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Interview with Giovanni Guzzo
In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, violinist and professor Giovanni Guzzo describes his teaching...
Aug 13, 2020


Interview with Dominic Seldis
In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, the double bass professor and Principal Bass of the Royal...
Aug 13, 2020


Shmuel Ashkenasi on the art of chamber music
Shmuel Ashkenasi led the legendary Vermeer Quartet for nearly 30 years. In this interview, first published by ChamberStudio, he offers...
Jan 10, 2020


Life in Teaching: Diana Cummings
Diana Cummings comes from a musical dynasty, and her career spans solo, chamber and orchestral playing. Since 1982 has been a professor...
Apr 8, 2019


Primary benefits
A school in one of England’s most deprived boroughs offers proof that putting music at the heart of education offers positive outcomes...
Sep 12, 2018


Mission possible
A summer festival in Silicon Valley initiates young players into the joys and challenges of chamber music and then sends them out into...
Aug 22, 2018


Happy Birthday, Ivry Gitlis!
The charismatic, idealistic, often contrarian and utterly unique violinist is 95 years young today. In celebration, here is an interview...
Aug 25, 2017


Birth of a salesman
Car boot sales offer a brilliant lesson in salesmanship, and for this rookie also raised questions about buying and selling violins I’m...
Sep 5, 2016


Itzhak Perlman on his violin heroes
In this interview I did with Itzhak Perlman for The Strad’s Violin Heroes supplement in 2009, he remembered and analysed the violinists...
Aug 31, 2016


Gilles Apap: ‘Don’t listen to nobody’
Violinist Gilles Apap has one of the most original voices today, crossing easily between classical and folk styles, often in the same...
Aug 22, 2016


Bye Bye, Bellowhead
The 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...
Apr 30, 2016


20 great violinists
Who 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...
Apr 5, 2016


Interview with violinist Regina Carter
Regina Carter started with Dont and Galamian but she only truly found her voice when she discovered jazz. She tells Ariane Todes about...
Mar 8, 2016


‘You have to treat Bartók as you do Mozart or Haydn’
Bartók’s quartets are often played ‘brutal, fast and loud’, but they should be approached as Classical masterpieces, says Jerusalem...
Nov 20, 2015


Pinchas Zukerman on how to change the world
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 70th birthday in 2016 and for its commemorative anniversary booklet, I had the...
Nov 16, 2015


Joshua Bell on Josef Gingold
Josef Gingold was born on 28 October, 1909. In celebration of the birth of a universally beloved and respected pedagogue, here is an...
Oct 28, 2015


What do actors and musicians have in common?
A recent performance of the whole of Homer’s epic Iliad offered an opportunity to observe actors close up and to understand what their...
Aug 16, 2015


The curse of perfection
Perfectionism in music is a modern scourge, and Peter Cropper, who died in May, demonstrated that it is a distracting priority for...
Jun 23, 2015


Violin Utopia in Oberlin
As some of the world's finest violin makers gather in the small university town of Oberlin, Ohio, to share their knowledge at the annual...
Jun 22, 2015


The Fiddler of Dooney
W.B. Yeats was born 150 years ago, on 13 June, 1865. Here's his poem The Fiddler of Dooney, written in 1889, when he was 24, celebrating...
Jun 13, 2015
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