Frédéric Chopin’s Étude Op. 10, No. 4 and Prelude Op. 28, No. 16 are notorious for being among the composer’s most challenging works to play. And when pianist Aldric Gozon learned these two pieces, he didn’t stop at getting the notes right – he played both blindfolded. Chopin wrote Étude Op. 10, No. 4 in 1830 as part of his …

When Frédéric Chopin composed his Fantaisie-Impromptu, he probably didn’t expect for the work to serve as the music for a breakdance duet. But at Arabesque 2014, an international ballet competition hosted by the Perm Ballet Opera Theatre, one entry in the “modern choreography” category used Fantaisie-Impromptu for just that purpose. Fantaisie-Impromptu was written in 1834, but it wasn’t published until …

The third movement of Frédéric Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 35 – better known as his “Marche funèbre,” or funeral march – is one of the most iconic pieces of music ever written about death. Historians believe this somber movement was inspired, at least in part, by the November Uprising, a Polish rebellion against the Russian …

Put your musical knowledge to the test: can you guess the piece of music just by looking at an excerpt of the score?

J.S. Bach is one of the most celebrated figures in the history of music. American composer John Knowles Paine declared that Bach’s music “cannot grow antiquated,” and many modern musicians have arranged his compositions for instruments that had not yet been invented during Bach’s lifetime. Wendy Carlos changed music when she arranged Bach’s works for Moog synthesizers and helped popularize …

Anyone who’s ever studied a keyboard instrument knows it takes years of dedicated practice to play with accuracy. But one robot is programmed to bypass all of that, as shown in a video on Facebook.

If you get “so emotional” every time you hear Whitney Houston sing, this video may make you reach for the tissues. This video will have you wondering just what Whitney Houston couldn’t do as a singer. She steals the show from opera powerhouse Luciano Pavarotti, and renowned musicians Sting and Elton John in this video of the singers sharing a …

Even the biggest Björk fan might not know that she admires Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. However, listening to Pärt’s music, which many describe as “holy minimalism,” and then Björk’s, it’s easy to understand why.

Dog image: SixtyWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons This cute Labrador may be the biggest Mendelssohn fan you’ve seen. A dog joined the Vienna Chamber Orchestra during a recent performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 at the 31st International İzmir Festival in İzmir, Turkey. This outdoor annual festival brings live concerts to the historic stage of the Grand Theater of Ephesus, …

Can you tell the difference between Latin American foods and instruments? Take this quiz and find out.

Judy Garland introduced “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz, and she sang it for the rest of her life. Operatic soprano Renata Scotto used it as her signature encore at solo recitals. And more recently, and very memorably, Ariana Grande sang it to end One Love Manchester, her benefit for the victims of terrorism in the British …

Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Norma is so beautiful, it has inspired a dish: pasta alla Norma. When conductor and cook Riccardo Frizza led performances of “Norma” in Chicago, he shared his recipe.

Though the music of your favorite composers might make you smile, chances are, the composers themselves aren’t smiling in their portraits. Until now…

Composer Robert Schumann loved Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier so much that he said it should be every musician’s “daily bread.” But perhaps you’ve never thought it could make the perfect bubble-blowing soundtrack, too. The Well-Tempered Clavier is composed of two volumes of keyboard music. Each contains 24 pairs of preludes and fugues, one for each of the major and minor keys. …

WFMT announcer Robbie Ellis has shared his talents as a comedian and composer as the host of WFMT’s Cabaret series. During the most recent WFMT Cabaret, Ellis revealed his favorite (albeit unconventional) place to pick up a date: the book club. His song, “Book Club,” suggests a few strategies for attracting and impressing a companion who is literarily inclined. Watch …

Many musicians have performed the internationally beloved Italian song “‘O Sole Mio.” One songbird, a parrot in fact, performs the Neapolitan tune as a duet with the great Luciano Pavarotti. Composer Eduardo di Capua and lyricist Giovanni Capurro published their composition “‘O Sole Mio” in 1898. Since, it has been recorded by many artists including Andrea Bocelli and Elvis Presley. …

May is the perfect time to hear the “merry lads” of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School sing outdoors.

And she doesn’t sound as fowl as you might think, either.

You don’t need an expensive piano sitting in your living room to impress your friends and family when they come to visit. Instead, wow them with a keyboard you made yourself. Stian Eikeland, a “developer, hacker, techno-foodie, diver, hobby-photographer” from Bergen, Norway, found a way to turn bananas into a fully functioning touch-sensor keyboard. The banana keyboard’s hardware consists of …

What’s more metal than Bach’s driving bass line, chromatic suspensions, and florid inner voices?

Everybody loves a good fugue, but you’ve never heard a fugue like this before. This “Fugue on Pi” was uploaded by YouTuber Gregory Ristow on March 14, 2014. March 14th is, of course, Pi Day, since the date corresponds to the first several digits of pi. Pi is an infinite, irrational number that’s defined by the ratio of a circle’s …

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are some of the most frequently performed and instantly recognizable classical works today. The four concertos – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter – were first published in 1725 in a larger collection of concertos called The Contest Between Harmony and Invention.

Is there anything Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter cannot do? YouTuber unconservatory has proved that the choreography to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” looks good even set to Shostakovich. In the video below, you can see her dance to the syncopated rhythms of the scherzo from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10.   This isn’t the only time someone has done a classical mash-up with Beyoncé’s …

Playing percussion is a lot harder than you might think. Unlike say, a violinist, who is responsible for playing one instrument, a percussionist must play dozens, if not hundreds, of different instruments.

Morgan and Louie get in costume in their dressing room during rehearsals for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute W.C. Fields, who once said, “Never work with children or animals,” has clearly never met Morgan and Louie, the friendly canine stars of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new production of The Magic Flute. Director Neil Armfield has set the …