Tom Huizenga

I could sing a smidgen of Edwin Eugene Bagley's National Emblem before I even knew what a march was.

As a very young grade-schooler, I heard a little ditty — "Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole" — on the playground, but I was blissfully unaware of either ...

Risë Stevens, a mezzo-soprano who sang at the Metropolitan Opera for nearly a quarter-century and then went on to become one of the Met's most prominent supporters and administrators, died Wednesday. She was 99. Her son, Nicolas Surovy, informed the Met Thursday that she died at home in Manhattan.

Stevens ...

It's Marches Madness! Throughout this month, we're posting some of our favorite marches — from the concert hall, opera stage and parade ground. Got one we should hear? Played any yourself? Let us know in the comments section.

It's not every day a nursery ...

New albums of music by the "Three Bs," Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, prove that going back to basics has its advantages. Hear a sweet-toned violin concerto, an audacious piano sonata and a solo cello suite caressed by a lute.

It's Marches Madness! Throughout this month, we're posting some of our favorite marches — from the concert hall, opera stage and parade ground. Got one we should hear? Played any yourself? Let us know in the comments section.

Everyone loves a fresh, juicy orange. ...

It's a question virtually as old as the art forms themselves: Are ballet and opera elitist?

The topic was tackled in a live debate hosted Monday by one of the temples of opera, London's Covent Garden, and streamed live on web site of the British newspaper The Telegraph. ...

Elephants, Egyptian palaces, politics and love triangles — now we're talking grand opera!

In an art form notorious for its excesses, Verdi's Aida can take the bigger-is-better approach to nearly laughable extremes. At a Shanghai production in 2000, the cast list bulged to 2,200. And at ...

Those steeped in radio-station jargon know all about "dayparting" — knowing when to program what depending on the habits of listeners during any given part of the day.

Any program director faced with the new album by Tift Merritt and Simone Dinnerstein need only read the ...

It's Marches Madness! Throughout this month, we're posting some of our favorite marches — from the concert hall, opera stage and parade ground. Got one we should hear? Played any yourself? Let us know in the comments section.

We march for many occasions. There are brave military marches, joyous

It's Marches Madness! Throughout this month, we're posting some of our favorite marches — from the concert hall, opera stage and parade ground. Got one we should hear? Played any yourself? Let us know in the comments section.

Soldiers have been stepping to marches for a long time, back to ...

After his stunning victory at the first Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, pianist Van Cliburn had every right to boast for the rest of his career. But that wasn't in his nature. Ask anyone who ever met him and they'll tell you he was humble and gracious. ...

After tomorrow, Pope Benedict XVI will experience that bittersweet relief felt by millions of less lofty workers worldwide — retirement. And leaving the top spot in the Catholic Church, at least in theory, will afford the pope emeritus time to indulge in one of his great passions, music.

Music and ...

If I wrote operas, my next work would be called DSKNY. That's a snazzy abbreviation for Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York. The idea came last night when colleagues invited me for cocktails at the Sofitel Hotel, the site of DSK's alleged sexual assault of a hotel maid in 2011, and the ...

The composer, who was born in 1908 and won two Pulitzer Prizes for music that could be challenging and adventurously modern, died in New York.

The music world has lost a quietly innovative and influential voice. Composer, professor, author and performer William Duckworth has died at age 69, according to his close friend Kyle Gann, who reported the news earlier today on his blog, saying Duckworth's wife had called him with ...

More than ever, music matters to us. But why do we like what we like? "Six Songs of Me," a new project launched by a British publication, may ultimately provide some answers.

Don't be caught empty-headed when talk turns to the music of the London Games.

If the mantra for orchestras in these cash-strapped times is "outreach," then music director Alan Pierson and his Brooklyn Philharmonic must be getting pretty close to enlightenment, or at least to the heart of their home borough.

Back in November, Pierson and the orchestra transplanted to Brighton Beach, the echt-Russian ...

A new album by Cappella Amsterdam uncovers rarely heard music by the quirky Czech master.

The dynamic pianist escaped the Nazis to build a brilliant career.