Throughout music history, music critics have often elevated (or eviscerated) a composer’s reputation. Sometimes critics and composers have found themselves in public feuds. Other times, the composer and critic in question became unlikely friends. Today, we’re looking at four of

As the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) prepares to celebrate its centenary in 2027, a major new musical milestone is on the horizon – a significant new choral commission, Songs of the Spirit, written by the award-winning and newly-awarded

Few teachers have had as profound an influence on modern conducting as Finnish conductor and pedagogue Jorma Panula. Born in 1930 in Kauhajoki, Finland, Panula studied music and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He served as the music

Joseph Haydn earned his nickname “Father of the Symphony” while working as the Kapellmeister in the Esterházy household, where he worked for decades, overseeing the court orchestra. However, when Haydn first joined that household at the age of twenty-nine, he

Ludwig van Beethoven is often remembered as a solitary genius: a composer who wrestled with fate, revolutionised music, and struggled through tinnitus, deafness, and depression to create some of the most influential works in the Western canon. But Beethoven didn’t

2025 was a year in which Chinese classical music found itself moving simultaneously outward and inward: expanding its international presence while confronting geopolitical, institutional, and structural realities at home. From orchestras touring abroad and Chinese musicians winning major international competitions,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is often introduced as a miracle. He was a divine child, and a celestial genius, like a marble statue with a powdered wig. But the moment you actually listen to his music, the statue starts to grin.

Franz Liszt, the 19th-century Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist, is celebrated for his dazzling piano compositions, which combine technical brilliance, emotional depth, and innovative forms. His works have ever since captivated audiences with their virtuosic demands and expressive range. For