Music Education Expo takes place on February 7-8 2014 at The Barbican in London. It is the largest national music education conference and exhibition in the UK, and it’s completely free to attend if you register in advance. Piano Street will present new educational material at our stand H5 at the exhibition. We hope to see you there! A selection […]

We wish all readers a Happy New Year with a list of highly recommended reading – the most popular articles of 2013 from Piano Street’s Classical Piano Blog: Breaking News: Mysterious Mozart Cadenza Identified! Volodos in Vienna Do We Judge Music by Sight More Than Sound? The Great Piano Scam Master Teacher Wijn is Growing Flowers and Plants Pianos for […]

A new issue of International Piano is out! Content highlights: Menahem Pressler receives Indiana University Medal at 90th birthday gala concert First World War centenary: How the events of 1914-18 shaped pianism On the brandwagon: The face of modern-day patronage Summer schools: Irish masterclass, Dublin International Piano Festival and Academy, Course listings Cache benefits: Online resource iplaythepiano.com The Tobias Matthay […]

While the value of both Bitcoin and second hand acoustic pianos are dropping we have good news to report regarding the rising value of Piano Gold. With the recent addition of the new AST as well as other new features, Piano Street’s Gold membership has now become even more valuable! Even if you do not need to download and print […]

Hear the world premiere of a new instrument: Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) coined the term Renaissance Man after applying the concept of Renaissance Humanism and opined that such a man would be able “to do all things if he will.” Even though Leonardo da Vinci was only 20 when Alberti died, he more than fulfilled the elder man’s vision. He […]

A Pleyel was Chopin’s favorite piano; he once said, “when I’m feeling energetic and strong enough to find my own sound, I need a Pleyel piano.” Ignaz Pleyel, a student, friend and confidant of Franz Josef Haydn, began producing pianos in 1807. His innovations include the first upright pianos in France, the “sustained” sound and metallic frames. In addition to […]

From the late 18th century, when the piano began to supplant the harpsichord as the world’s chief keyboard instrument, it’s been a fixture in many places. People had a piano in the parlor; churches had one in the basement for choir practice, and every school auditorium had one. Pianos even graced the stages of silent movie theaters during the early […]

Capitalizing on the popularity of the pianist Lang Lang, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on October 28 designated the world-renowned Chinese as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on global education. There are 57 million children around the world who don’t regularly attend school. Mr. Lang has been a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 2003 and recently said […]

At a concert in Gothenburg Concert Hall October 23, 2013, pianist and conductor Christian Zacharias stopped playing in the middle of Haydn’s D major Piano Concerto, interrupted by an audience member’s cell phone ringing for the second time the same concert. At the end of a phrase in the first movement, Zacharias abruptly stops, looks back and says, “Don’t answer. […]

Guest editor Stephen Hough curates this special edition of International Piano. Content highlights: The art of preluding: A look back at improvised introductions Alkan’s bicentenary: Celebrating neglected composer Charles-Valentin Alkan Larger than life: Anton Rubinstein’s piano prowess Of pianos and fortepianos: Unchartered sound worlds Lost generation: Careers cut short by tragedy Soviet style: Can notes can have a nationalistic identity? […]

Pianist Gary Graffman turned 85 this month. In a musical career that has spanned seven of those 8 1/2 decades, Mr. Graffman has experienced everything from entering the prestigious Curtis Institute at the age of seven, the accidental, self-inflicted destruction of his right hand’s dexterity to becoming one of the most prominent educators in the US. As he recently reminisced, […]

The calculation was rather simple — Mr. Paulson loves Steinway’s pianos, so why not buy the whole company? Back in July, equity firm Kohlberg & Company, reached an agreement with Steinway to buy the company for $35 a share ($485 million). But piano enthusiast and billionaire John Paulson, presumably after reading Piano Street’s post encouraging “others to make an offer”, […]