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When orchestral projects took over music school, pianists were left with unexpected free time—and an unusual solution. Enter the Piano Department Film Night: documentaries, lectures, and YouTube deep dives watched on an ancient projector. From Cziffra to Glenn Gould to Juilliard practice rooms, this is a pianist’s guide to what’s worth watching.
Across time, artists have used painting to declare identity and ambition to the public. From Dürer to Picasso to Kehinde Wiley, TWoA follows how resolution and intention—once made visible—have reshaped the art-historical canon itself.
Long before Co-Star, Europe’s wealthiest men were proudly inscribing their natal charts onto walls, ceilings, and frescoes. From Chigi’s astrologically coded villa in Rome to the Medici palaces of Florence—and later, the cosmic visions of Cocteau and Dalí—astrology has shaped art and architecture for centuries. TWoA traces how Renaissance elites and modern masters alike used the zodiac to script power, meaning, and identity across eras. Read on to find out how.
Looking for gifts with a little artistic magic? TWoA’s writers curate their favourite festive picks—from art-history reads and museum memberships to dancer must-haves, musician treasures, and beautifully crafted objects. Consider it your guide to artsy presents with real holiday spark.
Ever felt inspired by autumn? Good. So were Osslund, Tchaikovsky, and Rohmer, among many others. Read this article to find out how the season appears in art, music, and film, and why its briefness makes artists notice things they ignore the rest of the year.
As the school year begins, reading lists shift from summer novels to the books that shape a creative life. In this article, TWoA highlights three essential titles—Allegra Kent’s memoir, Twyla Tharp’s creative guide, and The Swans of Harlem—each revealing what it really takes to build a career in dance and the arts.
What began as aristocratic salons now lives on in bookstores, cafés, and pop-up lectures. TWoA charts the art café’s transformation—and why we still crave spaces built on talk and ideas.
Rachmaninoff, stern onstage and sweet-toothed in private, adored one thing above all: a cherry malted milk float. For World Ice-Cream Day, TWoA dives into the dessert that softened a musical giant—and why this fizzy American treat meant more to him than anyone knew.
In art, life, and social media, food does more than tempt: it signals status. TWoA looks at how lobsters, lemons, Erewhon smoothies, and untouched piles of fruit became a visual shorthand for luxury—and why this is a trend that keeps resurfacing. Read on.
“If I can’t drink my bowl of coffee three times daily…” Bach’s Coffee Cantata begins as a lighthearted story about a girl and her devotion to caffeine—but beneath it runs a quiet feminist rebellion taking shape in 1730s Leipzig.
The tinned-fish revival isn’t just about flavor—it’s a visual feast rooted in centuries-old Iberian conserva traditions, where bold packaging, maritime iconography, and contemporary design have turned canned seafood into the art world’s most unlikely aesthetic obsession.
Looking for the perfect winter movie night? From Wim Wenders’ luminous Pina to the grit of Russian ballet in Ballerina, these four films reveal the beauty, power, and pain of dancers’ lives on and off the stage.
Feeling overwhelmed by city life? Discover how artists from Wang Meng to Friedrich and Morisot turned forests into spaces of refuge, imagination, and calm—and how their paintings can offer a little “forest bathing” from home.
As winter settles in, we asked four artists from our most-loved interviews to share their favourite festive rituals—from family music-making and Christmas markets to jazzy carol transcriptions and the perfect holiday meal—to celebrate the magic of the season.
What if clothing is the key to understanding art—and storytelling—across centuries? From Renaissance portraiture by Agnolo Bronzino to the richly symbolic costumes of Bridgerton, this article explores fashion as a silent visual language, revealing how style communicates identity, power, and inner life—from Old Master paintings to contemporary television.
Are you planning to compete at a ballet competition this school year? Choosing the right variation can make all the difference. What principles should guide your decision? TWoA speaks with Inna Bayer, artistic director of Bayer Ballet Academy, and her student Crystal Huang—prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne 2024, Youth America Grand Prix 2024, YoungArts 2024, and Grand Prix winner at the South Africa International Ballet Competition—about strategy, growth, and showcasing your strengths on stage.
Oboist Spencer Rubin maps New York through habits rather than landmarks—brunch counters, practice rooms, museum detours, and late-day walks along the Hudson. Moving between The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, and the city’s quieter cultural corners, this guide reads the city as a lived ecosystem where artistic discipline, everyday pleasure, and urban energy continuously overlap.
TWoA explores what happens when practice slips from joy into pressure, tracing one musician’s uneasy relationship with auditions, self-comparison, and fear—and the slow, deliberate rediscovery of music-making as something grounded in curiosity, pleasure, and everyday attention rather than perfection or proof.
When a last-minute casting upends months of preparation, TWoA explores how Yuka Iwai, principal soloist at K-Ballet Tokyo, prepared to step into Giselle with just two weeks’ notice—reflecting on pressure, partnership, and the fragile balance between instinct and control in an unexpected debut.
Can social media shape the future of classical music? TWoA traces how platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are transforming how audiences discover, experience, and reimagine the genre—through creators and performers such as TwoSet Violin, Anna Lapwood, and Spencer Rubin—and whether this digital shift can move classical music beyond outreach toward real cultural change.
Good music isn’t made on an empty stomach. From extravagant truffles to simple, nourishing beans, this article pairs iconic operatic works with the favourite recipes of Italy’s most celebrated composers — from Gioachino Rossini’s legendary love of indulgent cuisine, to Giacomo Puccini’s humble student meals, and Giuseppe Verdi’s rustic countryside fare — proving that opera is, quite literally, a feast for all the senses.
What if procrastination isn’t the enemy of progress? From late-night scrolling to slow-motion rewatches, this article argues that Instagram’s algorithm — when used actively — can become an unexpected tool for technical growth, artistic confidence, and deeper engagement with dance.
For award-winning violinist and music entrepreneur Sumina Studer, London is less a backdrop than a network of encounters — museums revisited, concert halls scaled to intimacy, and informal spaces where music feels newly alive. In this conversation, the violinist reflects on the city’s creative ecology, the value of risk-taking in classical music, and how art spaces shape the way we listen, live, and connect.
Amid the intensity of competition at the Prix de Lausanne, the most enduring moments came not from medals, but from memory and meaning. In speeches that resonated far beyond the stage, Alessandra Ferri and Darcey Bussell reflected on fear, freedom, and the responsibility of art — offering young dancers a vision of ballet rooted not in perfection, but in purpose.
What begins as a carefully imagined dorm room often ends in something far more utilitarian. For a dance major, Pinterest-worthy décor gives way to yoga mats, resistance bands, and improvised stretching tools. In this article, TWoA reflects on how training quietly transforms personal space — turning a room meant for rest into a site of discipline, adaptation, and daily physical negotiation.
New York has long been a city where dance unfolds in studios, on stages, and in the streets. This unranked selection of six dance films — spanning ballet, musical theatre, documentary, and street styles — offers a way to revisit the city’s rhythms, tensions, and joys, and to see how movement has helped generations of New Yorkers tell their stories on screen.
Balletcore promises satin ribbons, slick buns, and legwarmers warmed by nostalgia. But for dancers who have lived inside the studio, the aesthetic can feel strangely hollow. In this essay, former professional dancer Hannah Lipman traces the distance between ballet as fantasy and ballet as discipline, asking whether fashion’s current obsession can move beyond costume to honor the labor, rigor, and movement that define the art form itself. When brands collaborate with dancers like India Bradley of New York City Ballet, Balletcore begins to shift—from static style to something closer to lived motion.
What does it take to follow a dream—especially when it begins far from home? In this TWoA interview, Viviana Durante, Artistic Director of English National Ballet School, reflects on her journey from Rome to the world’s leading stages and her philosophy of dance education today. From resilience and homesickness to interpretation, individuality, and collaboration, Durante shares what it means to build artists—not just dancers.
Art history doesn’t have to be confined to lecture halls and libraries. In this TWoA lifestyle piece, Tamar Avishai offers easy, pleasurable ways to weave art into your summer—whether you’re poolside, travelling, or stretched out on the sofa. From novels and films to podcasts, museums, and even colouring books, this is art history at its most relaxed and inviting.
As geopolitical tensions once again draw global attention to Greenland, its cultural history offers a revealing counterpoint. For over four millennia, Greenlandic Inuit communities have used drum song and dance not only for ritual and social life, but also as a structured, non-violent way to resolve disputes. In a drum duel, restraint—not aggression—determined the outcome, leaving judgment to the community rather than to force.