All Article articles
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Article‘I don’t like standing still’ - Daniel Kidane on his new violin concerto for Julia Fischer
British composer Daniel Kidane speaks to The Strad about writing his first violin concerto, inspired by his personal reactions to current political situations such as UK arts funding cuts and the war in Ukraine
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Article’Poetry is a bridge to music’ - Jan Vogler on his collaboration with poet Amanda Gorman
The German cellist tells The Strad how the interdisciplinary project, which will put Bach alongside modern poetry, took form
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ArticleDragonflies, monsoons and the Somali Jet inspire a new violin concerto for Johan Dalene
Swedish composer Tebogo Monnakgotla speaks to The Strad about how she went about writing her new concerto, which depicts the migration system of dragonflies across the Indian Ocean
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Article‘You get your favourites as a composer’ - Brett Dean on his Ivors-nominated Cello Concerto
Australian composer Brett Dean speaks to The Strad about his 2018 Cello Concerto ahead of The Ivors Classical Awards, where it has been nominated for best orchestral composition
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Article‘I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world’ - Barbara Hannigan and her collaboration with the Emerson Quartet
Soprano Barbara Hannigan talks to The Strad about her final collaboration with the Emerson Quartet in their new CD Infinite Voyage
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Article‘Composer fun is the best fun!’ - Post-festival Q&A with the Smorgaschord festival directors
The cellist and composer reflect on their festival’s third edition
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Article‘Unusualness in all its splendour’: Q&A with the Smorgaschord festival directors
The three-year-old festival is dedicated to pushing boundaries, explain Eliza Millett and Sebastian Black
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ArticleHow Nicolò Amati’s ‘Romanov’ viola survived its own turbulent history
An instrument of archaic charm and bold dimensions, the 1677 ‘Romanov’ Nicolò Amati viola harks back to the tenor violas made a century before by Nicolò’s grandfather Andrea.
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Article‘My whole person was struck by extraordinary tones’: G.B. Viotti on the ‘Ranz des Vaches’
In the March 2023 issue, violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved discusses his love for this short piece by Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755–1824).
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ArticleMaking Matters: Off-Beat Violins
Luthier Andrew Carruthers demonstrates the sound quality of his ’X’ and ‘O’ violins, the ‘Tabolin’ and the ‘Ripple cello’
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Article‘It was like the earth moved beneath me’ - violinist Leonidas Kavakos on playing the ’Willemotte’ Stradivari
Kavakos describes his first encounter with the 1734 violin, made when Antonio Stradivari was 90 years old
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Article2022-23 Tianjin Juilliard Season Highlights
Tianjin Juilliard’s 2022-23 season opened in September with a performance led by Ken Lam,
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ArticleInterview with Ken Lam: A New Chapter for the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra
Ken Lam is our inaugural director of orchestral studies and resident conductor of the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra
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ArticleCellist Steven Isserlis on using vibrato to improve phrasing
Steven Isserlis gives a cello masterclass on Schumann's Fantasiestücke op.73, recorded at the International Musicians' Seminar, Prussia Cove. The student is Ani Kalayjian
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ArticleCellist David Finckel on vibrato
Cellist David Finckel introduces the subject of vibrato as part of a series of video demonstrations on cello technique. Vibrato, he says, 'connects the listener to the player's innermost feelings about the music. It should be something that reinforces the music, not something that is painted on top ...
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ArticleTechnique: How to vary and enhance your cello pizzicato
Soloist and chamber musician Christoph Richter talks about good pizz technique with particular attention to the range of sound demanded by Debussy's Cello Sonata. From The Strad's November 2015 issue
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ArticleViolinist Ray Chen gives left-hand pizzicato lesson
Violinist Ray Chen gives a video lesson on mastering left-hand pizzicato, as demonstrated in Paganini's Caprice no.24.
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ArticleVictoria Chiang demonstrates shifting exercises for viola
'You have to be able to move freely without your shoulder getting in the way' Peabody Institute of Music viola professor Victoria Chiang helps a student with shifting exercises during a National Philharmonic Masterclass in 2013. Explore more Technique like this in The Strad Playing Hub
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ArticleDeconstructing the Andrea Amati ‘King’ cello
In an article from June 2015, Matthew Zeller examines five centuries of alterations made to the world’s oldest cello, housed at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, and asks what they reveal about the evolution and development of the standard cello form