Life and Other Distractions - Béla Hartmann writes about the relevance of biography to an appreciation of the arts

Music for Musicians Only? - The public turns a deaf ear to improvised music. As for classical music, Jan Dahlstedt claims that having abandoned improvisation, classical music entered a sidetrack from which it has never escaped, thus badly stifling creative progress. If he is guilty of heresy or may have a point, read on and judge for yourself.

The Composer's Conundrum? - Alistair Hinton comments on Gordon Rumson's recent article

The Composer's Conundrum - Gordon Rumson has some bad news about creativity and self-promotion

Music Lessons - Cleo Huang describes the unusual way in which music helped her to cope with her life

The Pianist as Elocutionist - Gordon Rumson airs his issues on the art-form as part of a book-length study

A Stressful Collaboration - Gerard Schurmann describes his involvement with the music score for 'Lawrence of Arabia'

Pure Fashion? - Several Composers in Search of an Identity, by Béla Hartmann

The Musician's Guide to Having an MRI - In an occasional series 'The Musician's Guides', Jennifer Paull offers a few tips for survival when confronted with being the square musical peg in a round musical hole

Dimensions of Night - Gordon Rumson previews a new work for piano by Larry Sitsky

Hall of Fame - Kelly Ferjutz reports on the induction of the Cleveland Orchestra

Murdering Classical Music - A Speculative History of the Present, by Gordon Rumson

Assuming the Helm - Roderic Dunnett reports on two new appointments at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels

A Cornucopia - Maria Nockin introduces San Diego Opera's new season

Opposing Strengths - Beethoven and his music, by Margaret Willson

Original and Brilliant - Trevor Barrett considers Dvorák's 'New World Symphony' as the most important symphonic work in American history

Fishy Ripples? - Red Herrings Spawn in Rough Blogoon Waters, by Jennifer Paull

Changing Tastes - Ciaran McAuley on the rejuvenation of opera

Elgar and Englishness - Alistair Hinton takes issue with Patric Standford's recent 'Provocative Thoughts'

The bottom of my lis(z)t?? - Alistair Hinton comments on Patric Standford's recent Provocative Thoughts

The End of an Adventure - Kelly Ferjutz marks the end of an era in American classical music radio

The Meaning of Friendship? - Kelly Ferjutz tells the story of Richard Waugh and his friend Charles Barr

Limitless Combinatorics - Eric Pettine postulates 'No Shortage of Melodies Anytime Soon', and offers some real hope for cynical musicians who think they've heard it all

The Wandering Traveller - Kelly Ferjutz delves further into Richard Wagner and the forthcoming symposium in Ohio

Interval Talk - Alistair Hinton comments on Patric Standford's recent 'Provocative Thoughts'

Why Canton? - On the creation of an international Wagner symposium, by Kelly Ferjutz

'It's all lip-synched' - Gordon Rumson muses on best (or worst) practice in the music world

Ensemble. An Absorbing Day - Julian Jacobson reports on the fourteenth BPSE Beethoven Intercollegiate (Senior) Piano Competition

Oh, Those Verdi Choruses! - by Teresa Verde

Four Strings to his Violin - Many strings to his bow ... Howard Smith reports on Marat Bisengaliev's third tour of New Zealand

High Jinx and Haute Couture - On the anniversary of Cathy Berberian's birth, Jennifer Paull investigates the legendary musician's extraordinary talents in humouristic performance, and her equally astounding wardrobe

Appropriate Temperament - Gordon Rumson replies to Patric Standford's article on keys and the decline of tonality

Faust and the 'Free World' - Madeline Jenkins Millard tells the tale of Tresa Waggoner and the Bennett Six

Recent Releases - Books, paintings and music at a writers' event, reviewed by Anna Franco

Cathy Berberian: Legacy - On the 40th anniversary of 'The Miniskirt Affair', Jennifer Paull sets the mood of the 1960s into which Cathy Berberian's imaginative style of recital programming shook the conventional rafters of 'classical music' through sheer daring - her legacy to music-making

Drama in the music - Robert Hugill muses on the staging of Handel's oratorios

To everything there is a season - A short story by Jenna Orkin of wtceo.org

Stolen property - The daughter of a Christchurch actress fights church duplicity in Moscow, by Howard Smith

Cathy Berberian - Never knowingly misunderstood - Jennifer Paull questions the focus of the lens of musical history

Timings - thoughts about the quirkiness of some of music's hidden secrets - The Clarens Connection, by Jennifer Paull