An early piano believed to have been played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has surfaced in Germany and could be worth millions of euros, a radio station reported. Public broadcaster SWR said the instrument was built in 1775 and acquired in the 1980s by piano manufacturer Martin Becker in the southern German city of Baden-Baden from an antiques dealer in Strasbourg, […]

All About Chopin is an international challenge testing your knowledge about Chopin and an initiative of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, implemented by the Krystyna Bochenek Katowice Cultural Centre, the Chopin 2010 Celebrations Office and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw. The contest marks the Chopin Year and will take place on October 16th – 17th 2010 in Katowice. […]

At only 26, Anna Vinnitskaya has already established a flourishing international career, both in recital and orchestral performances. In 2007, she won first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels becoming only the second woman in the history of the competition for piano to do so, after Ekaterina Novitskaya in 1968. NEW! Click the album cover to listen […]

Interview with Naxos’ Founder and CEO, Klaus Heymann The record label Naxos has gone from budget outsider to industry leader in its 20-plus years of existence. But what does the future hold for any record label at a time when CD sales are plummeting and downloads are stagnant? Read the whole Washington Post article here

Classical music festivals are not usually synonymous with youth, but this year’s edition of the world-famous Verbier Festival has more than its pick of today’s young stars. Look out for enchanting Frang, dramatic Carpenter, sparkling Wang and the indefinable Armstrong, who combines mathematics with piano and who wrote his first symphony at the age of ten. They make Verbier youthful […]

The Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition began in 1976 as the Brigham Young University Summer Piano Festival. In 1978 the name of Gina Bachauer was given to the competition in honor of the great Greek pianist who was a celebrated favorite of Utah audiences and often appeared with Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony. In 1980, the Gina Bachauer International […]

British composer Geoff Smith has invented a new instrument – The Fluid Piano – an acoustic piano which enables musicians to alter each note individually and separately by precise microtonal intervals per note before or during performance. “…here, at last, is a piano that can easily sit within any musical context in the world, and that opens up new and […]

From 30 April to 9 May, Sydney hosted the ISCM World New Music Days Festival — the first time in the 88-year history of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) that the prestigious event will be held in the Southern Hemisphere. In putting together the program for this festival, more than 700 works from 52 countries were assessed, and […]

63 contestants were taking part in the 16th edition of the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels this year, an event dedicated to pianists. The contest, set up by the Belgian Queen Elisabeth in 1937, is one of the largest and most prestigious musical competitions in the world. The Second World War interrupted the traditional contest for more than 10 […]

Pianist Arcadi Volodos, called “one of the greatest pianists of our time” by the “Berliner Morgenpost,” has been celebrated as a wizard at the keyboard since his 1997 debut recording. His new CD, “Live in Vienna,” on SONY BMG EUROPE, features his virtuosity as a pianist and his skilled story narration and sense of timing. On March 1st 2009 Volodos […]

The Chopin Project announced the initial release of 20 exclusive new recordings, including many Chopin rarities via The Chopin Project iPhone App from the Apple iTunes Store. The Chopin Project App offers a growing discography of new studio recordings from the Chopin Project Listening Library. “Fans of Chopin will be thrilled with the quality of these performances and the recordings,” […]

ABRSM Presents a New Book Series for Students: Joining the Dots offers pianists lots of material to help build confidence and skill in sight-reading. The series brings together a range of activities to help students improve their sense of keyboard geography, helping them to read new music more quickly and easily. The five books cover the requirements for ABRSM’s sight-reading […]