“Happy May Day, everyone. I’ve been pretty excited about the arrival of spring lately. It feels filled with extra symbolism these days as more and more of my loved ones are getting vaccinated, and the world seems to be re-emerging into some sort of new ‘normal’. I recently filmed a recital of songs about Springtime…”

“The Grammy Awards are tomorrow.

Strangely, if my loved ones weren’t constantly wishing me well for tomorrow, I would almost have forgotten about the ceremony. While it is surreal enough to be nominated for a Grammy Award, it is even more dreamlike in the context of covid, with everything taking place online…”

Even before beginning work on the Emerging Voices project a couple of years ago, I had a strong internal reaction whenever the subject of identity came up, especially in the way it has with the recent intense waves of nationalism and the racial bigotry often associated with it…

The United States underwent a radical cultural shift in 1917 when the nation decided to abandon its neutral stance and enter World War I on the side of Allies. America’s significant population of German immigrants and their descendants, which had been easily able to assimilate into American life…

The private salons of the Belle Époque presented important and serious music on a par with what could be heard at the larger public venues in Paris. These salon programs were not restricted to chamber music: they often included pieces on a much grander scale, at times with full orchestras and choirs and even operas…

The waves of nationalism that had surged throughout Europe during the years of the Belle Époque, and reached a peak of ferocity in World War I, came to a pivotal point with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The division of Eastern Europe was one of the major topics of the treaty negotiations, as the three empires…

The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 brought the years of the Belle Époque to a violent and abrupt end. Once the fighting started, it was only a matter of weeks before Parisians found the war at their doorstep in September’s battle of the Marne…