Interview with György Pauk
In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, violinist and pedagogue György Pauk explains some of the most...
Talk about music
Interviews
Conversations with interesting musicians
Ariane Todes
- Aug 13, 2020
Interview with Giovanni Guzzo
In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, violinist and professor Giovanni Guzzo describes his teaching...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 13, 2020
Interview with Martin Outram
In this article, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, viola professor and Maggini Quartet member Martin Outram offers...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 13, 2020
Interview with Josephine Knight
In this interview, originally commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music, Josephine Knight, Alfredo Piatti Chair and Professor of Cello...
Ariane Todes
- 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...
Ariane Todes
- Jan 25, 2020
Peter Cropper’s A–Z of chamber music
In this article, first published at ChamberStudio in 2015, the late and much-missed first violinist of the Lindsays pulled no punches...
Ariane Todes
- Jan 10, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Apr 8, 2019
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...
Ariane Todes
- Apr 8, 2019
Life in Teaching: Stefan Popov
Stefan Popov has been professor of cello at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama for 40 years, and before that taught at Boston...
Ariane Todes
- Apr 8, 2019
Life in Teaching: Thomas Martin
Double bassist Thomas Martin studied with Roger Scott in Philadelphia and can trace a teaching pedigree that goes back to Bottesini. In a...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 25, 2017
Happy Birthday, Ivry Gitlis!
The charismatic, idealistic, often contrarian and utterly unique violinist is 95 years young today. In celebration, here is an interview...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 31, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 22, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 17, 2016
11 important musical insights
I’ve interviewed many wonderful musicians over the year, have learnt much and had my thinking challenged many times. Here are just a few...
Ariane Todes
- Mar 8, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Jan 26, 2016
Jacqueline du Pré – a terrible premonition
On what would have been the 71th birthday of Jacqueline du Pré, the words of János Starker sound a provocative warning Jacqueline du Pré...
Ariane Todes
- Nov 20, 2015
‘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...
Ariane Todes
- Nov 16, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Oct 28, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Oct 8, 2015
The Freewheelin’ Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma turns 60 on 7 October, 2015, and to celebrate one of the world's best-loved classical music heroes, here is an interview I did...
Ariane Todes
- Oct 5, 2015
View from the viola front desk
Paul Silverthorne has led the viola section of the London Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, working with the finest conductors and...
Ariane Todes
- Sep 4, 2015
Thomas Demenga: ‘Sometimes I think we’re producing too many musicians at conservatoires’
The Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga discusses the fierce competition in today’s music world, how students should spend less time online and...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 16, 2015
How to be present
Great stage actors have an aura of positive energy and openness that musicians can access, too. Acting coach Patsy Rodenburg tells Ariane...
Ariane Todes
- Jul 22, 2015
John Woolrich: ‘Contemporary music is no different from Brahms’
The British composer John Woolrich discusses the challenges contemporary music faces and the vital role of amateur musicians My interview...
Ariane Todes
- Jun 23, 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...
Ariane Todes
- Jun 13, 2015
Barry Douglas on the pressures and benefits of competitions
As the Tchaikovsky Competition kicks off, we revisit a 2014 interview with the great Irish pianist Barry Douglas, who won the contest in...
Ariane Todes
- Jun 1, 2015
Peter Cropper and the art of story telling
The great violinist, former leader of the Lindsay Quartet, and one of the unique and most charismatic voices in chamber music, died on...
Ariane Todes
- Apr 27, 2015
Interview with Shmuel Ashkenasi
The former Vermeer Quartet leader and Curtis Institute professor discusses the negative sides of Ilona Fehér's 'tough love' school of...
Ariane Todes
- Apr 14, 2015
Pinchas Zukerman: violin geek
In honour of Pinchas Zukerman's performance tonight of the Elgar Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London's...
Ariane Todes
- Mar 12, 2015
Violin competitions: participant’s view
Violinist Benjamin Baker has just been selected for the final rounds of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. Such contests are...
Ariane Todes
- Feb 10, 2015
Viktoria Mullova on inspiration, rules and coughing
The Russian violinist is forthright about Baroque rules, the narrow-mindedness of only listening to classical music, and allowing...
Ariane Todes
- Jan 8, 2015
How to learn jazz violin
Jazz violinist Regina Carter, interviewed here, offers some advice on exploring the genre Transcribing ‘If it’s not your language you...
Ariane Todes
- Nov 11, 2014
The unbearable lightness of being Gary Hoffman
Gary Hoffman is one of the music world’s best-kept secrets, a fine and uncompromising cellist whose rare appearances mesmerise. For him,...
Ariane Todes
- Nov 10, 2014
Eugene Drucker on Beethoven
I recently interviewed Eugene Drucker about his Southbank Centre concert with the Emerson Quartet on Sunday, 16 November, which you can...
Ariane Todes
- Oct 5, 2014
The return of Kyung Wha Chung
The legendary violinist Kyung Wha Chung makes her much-awaited London comeback this December, after more than a decade away. On a recent...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 22, 2014
The real secret of Stradivarius?
I had a lovely morning yesterday talking to cellist Natalie Clein for two forthcoming articles – about her new Saint-Saëns disc, for...
Ariane Todes
- Aug 11, 2014
James Ehnes on violin obsession and existential crisis
My latest interview for Cozio, with violinist James Ehnes, has just gone live, so please go and visit. He had so much to say about his...
Ariane Todes
- Jun 26, 2014
Arnold Steinhardt: ‘Don’t put your parents in hock to buy a violin’
A couple of weeks ago I interviewed Arnold Steinhardt, leader of the Guarneri Quartet for 40 years, for the Cozio website. Steinhardt is...