The Arts

So here’s the famous riddle: Which came first, the chicken... or the violin? Or the piano? Or the valved horn? By the mid-to-late-1500s the members of the…

So here’s the famous riddle: Which came first, the chicken... or the violin? Or the piano? Or the valved horn? By the mid-to-late-1500s the members of the…

Franz von Suppé could be the poster child for composers who were extremely prolific and very famous in their own time, but who, if they’re now remembered…

Franz von Suppé could be the poster child for composers who were extremely prolific and very famous in their own time, but who, if they’re now remembered…

Fiddle is an older word than violin – there were instruments called fiddles long before violins. Violino, which is Italian for “violin,” is the diminutive…

Fiddle is an older word than violin – there were instruments called fiddles long before violins. Violino, which is Italian for “violin,” is the diminutive…

One of the things I love most about the field of classical music is the way it brings together people from so many different countries. Throughout my…

I came across a collection of the letters of Arturo Toscanini recently, and in thē introduction the editor writes, “A whole psychology textbook could be…

Anybody who’s been around the music business for any length of time has met performers who are – how can I put this gently – legends in their own minds.…

The image of the starving artist may be a romantic one, but it turns out that poverty has not always been a necessary condition for writing great music.…