons in Mexico.” That love for the musical forms

Latvian-born composer Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919-2008) was educated first in Latvia and then in France, and made his home in Canada, serving on the faculty of the University of Toronto. He composed across many genres, with his output including 8 symphonies,

Just a couple of years after Western Europe fell under the spell of popular American musical styles, it also debuted in the Soviet Union. As a musical language increasingly placed at the service of social commentary, and with its strong