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On This Day
20 November: Anton Rubinstein Died
Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist, composer, conductor and teacher, was one of the greatest pianists of the 19th century. His playing was compared with Liszt’s, and he combined a prodigious technique with musicianship, scholarship, and a richly poetic temperament. Anton Rubinstein
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On This Day
18 November: Elim Chan Was Born
In 2014, Elim Chan won the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition as the first female conductor to win the competition in its history. “When I won that competition,” she explained, “history wasn’t something that came into my mind straight away…
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Ten of the Rockiest Marriages in Classical Music History, Part 2
Today, we’re continuing our exploration of ten unhappy marriages from classical music history. Last time, we looked at the marriage stories of Leonard Bernstein, Gabriel Fauré, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, and Joseph Haydn. Today, we’re ready to resume our countdown.
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Do You Know the Brilliant Cellist Radutui Just Hired by Shepherd School of Music, Rice University?
The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas, has a reputation for excellence in no small part due to their illustrious faculty. To name a few, they include Norman Fischer, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Cello
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On This Day
16 November: Paul Hindemith Was Born
Following the horrendous destruction caused by World War I, Germany was looking for a composer who spoke with a contemporary voice. Max Reger died in 1916, and neither Richard Strauss nor Hans Pfitzner had any real interest in New Music.
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Classical Music Unfinished and Restored
Let’s imagine that an archaeological dig unearths a precious statue from antiquity. Sadly, however, the sculpture is incomplete and missing arms and limbs. Such was the case in the early 16th century, and soon, a competition got underway to reconstruct
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The 12th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition
Judgement
Between 1912 and 1948, art competitions were part of the Olympic Games. Initially, these competitions were grouped into five broad categories, including architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture. In terms of music, subcategories encompassed mixed music, compositions for orchestra, solo
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On This Day
15 November: Christoph Willibald Gluck Died
“I endeavoured to reduce music to its proper function,” wrote Christoph Willibald Gluck, “that of seconding poetry by enforcing the expression of the sentiment, and the interest of the situations, without interrupting the action or weakening it by superfluous ornament.”
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