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Béla Bartók—Composer, Countryman and Collector
Béla Bartók my father’s Hungarian countryman, is considered a composer of profound influence in the 20th century. If you haven’t yet met him I am delighted to share some of my favorite works with you.
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From the Eye to the Ear: Shape Note Singing
How can you sing when your notes aren’t round? How do you interpret a diamond-shaped note or a triangle? This isn’t avant-garde notation, but one that dates back a couple of centuries and is still alive today. This particular hymn-singing
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The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music III – Maria Theresia von Paradis
It might surprise you to know that we can trace three hundred years of outstanding women pianists. They played for pleasure, for their livelihoods and they were inspirations to composers. We would not have superstars Martha Argerich and Yuja Wang
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How I Found the Right Music Teacher for My Children
“How do I find the right music teacher for my children?” This must be a frequently asked question among concerned parents who want nothing but the best for their children. Their wish-list for the ideal teacher inevitably includes the following
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War and Music: Waterloo II
We’ve been looking at how the decisive battle of Waterloo in June 1815 was the inspiration for many composers. Beethoven’s program work Weillington’s Victory is probably the one work that still remains in the repertoire, albeit more as an embarrassment
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Getting Lost in the Hyphenation and Accents
The death of the bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk in April 2014 and the story in Times obituary about the problems caused by his name got us to think of other mistaken performers and composers. The New York Times obit gave us
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János Starker Remembrance Week: Starker’s Two Grandchildren Remember Grandpa
By Alexandra Preucil Assistant Concertmaster Cleveland Orchestra For as long as I can remember, family gatherings have been synonymous with music making. Sometimes this took place in fancy concert halls, but more often than not, my family would simply come
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Instruments of the Orchestra VII: The Clarinet
If we think of the flutes as the air above the woodwind section and the oboes as the kind of nasal-sounding brain, then the heart of the section has to be the clarinet. Unlike the oboe, which is a double-reed
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