The Birmingham Music Festival was founded in 1768 as a charitable event to raise funds for the city’s recently founded General Hospital. Renamed the “Birmingham Triennial Music Festival” in 1784, it subsequently commissioned works by Arthur Sullivan, Max Bruch, Charles

The title of this post is a quote from an interview with pianist Gabriela Montero. Story-telling is about conveying a message and music is of course all about conveying messages, telling stories and stimulating the imagination, of listener and performer.

Another important school of cello playing was developed in Russia, founded by the brilliant cellist and composer Karl Davidov. Named the “Czar of Cellists” by none other than the composer Tchaikovsky, Davidov was born in Russia, (now Latvia), in 1838.

The St. Thomas Choir is an internationally renowned boys choir from Leipzig in Germany. Singing in the choir is a selfless pursuit requiring artistry and discipline. Or is it? New research suggests all it takes to elicit surreptitious attention-seeking vocal

Reporting from a scientific exhibition in Paris, a musical journal in 1824 wrote, “the astonishment of the hearers was at its height when, after having executed a march with variations by Moscheles, the instrument was left to follow its own

Please don’t shoot at the pianist; he’s doing his best(attributed to Oscar Wilde) I sometimes get the feeling people think musicians are invincible… We engage in a highly complex, technical and artistic activity which requires huge physical and mental agility

Like the German school of cello playing, the French School had a centuries-long impact, which continues today. When we think of French playing, refinement, finesse, and elegance come to mind, but during the 18th Century in Northern Europe the cello

Franz Schreker (1878-1934) is largely forgotten today, but in his time he was Richard Strauss’ main rival for the title of Germany’s leading composer of opera. Schreker wrote complex harmonic scores using advanced chromatic harmonies and large orchestras, yet his