Kit armstrong

For many critics and fans alike, Alfred Brendel was the ‘thinking man’s pianist’. A truly iconic figure, the man with inquisitive eyes and a secret smile peered out from the covers of CD-box sets by B

Is there a special sorcery in Seoul? Cunning creativity in Canada? Preternatural pizzazz in Paris? Oh, why do so many great pianists come from this or that country? We even have some in Britain; is th

Patterns, says Clare Hammond. Learning a new piece, especially if you’re committing it to memory, and the clock is against you, is all about finding patterns. ‘If you can find patterns in a piece of m

Trumpeter Alison Balsom has revealed that her recent appearance at the 2025 Last Night of the Proms was her final public performance. During an interview for BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life shortly b

By 16, I had started to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. This was the best time for me, because I had a very regular high school kid schedule every day. So I was trying to get i

Among the many remarkable aspects of Clara Schumann’s life was the fact that she gave birth to eight children – seven of whom lived to adulthood. Given she lived in the 19th century, it is astonishing