Gioachino Rossini’s Duetto buffo di due gatti (Cat Duet) is a charming and humorous piece, which contrasts with the operas for which Rossini is best known. Written for two sopranos and based on themes from Rossini’s opera “Otello,” the duet humorously mimics the sounds of cats meowing.Although some have questioned whether Rossini authored the Cat…

During the early 20th century, the Soviet Union sought to cultivate an art culture that aligned with its socialist ideals. Jazz, with its roots in American culture and its associations with individuality and improvisation, was antithetical to Soviet values. So, in the 1940s and 1950s under Stalin’s regime, jazz was banned with a goal of…

Encores in classical music began in the 18th century as an informal and impromptu extension of a performance, driven by the audience’s desire to hear more from the performer. If a piece or performance segment was well-received, the applause and calls for “encore,” meaning “again” in French, would encourage the musician to return to the…

One Tuesday morning, my teenage son sent me a text containing a photo of a broken violin tailpiece. The tailpiece holds the strings on one end (the pegs hold the strings on the other), which is not a common experience. It was the second day of my son’s music festival, and his violin was unplayable.…

Born in 1895 in Woodville, Mississippi and raised in Little Rock, William Grant Still’s earliest musical influences included his mother, a teacher and musician, and his stepfather, who introduced him to opera and symphonic music. Still showed a deep interest in music at a young age. He had formal violin lessons and taught himself to…

The violinists in an orchestra generally all spend the same time in rehearsals. The musicians’ union establishes the minimum amount they must be paid for this time.That doesn’t mean all violinists in an orchestra make the same amount. For instance, the union contract specifies that section leaders and concertmasters must be paid an additional amount…

Many years ago, I neatly stored our family’s music collection on shelves of a bookcase in alphabetical order. However, years of pulling a piece out and setting it aside when it was no longer needed resulted in numerous precarious piles. The piles were in four rooms of our house, depending on where someone last looked…