Make it up as you go along…

The unconventional instrumentation favoured by Tortoise is an indicator of how many different lineups have always jostled for space under the jazz umbrella. The national treasure that is The Pete Alle

There are endless debates about how best to introduce our youngest audiences to the wonders of classical music. And short of the simplest and most effective answer of all – putting music education at

After the premiere of his orchestral piece Coptic Light in 1986, Morton Feldman was described by an irate American critic as ‘the most boring composer in the history of music’. Listeners coming to his

In the British Isles, one of the strongest examples of community music making can be found in brass bands. Their proud tradition goes back almost 200 years, and their survival has never been more nece

I spent much of 2025 playing Schubert’s Piano Sonata in C minor, written shortly before he died in 1828 at the age of 31. I first learned this sonata in my late teens and have continued to return to i

Mocha? Flat White? Americano? Those patronising Zimmermann’s coffee house in 18th-century Leipzig would have been out of luck. But in the easy-going surroundings where the student Collegium Musicum me