Chopin 2010 – Celebrating the 200th Anniversary Around the World! Extensive information can be found on the official website available in Polish, English, French to this day and soon in Japanese and Chinese. Special Birthday Concerts is the first of the three key highlights of the Chopin Year. Held by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, the concerts series spans […]

“A superbly articulated performance … enriched by a magnificent orchestral accompaniment.” At this year’s MIDEM, the international gathering of the music industry in Cannes, Ronald Brautigam accepted an award for his recording of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto (BIS-SACD-1792). The MIDEM Classical Awards are bestowed by a jury consisting of representatives for the international music press and media, who selected Ronald […]

Nobel Media, in association with the Stockholm Concert Hall, present this year’s Nobel Prize Concert ­ an event of world class stature. The concert took place on 8 December as part of the official Nobel Week programme of activities. Martha Argerich, headstrong, charismatic and technically brilliant pianist, was this year¹s soloist at the Nobel Prize Concert. Yuri Temirkanov, Music Director […]

On Tour Now: Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode Reframe Pictures The project Pictures Reframed, unites two strikingly original artists – pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and visual artist Robin Rhode in a collaborative performance which centres around Mussorgsky’s epic piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. Composed in 1874 Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition was experimental in its day and highly […]

Classic FM (UK) Has Announced its Children’s Hall of Fame Radio listeners in the UK have selected Hedwig’s Theme by John Williams as the all time favorite in a new poll of children’s classics for station Classic FM. The PA reports the iconic main theme song for the Harry Potter films was the winner, “with youngsters choosing it ahead of […]

The Increasing Popularity of Piano Video Tutorials These days, some people claim that you can teach yourself to play piano if you have the right course, the motivation, and the determination to follow through. Some people decide to study piano by downloading tutorials by an experienced piano teacher because they feel more comfortable by doing the learning at home. With […]

Artist Luke Jerram has put together street pianos installations in various cities. The initiative comes as a reaction of a creative individual to the general rule, prohibiting anyone to play music in public places without special arrangement – no matter how skilful you are at playing your piano or how popular your music is with the audience. Any musician would […]

On September 13, Russia’s Sofya Gulyak was awarded the 1st prize and the Princess Mary Gold Medal at the Sixteenth Leeds International Piano Competition – the first woman to achieve this distinction in the history of the competition. She returned to Leeds on Saturday 14 November to perform Mozart Piano Concerto No 18 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. As […]

The 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth falls in 2010. What better excuse could there be for the International Piano Series to celebrate this most magical of pianist-composers? Including celebratory programmes from two of today’s greatest Chopin players, Krystian Zimerman and Maurizio Pollini, this season’s IPS recitals revolve around the composer, along with his contemporaries, peers and successors. Series debuts for […]

Chinese pianist, 22-year-old Yuja Wang thrilled international audiences with her opening performance alongside conductor Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival on August 12. Unique Webcast from Lucerne in August 2009: http://www.medici.tv/#/performance/613/ (free sign up) “Last year, when Claudio Abbado saw me playing Franz Liszt´s Sonata on French television, he compared me to talented female pianist Martha Argerich and then sent […]

Children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers, according to a study published recently in the journal Psychology of Music, published by SAGE. http://pom.sagepub.com/cgi/rapidpdf/0305735608097248v1 According to authors Joseph M Piro and Camilo Ortiz from Long Island […]

Chandos has been attentive in promoting the orchestral works of Alexandre Tansman, who due to the vagaries of fashion has to a great extent been ignored. They now embark on the piano music and a deeply personal project for soloist Margaret Fingerhut. NEW! Click the album covers to listen to the complete album: (This is a new feature available for […]