“When I sat down to write this string quartet, I was not trying to write something Black, I was just writing out of my experience,” said Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) about his…

In 1946, American composer George Walker (1922-2018) wrote what would become one of his most notable works at the young age of 24: String Quartet no. 1. Walker was introduced to music at 5 years…

The latest ASO Online release was performed live this past September during a socially-distanced chamber music performance at the Washington Lake Park Amphitheater in Sewell, NJ. A string quartet of…

Completed in 1868, Austrian composer, organist, and professor Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 in F minor first premiered in 1872. Despite garnering less than favorable reviews during initial rehearsals from…

United We Play is a short film inspired by the current turbulent times, and the belief that strength comes through adversity—where there is divide, there is also community. The project…

During a live socially-distanced chamber music performance at the Washington Lake Park Amphitheater in Sewell, NJ, a string quartet of ASO members performed these two works by living composers Adolphus…

The middle movement of Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11 (1935), later arranged by the composer for orchestra as Adagio for Strings, is “one of the most…

A string quartet of ASO musicians performs the works of Italian-born Nino Rota (1911-1979). Born into a family of musicians, Rota was no stranger to music and was a child…

Much of Robert Schumann’s (1810-1856) opus is a testament to the influence of literature on his life. The son of a book publisher and dealer, Schumann was heavily immersed in…

Ranked among the greatest American composers, William Grant Still was nicknamed the “Dean of African American Composers” for the many firsts he achieved during his substantial career. He was the…

Widely regarded as the masterpiece of his oeuvre, Sir Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (1900) tells the tale of a man traversing the path from death to Purgatory. Based…

One of the most revered Romantic composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Richard Strauss’s symphonic poems and operas remain an indispensable feature of the standard repertoire. This…

One of “The Five,” a group of 19th-century composers in Russia, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) was well known for his development of a distinctly Russian style of classical music. His musical…

A great nation in turmoil after the abrupt end to a ruling dynasty leaving no clear path forward. This was Russia in the Time of Troubles, the seventeenth-century period in…

Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) first premiered his symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid, 1903) during the Vereinigung Schaffender Tonkünstler’s second concert in 1905. Though the piece was based on Hans…

A contemporary of Saint-Saëns, Emmanuel Chabrier was an independent-minded and important innovator—many saw him as having paved the way for French modernism. With his comic opera The King in Spite…

One of the leading composers of the 20th century, Alban Berg was born in 1885 to an affluent family in Vienna, Austria. Initially trained by his aunt in piano, Berg…

This week’s offering from the archives of the Bard Music Festival celebrates the music of two seminal composers from south of the border: Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas. In times…

Nowadays unjustly neglected, Neoclassical composer Walter Piston is often praised for his individuality and disciplined handling of material, which is highly evident in Violin Concerto No. 1.  In his youth, Piston taught himself how to…

A highly gifted pianist and composer, Taneyev was a protégé and champion of Tchaikovsky’s, serving as a soloist in early performances of the older composer’s piano concertos. Taneyev was one…