A long, long time ago, the Jade Emperor was looking for 12 animals to become designated as calendar signs. So he sent an immortal being into the world of man and announced that the first 12 animals to pass through

Is this the most “relaxing” piece of classical music? asks Radio Three of Arvo Pärt’s contemplative and spiritual ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’.

Further to my previous article – “Voices from the Verbier Festival Academy I”, here are more comments from the “2017 Musicians”.

Frenchman Maurice Gendron (1920-1990) was known for his poise and elegant, pristine playing. If Daniil Shafran played with unconventional hand positions, Gendron’s are nearest to the ideal. His hands are cello perfect: rounded, relaxed, symmetrical, and produced a shimmering sound.

On 3rd December, 2017, a Verbier Festival Academy alumnus – 18 year old cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason from Nottingham, UK – made his debut in Vancouver, Canada, presented by the Vancouver Recital Society. He and his sister Isata (who accompanied him

Every year, the Verbier Festival Academy invites 50 exceptional music talents from around the world to congregate for 3 weeks in the scenic Swiss Alps, to be mentored by elite artists in preparation for careers as soloists, chamber musicians and

The “concert pianist” is a relatively recent creation. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a time when the technology of piano manufacture allowed piano makers to build bigger, stronger instruments, the “concert pianist” as we understand the role today,

Our next featured cellist, Daniil Shafran, was born in 1923 in Petrograd, now Saint Petersburg, and came by his talent honestly. His father was the principal cellist of the Leningrad Philharmonic and his mother Frida Moiseyevna, was a pianist.