George Bizet (1838-1875) was greatly optimistic about the premiere performance of his opera Carmen on 3 March 1875 at the “Opéra Comique” in Paris. Final rehearsals had gone very well, and on the very same day Bizet was appointed as

The pleasures and rituals of home listening There is nothing quite like the excitement and atmosphere of hearing music performed live in a concert hall, but immense pleasure can be gained from listening at home, in the privacy of one’s

What a winter! —record-breaking snowfalls, gargantuan icicles, and freezing temperatures. Musicians go to great lengths to protect their instruments from the elements and winter does wreak havoc on them. Irwin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet (Aviv Quartet) Just this

What do you call the massacre of thousands of Huguenot Protestants by Catholic forces on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572? In artistic terms, you’d have to call it the most successful opera of the 19th century. When Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots premiered

“There isn’t a day when I sit down to play the piano that I don’t think of him, in my mind hearing what he said when I played certain pieces” – Sarah Beth Briggs, British concert pianist

“perhaps the most impassioned music I have ever written.”Robert Schumann writing to Clara Wieck, March 1838 Never one for disguising his emotions, Robert Schumann wore his heart on his sleeve and his music reflects his joy at being alive –

Music has the power to tug at the heartstrings, and evoking emotion is the main purpose of music – whether it’s joy or sadness, excitement or meditation. A certain melody or line of a song, a falling phrase, the delayed

Anyone in the field of the performing arts knows that first impressions are important. After all, as soon as performers walk onstage, even before the performance begins, audiences are bound to form some opinion on how likeable they are. Dancers