Artists
Wendy Carlos: the trans pioneer who created Stanley Kubrick’s creepiest soundscapes
Discover the bold, brilliant world of Wendy Carlos—electronic music pioneer, innovator, and trailblazing figure in sound and identity.
The very rude thing that conductor Thomas Beecham once said
Great conductors have sometimes betrayed sexist attitudes when talking about their female colleagues
The saddest 'what ifs' in rock: 7 bands that missed their moment
Seven brilliant bands with unforgettable songs, tangled fates, and heartbreaking near-misses — this is the story of rock’s greatest almost-weres and the stars that never rose
Best pianist: 21 awesome magicians of the keyboard, ranked
Who was the best pianist of all time? We asked 100 leading pianists to name the performers who have brought the most magic to the keyboard
Bachs to Von Trapps: music's 10 greatest dynasties
Jeremy Pound ponders nurture, nature and ancestral trees as he admires the collective talents of history’s most musical families
The greatest blues singers: 15 giants of the genre, ranked
Paul McGuinness explores the best blues singers of all time, who helped shape and influence the genre
Dennis Brain: Britain’s horn hero who captivated the world
Dennis Brain inspired a generation of musicians and music fans alike. Andrew Green traces the meteoric rise and tragic end of the French horn virtuoso
Herbert von Karajan: the high priest of classical music... with a Nazi past
If a conductor has a tainted personal history, should we still listen to their music? When that conductor is arguably the greatest of all, the dilemma becomes even more problematic...
Fifteen astonishing musicians we lost far too soon
From Robert Johnson to Nick Drake: 15 brilliant musicians gone too soon—tragic losses that shaped music history and left us wondering what could have been
Roger Norrington: quiet radical and pioneer of historically informed performance
As a leading pioneer of the period performance movement, Roger Norrington transformed how we hear composers from Bach to Mahler. As he retired in 2022, he shared his memories with Julian Haylock
Secrets of the castrati: the eye-watering surgery that created opera's greatest stars
Italian opera castrati enjoyed cult status in the 17th and 18th centuries but, explains Jeremy Pound, the path to stardom was a notoriously dangerous one
Otto Klemperer: Nazi exile, mental illness... and one of the greatest conducting careers of all time
For many, conductor Otto Klemperer will be remembered as the steady and reliable champion of classic repertoire, but in his youth the German was a dashing advocate of the new, writes Andrew Green
Seven incredible British bands who failed to crack America
Some British bands found a vast new fanbase Stateside, while other seminal acts failed to crack America. What gives?
Why Samara Joy might be the future of jazz
Samara Joy is the velvet-voiced jazz star bringing timeless jazz standards to new audience — and winning Grammys while doing it
Yunchan Lim: the superstar pianist who, at just 18, reduced a famous conductor to tears
Bob Dylan redefined music in just 45 minutes. Here's how he did it
As Timothée Chalamet returns to our screens as a young Bob Dylan, we take a look at two infamous - but crucial - moments in his whirlwind early career
6 Seventies rock gods who lost their way in the Eighties (and 6 who reinvented themselves)
Some 1970s rock giants lost their way in the '80s—while others reinvented themselves and thrived in bold new directions.
'I risked my life driving through Mexican gangland to get to my concert': baritone Benjamin Appl
Furtwängler: Hitler’s favourite conductor – or secret Nazi resister?
Wilhelm Furtwängler has long been seen as a symbol of Nazism. But, as Andrew Green explains, the conductor was a strong opponent of the regime
Was Mozart's sister Nannerl the better musician?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a gifted older sister, Maria Anna, known as Nannerl. A prodigy in her own right, was Nannerl actually the more talented Mozart, asks Sylvia Milo
'Be young all your life': 15 musicians who played on into their 90s
For some performers and composers, the notion of retiring at 90 has been simply out of the question, as Terry Blain explains
Here are 10 reasons you should NEVER marry a musician
Free concert tickets and a home filled with the joys of music might seem tempting now, but you could live to regret it...!
These 11 musical mavericks followed absolutely none of the rules
From Satie to Sun Ra, we salute 11 musicians who defiantly did things their own way - and left music incalculably the richer for it
Alfred Brendel, pianist: 1931-2025
The acclaimed pianist has died at the age of 94. Claire Jackson remembers a remarkable musician, writer and thinker