Ariane TodesCan string quartets save the world?The recent Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale explored various aspects of the string quartet format, including the many life lessons it...
Ariane TodesGood content is foreverThe internet offers musicians fantastic opportunities to build their reputations and legacies, as well as selling their music. They...
Ariane TodesPictures, please!Wigmore Hall’s new photography policy offers a sensible way forward in today’s visual culture and more venues should follow suit There...
Ariane TodesThe win–win of music educationWhy is music education and pedagogy not taken more seriously in the music world?
Ariane TodesBirth of a salesmanCar boot sales offer a brilliant lesson in salesmanship, and for this rookie also raised questions about buying and selling violins I’m...
Ariane TodesReview of Alexey Stadler PromAlexey Stadler‘s unexpected Proms debut last night was such stuff as careers are made on Performing at the Proms on a day’s notice is the...
Ariane Todes11 important musical insightsI’ve interviewed many wonderful musicians over the year, have learnt much and had my thinking challenged many times. Here are just a few...
Ariane TodesReview of Beethoven for a Later AgeI have a theory that musicians write in exactly the same style that they play their instruments. I’m pleased to see it proven, somewhat...
Ariane TodesBye Bye, BellowheadThe ground-breaking English folk band has broken up after 12 years, leaving this fangirl sad – but grateful I’m not a mosher. I don’t...
Ariane Todes20 great violinistsWho are my favourite violinists? A list of 20, which I made for Sinfini Music in 2014, still largely stands, but is sure to provoke a...
Ariane TodesWhen classical music marketing copy goes wrongThe current Southbank Centre slogan offers a lesson in how not to talk to about classical music There are a few obvious rules in...
Ariane TodesA musical tonic for the soulA trip to the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona offered profound and uplifting insights into the human condition, and interesting...
Ariane TodesJacqueline du Pré – a terrible premonitionOn what would have been the 71th birthday of Jacqueline du Pré, the words of János Starker sound a provocative warning Jacqueline du Pré...
Ariane TodesCareless talk costs livesAs Nigel Kennedy goes on Radio 4's Mastertapes programme to be rude about Baroque performance practice, here's a blog I wrote in 2011 on...
Ariane TodesWe’re all misfit weirdos nowThe breadth and success of David Byrne’s recent curatorship of Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival demonstrate how the curiosity and...
Ariane TodesHow to be presentGreat stage actors have an aura of positive energy and openness that musicians can access, too. Acting coach Patsy Rodenburg tells Ariane...
Ariane TodesThe curse of perfectionPerfectionism in music is a modern scourge, and Peter Cropper, who died in May, demonstrated that it is a distracting priority for...
Ariane TodesViolin Utopia in OberlinAs some of the world's finest violin makers gather in the small university town of Oberlin, Ohio, to share their knowledge at the annual...
Ariane TodesThe art of listeningThe best musicians have special powers of listening, as pianist András Schiff demonstrated in a masterclass last week How can you tell if...
Ariane TodesBarry Douglas on the pressures and benefits of competitionsAs the Tchaikovsky Competition kicks off, we revisit a 2014 interview with the great Irish pianist Barry Douglas, who won the contest in...