For violinists, playing the mandolin offers instant rewards and benefits, but some challenges, too. I asked for advice from the best in...

Jazz violinist Regina Carter, interviewed here, offers some advice on exploring the genre Transcribing ‘If it’s not your language you...

2014 was another busy year on the London concert scene. Here (in chronological order) are my favourite concerts of the many I went to,...

This year, my first as a freelance writer and journalist, I've had the privilege to meet some amazing musicians during my assignments for...

Competitions are a vital part of the classical music world, whether you like it or not. They offer many benefits to players and to the...

An 1802 biography of Bach offers timeless insights into the art of teaching, as well as revealing the composer's own pedagogical...

Charlie Chaplin was one of the most expressive and popular communicators ever. What can string players learn from his art? Light and...

Anner Bylsma has some advice for players who want to express their own feelings through music While I was at the Amsterdam Cello Biënnale...

I just came across this lovely BBC documentary about Casals. I could do without seeing the researcher, Robert Baldock, playing Bach and...

An understanding of the characteristics of the different keys can help you develop a palette of sounds. So do you know your innocent C...

Gary Hoffman is one of the music world’s best-kept secrets, a fine and uncompromising cellist whose rare appearances mesmerise. For him,...

I recently interviewed Eugene Drucker about his Southbank Centre concert with the Emerson Quartet on Sunday, 16 November, which you can...

Donna Tartt's brilliant novel The Goldfinch contains insights into the antiques business that might apply to the violin business too I’ve...

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has handily published this wonderfully detailed data about the concerts played in the 2014–2015 season...

A new documentary suggests that Mrs Bach was behind the greatest works by her husband Johann Sebastian. But does it ring true? You know...

Bach’s slurs are are a means of expression and not mere technical tricks and we have lost the art of Rhetoric, says Anner Bylsma...

At his masterclass on Monday, Jean-Guihen Queyras challenged the notion that playing chamber music is all about playing exactly together...

Mischa Maisky challenged the traditional notion of authenticity in his masterclass at the Amsterdam Cello Biënnale If any classical...

The legendary violinist Kyung Wha Chung makes her much-awaited London comeback this December, after more than a decade away. On a recent...

I'm currently reading this charming book about Guarneri 'del Gesù', written in 1974 by Leonard Wibberley. I found it on a bookshelf and...