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Instruments of the Orchestra VIII: The Bassoon
The woodwind’s bass support is the mighty bassoon. Another double-reed instrument like the oboe, the bassoon need to be a long wood wind in order to get the low notes and is designed rather folded back on itself in order
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An Orchestra Gets With It – Turn Your Phone On!
Handsome, longhaired composer and conductor Eric Whitacre instructed the audience, “Turn your phone on. Put it in airplane mode and wait for my cue.” Throughout the Orchestra Hall lobby were instructions regarding how to download the Deep Fields app prior
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Ten Tips for Productive Practice
When it comes to practising instruments, most people are concerned about quantity. ‘But I practised 20 minutes every day!’ ‘I practised yesterday!’ ‘I spent a total of five hours practising this week!!!’ But I urge you to concentrate on quality,
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The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music IV – Dame Myra Hess
British pianist Dame Myra Hess was a legend. She garnered fame during World War II when concert halls had to be blacked out during the evenings. She organized 1700 day time concerts during the London Blitz—the six years of bombings
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Swept Away Festival
Tired of hearing summer festivals filled with the same old Mozart and Bach? The Swept Away Festival, organized by The Continuum Ensemble, will be looking at music from Berlin and Vienna in the Twenties and will take place in London
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Bogányi: The Piano from Planet Stealth
What do you get when you mate a grand piano with a spaceship from planet Stealth? The answer is simple, you get a Bogányi! If you are still confused, just have a look at the attached picture! This appears to
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When the Score Isn’t Enough
We hear stories of the wonders of Paganini – he played so hard that strings would break beneath his bow and still he would go on, moving the melody to other strings even as he continued to play – and
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DMA: Doctor of Musical Atrocity
It’s undeniable that higher education has become serious business! Universities across the globe are churning out music graduates in untold numbers. Robert Freeman, former head of the Eastman School of Music, pointedly believes that “we are graduating too many, too
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