Classical pianist, educator, and musicologist. Julian writes about music history, pedagogy, and the lives of great composers with a love for nuance and a passion for lifelong learning.
Know Your Composer
Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninoff redefined piano performance. Blending superhuman technique with emotional depth, they turned concerts into unforgettable experiences and forged the very ideal of the modern virtuoso pianist.
Know Your Composer
Tchaikovsky gave ballet sweeping symphonic beauty, while Stravinsky shattered tradition with rhythm and dissonance. Together they redefined dance music, lifting it from courtly entertainment to radical modern art that continues to inspire choreographers and audiences.
Know Your Composer
Beethoven’s music continues to inspire and challenge listeners centuries later. From the heroic “Eroica” to the transcendent Ninth Symphony, his greatest works reveal the struggles, passions, and triumphs that shaped one of history’s most enduring composers.
Know Your Composer
Discover the life and genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through fifteen fascinating facts, from his prodigious childhood and operatic triumphs to his financial struggles, mysterious death, and enduring legacy as one of history’s greatest composers.
Know Your Composer
Through vast symphonies filled with awe and anguish, Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner delved into the human condition, crafting deeply spiritual and psychological works that continue to resonate in an increasingly fragmented world.
Know Your Composer
From the Baroque salons of Venice to 21st‑century concert halls, this article uncovers the overlooked achievements of women composers—Strozzi, Hensel, Saariaho and more—showing how their creativity has quietly but profoundly shaped the classical canon.
Know Your Composer
Chopin’s Nocturnes revolutionised the piano repertoire, blending haunting melodies with daring harmonies. From the intimate Op. 9 pair to the grand Op. 48 in C minor, these miniatures illuminate Romantic expression in miniature form, nuance and virtuosity.
Know Your Composer
Handel’s Messiah almost never saw the light of day. Its 1742 Dublin premiere was a risky bet that turned into a musical triumph, rescuing Handel’s career and transforming the choral repertoire forever.
Features
In Squid Game, classical music becomes a chilling soundtrack to violence and control. From Haydn to Strauss, explore how the show redefines beauty and power through its ironic and psychologically charged musical choices.
Features
From Beethoven’s 'Egmont' to Britten’s 'Peter Grimes', composers have long drawn on poets, novelists and dramatists to shape melody, form and emotion—proving that literature’s narrative power can be transmuted into the language of sound.
Know Your Composer
Igor Stravinsky transformed twentieth-century music through rhythmic innovation and stylistic reinvention. From 'The Rite of Spring' to neoclassicism and serialism, his evolving voice continues to influence composers and captivate audiences today.
Music Education
Explore the evolution of the classical concerto, from Baroque beginnings to the refined works of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, tracing how form, style and soloistic expression transformed Western classical music.