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, […]

After initial selection based DVD recordings of the compulsory repertoire, the jury chose 215 contestants to take part in further auditions in Warsaw. The group features 24 Poles, 23 Chinese representatives, one person from Hong Kong, five pianists representing Taipei, 22 from Russia and 20 from the USA. The most numerous group – 40 pianists – comes from Japan. The […]

Reporting from Warsaw — The stirring strains of Frederic Chopin‘s music are reverberating across the world as music lovers celebrate the composer’s 200th birthday this year — from the château of his French lover to Egypt’s pyramids and even into space. But nowhere do celebrations carry the powerful sense of national feeling as they do in Poland, the land of […]

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 […]

The International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg has announced it has discovered two previously unknown compositions written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “The Department of Research at the International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg has identified two works, which have long been in the possession of the Foundation, as compositions of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,” the foundation said in a recent statement, without […]

“The other day I heard Chopin improvise at George Sand’s house. It is marvelous to hear Chopin compose in this way: his inspiration is so immediate and complete that he plays without hesitation as if it could not be otherwise. But when it comes to writing it down and recapturing the original thought in all its details, he spends days […]

Pianists who begin practicing in childhood have been found to have better developed nerve pathways in parts of their brains. Scientists believe this results in better fine motor coordination. Most professional pianists begin their careers in early childhood. Very few people can develop their capacities as fully later in life. A research group under the leadership of  Fredrik Ullén, a […]

Not only are piano competitions such as the Van Cliburn YouTube-competition and the Minnesota e-Competition moving out onto the web, but students, music colleges, schools and all music lovers now have the chance to gain inspiration and to learn from master classes given by some of the world’s greatest musicians. The Masterclass Media Foundation is a charity that is creating […]