Classical Music
Featured
Danae Venson’s music begins where language fails—shaped by jazz, gospel, classical tradition, and the vivid colours of her synesthesia. In this conversation with TWoA, the Juilliard-trained composer reflects on her artistic beginnings, composing through trauma, and discovering a musical vocabulary entirely her own. Read on to discover how she’s shaping the music she always longed to hear.
History doesn’t always retire its characters. Sometimes it just changes their stage. This piece follows a 300-year-old outlaw as he slips from London’s theatres to Berlin’s cabarets, Broadway’s brass, late-night advertising, and finally the strange churn of internet culture. Read this article to see how Macheath survived each era—and why his grin keeps returning.
Minimalist music sounds simple until you learn how to listen to it. In this article, TWoA looks at why composers like Steve Reich turned repetition into motion, texture, and quiet transformation—and how one piece, Music for 18 Musicians, can change the way you hear your own everyday routines.
The idea that the universe is built on harmony isn’t just poetic—it’s ancient philosophy, from Boethius to Kepler. In this article, TWoA traces how “the music of the spheres” shaped astronomy, theology, and the way we still imagine order in the cosmos. Read on to discover why the universe, in theory, has always been singing.
TwoSet Violin’s livestreamed Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos look nothing like a traditional recital—but their chaotic, global, hyper-interactive audience comes surprisingly close to how people once listened to classical music. Discover how YouTube, live chat, and 50,000 viewers revive a forgotten history of noisy, communal, joy-driven performance.
The saxophone isn’t just jazz and pop culture. In this guide, TWoA traces the instrument’s overlooked classical history—from concerti and quartets to the pioneering players shaping the repertoire today.
What really shapes an opera—is it simply the music, or also the eye that decides how a performance should be seen? Stage director Gilles Rico sits down with TWoA to explain how ideas, images, and instincts give a production its spine. Read on.
What kind of person makes a good spy? Four hundred and fifty years ago, Europe’s spymasters had an unexpected answer: musicians. In this TWoA feature, uncover how composers and court performers slipped across borders, carried coded messages, and became unlikely agents in a world of secrecy.
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.
Is the symphony orchestra a doomed relic, or simply overdue for reinvention? As UK institutions confront funding cuts and shrinking audiences, ensembles like Aurora Orchestra and Manchester Collective are rewriting the rules of performance. With young listeners engaging with classical music in record numbers, the future may lie not in preserving tradition but in reshaping it.
Before espionage had satellites and surveillance, it had something subtler: music. Step into the seventeenth century, where court musicians slipped secrets into their scores and John Wilkins sketched a cipher that transformed music into a covert script. Read on to find out their secrets.
“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.
Lea Brückner is a violinist, moderator and climate ambassador who has carved out a unique career for herself, combining her passion for music with her commitment to sustainability. TWoA talked to Lea about the role culture can play in the battle against climate change, and about the specific steps cultural organisations can take towards becoming more sustainable.
If you’ve ever heard a piece of music and thought, “That’s magical!” you probably just meant that the music made you feel a sense of wonder. But what if sound actually had special powers? What if you could use music as a key for learning ancient secrets about the cosmos?
Perhaps you notice patterns within yourself that stir as the winter colours into spring or the summer burns into autumn. Russian avant-garde composer Igor Stravinsky captures this most masterfully in The Rite of Spring.
Is this a comic strip or a music score? Find out.
Some pieces of twentieth century classical music sound as if they've come from another planet. György Ligeti's Atmosphères is one of those pieces. And if you think that avant-garde classical music and Hollywood don’t go together, think again: director Stanley Kubrick was so intrigued by Ligeti’s music that he used it in his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Having strong and competent hands is important to being a musician. But what about those who are missing limbs? Here are two snapshots of influential musicians, Django Reinhardt and Paul Wittgenstein, who rose to prominence through adapting their technique to a physical disability.
Rhyuhn Green is a young composer and pianist with a vision: classical music should become a melting pot of different cultures. The Juilliard student is a recipient of a prestigious Kovner fellowship and has just released his debut album, ph3onix3s. TWoA talked to the Philadelphia native about his musical journey, leadership in the classical arts, and, of course, his album.
While other composers wrote their pieces with quill and ink, Schumann composed using magic. His head was constantly filled with stories and daydreams, and every now and then, one of them would find their way onto a piece of paper – this is how he wrote his Kinderszenen.
“People’s attitudes have changed a lot:” How a Lanyard and a Sticker Changed the Perception of Busking on the London Underground.
Practicing away from your instrument might seem like a contradiction. If you think the only practice that counts towards your 5 hours a day are the hours spent beavering away in a stuffy practice room, it’s time to explore the power of mental practice.
Rae Yue Pung is a 21-year-old pianist from Singapore who recently released her debut album “Piano Sonatas” on all digital platforms. TWoA talked to Rae about classical music education in Singapore, her musical journey, and the challenges and rewards of embarking on the transition from highly-gifted child musician to mature artist.
Find out from former Royal Harpist Alis Huws about the special connection between the harp and Wales, about her time as Official Royal Harpist, and about the healing power of music. Right in time for the festive season, be enchanted by Alis’s tales of blind medieval bards and the coronation of a king, of compassion and the gift of music.
There is no question that women can be incredible musicians – brilliant composers, performers, conductors, theorists, and writers. In the last forty or so years, there has been an enormous surge of interest in shedding light on the lost music of female composers. But as we begin to fill in these gaps, what exactly is the best way to go about it?
Do you enjoy watching classical music content on YouTube or Instagram? If the answer is yes, you are probably a fan of Nahre Sol, the Juilliard-trained pianist, composer and content creator. TWoA talked to Nahre about composing variations on an iPhone ringtone and much more.
A very special day is coming: Franz Liszt’s birthday! And what better way to celebrate his 213th than by sight-reading through some of his best tunes.
Glenn Gould is one of the most famous classical musicians of the 20th century, and also one of the most misunderstood. We need to radically reconsider this amazing pianist and realise that his life is not the tragedy of a defective mind but the triumph of a neurodivergent one.
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) once said, “I want to live in the future.” His composition Tierkreis (Zodiac) is a vivid example of avant-garde music pushing the boundaries of what we traditionally consider music, much like abstract art, which challenges our perception of visual reality.
Demon or genius? Violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini may have bewitched his nineteenth-century audiences, but fellow violinists curse him for his fiendish compositions. But Paganini had his own struggles with alcohol, gambling, and women. Read on for more.