Last century was, in the history of Western music, the first time that different genres of music became more popular than the classical genre. Besides some traditional folk tunes and religious songs, classical music was what well-to-do people played and listened to for nearly three hundred years.

In a previous column, I touched on how classically trained young musicians gain wonderful life-long experiences from their participation in youth orchestras.

Let’s be honest, many of us in the arts yearn for the approval of critics, even if we claim that we don’t care what our audience thinks. Most modern-day art shows, theater productions, music performances, and soloist debuts aim to get good reviews by word of mouth and reviewers.

My last column was focused on women composers born before the 20th century, so now I will be spotlighting more contemporary women musicians who directly led us to the 21st century.  The past hundred years were a tipping point for women in classical music.

Until recently, career opportunities for women around the world were limited. As in most other fields of study, women in classical music were not granted the same opportunities as the men of their time were, and many of their well-deserved credentials were not recorded.

In the past few years, racial awareness has been gaining momentum across America, causing many to recognize that we have systems in place that are both implicitly and explicitly biased.

I used to listen to the Bay Area’s most popular classical music station, KDFC, on the car ride to my music-focused middle school. My drive was usually during the time when the station broadcasted song requests from listeners.

When the phrase “classical music” is uttered, many people think of Mozart or Beethoven. However, classical music stretches far beyond these two great composers, and its style and history are deeply intertwined with the European philosophies and cultures that influenced the past centuries.  Music historians categorize classical music into four time periods: The Baroque, Classical,

Classical music teachers are often stereotyped as strict, rigid, and stern instructors who slap the hands of their students when a wrong note is played.

The leaders of Communist Russia killed millions of people, yet they did not succeed in killing one of the greatest forms of expression: music. Many who lived through Joseph Stalin’s iron rule would say that the pain and devastation of the era shaped them forever, and many of the greatest composers of all time suffered

As the future of our country hangs like the threat of judgement day, the identity of the United States is on many people’s minds. Naturally, it is a fitting time to delve into the musical aspect of national anthems.  Whether you know the words or not, you are probably aware that “The Star-Spangled Banner” is

In the “Golden Age of Classical Music”, it was mostly composers from Austria, Italy, England, Germany, Russia, and France who were pumping out the music.

Would it be a far-venturing guess to state that everyone who reads this column knows somebody in a youth orchestra?  Many of you did mandatorily play an instrument in fourth grade Orchestra class.

Whenever I tell a Berkeley High School student that I play classical music, I typically expect one of three reactions. The first reaction would involve the student raising their eyebrows and saying “Oh cool!” in a way that makes me feel as though it’s not cool at all.