Malakai Bayoh recently wowed the judges on Britain’s Got Talent with his extraordinary performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu (from his Requiem). Originally written as a duet, Bayoh sang the trickier upper line as a solo with a purity and effortlessness that won the hearts of the Britain’s Got Talent audience and stony-hearted judge Simon Cowell. He ranked it as a ‘Golden’ performance, putting him straight through to the next round of the competition:
Continue reading...
Making a brass instrument from a hosepipe may sound like something from a cartoon, but if you think about it, even the most expensive brass instrument is not much more than a bit of pipe with either keys, or a slide to make the pipe longer.
Continue reading...
Three years on since the first lockdown, in-person musical activity has - with a few exceptions - more or less returned to the way it was pre-COVID.
For all the difficulties and tragedies of the period, one thing that did happen was a flourishing of musical creativity. Despite the restrictions and the challenges, people found creative to musically connect with one another during that strange time. Here we celebrate a few of them.
Continue reading...
Music history seen some of its best-loved figures die in the most unexpected ways. Here are eight of the oddest, bloodiest and sometimes tragically comic composers deaths we know of….
Continue reading...
What is it about French composers and the flute? There’s no shortage of music for the instrument ranging from the baroque to the present day, but if there’s a golden age in the flute’s long and varied history it’s unquestionably the period stretching from the end of the 19th century through to the mid 20th – and is tinged with an unmistakably French flavour. We’ve rounded up fourteen of our favourite pieces, from Borne to Boulez.
Continue reading...
We've all heard of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most celebrated composers of all time. But could his sister have been just as good - or even better - if only she'd been given the same chances as her brother?
Continue reading...
We're all used to the cello as a beautiful melodic instrument - whether it's the gliding lyricism of Saint-Saëns's The Swan or the introspective warmth of Bach's Cello Suite No.1 but it can also be surprisingly percussive and rhythmic.
Here are three of our favorite examples of the cello being used as an instrument that's full of pluck!
Continue reading...
The biennial Cardiff Singer of the World competition has become a great springboard for those on the cusp of their professional careers.
Established in 1983, it is regarded as one of the most important operatic competitions in the world, reflected both in the stellar nature of the judging panel, which has included Sir Geraint Evans, Dame Joan Sutherland, Galina Vishnevskaya and Christoph Prégardien, and in some its iconic finalists.
Continue reading...
The 95th Academy Awards were announced in typically glitzy fashion on Sunday night.
Actors Brendan Fraser (in ‘The Whale’) Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeo (both in ‘Everything All at Once’) took home trophies for their acting, with’ Everything All at Once’ picking up best film and best director for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
Continue reading...
