In last week’s article, ‘Music and Graphics,’ we dove into the exciting realms of possibility opened up by “graphic scores” – musical compositions that are notated in nontraditional, visually expressive ways. After a whistlestop tour through the nascence of graphic

American composer Elie Siegmeister (1909–1991) accepted an invitation to contribute to a concert series being developed for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Concerts of music by American composers were set up, and Siegmeister’s contribution was a work he’d

Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Available until 26/10/2025 The Visionary Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is not just a conductor; she is a visionary, shaping the future of classical music with each movement of her hands. At the helm of major

When we truly respect someone’s intellect, our first instinct is to treat them with the utmost reverence: to place them on a pedestal and see them as somehow more than human. With composers we admire, especially those well cemented in

Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, born on 5 January 1920 near the town of Brescia, Italy, was renowned for his impeccable technique, precision, and expressive restraint. A recluse and perfectionist, Michelangeli was a master of both technical virtuosity and emotional

Isolated from the surrounding carnage of WWI, Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) began to synthesise elements of German Romanticism and Eastern Exoticism through an exploration of Greek mythical subject matters and concepts from the French fin de siècle of Debussy and Ravel.

The highly acclaimed pianist Olga Scheps was born on 4 January 1986 in Moscow, but she moved to Germany at a young age. She won several local competitions and played her debut performance with orchestra at the age of 14.

It was December 1950: composer Morton Feldman was doodling on a napkin, waiting for John Cage to finish cooking some wild rice. What Feldman had been drawing on this scrap of paper stuck with him and eventually became his landmark