Recently, I have been visiting several high schools and working with student orchestras. Sitting in those rehearsals reminded me of something that is easy to forget if you spend most of your time in one corner of the musical world.

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Spend enough time around classical music discourse, and you will eventually encounter a familiar divide.

On one side stands the “art song.” Elevated. Composed. Serious.
On the other stands the “popular song.” Commercial. Ephemeral. Mass produced.

The boundary often feels…

I have loved Henryk Wieniawski’s music for a long time. His music has fire, elegance, lyricism, and a kind of theatrical brilliance that immediately appeals to string players. Even when the writing is dazzlingly virtuosic, there is usually a singing…

If you have ever opened a modern scholarly edition of a concerto or chamber work, you may have noticed something curious.

Behind the cleanly engraved score often sits a critical commentary. Sometimes it runs a few pages. Sometimes it runs…

Music does not usually begin in the classroom. It begins in use: in churches, theaters, homes, streets, courts, clubs, ceremonies, and communities; in imitation, repetition, apprenticeship, and shared habit. People make music long before they theorize it. Only later do…

For generations of American string players, International Music Company (IMC) editions were simply the editions. If you studied the Lalo Concerto or Popper’s High School in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century, there is a…

In recent years, I have noticed a growing discomfort with terms such as “canon” and “standard repertoire” in artistic and academic conversations. In some contexts, these labels are treated not simply as descriptive categories, but as symbols of exclusion or…

Proofreading is not glamorous. It is rarely inspiring. It does not feel like creativity. And yet it might be one of the most important things I do.

How many of us have sent a text, DM, or comment, then come…

I started using notation software around 2001, probably Finale 97. A friend of mine named Raj, much older than I was at the time, recommended it. I think he worked professionally in a STEM field and was a capable, curious…

Discussions about the first human language often collapse into shallow alternatives. On one side, some assume that if Genesis is true, then Biblical Hebrew must simply be the original language of mankind. On the other hand, many dismiss the question…

Several years ago, I worked with a high school student who had a clear, ambitious goal: to audition for a highly selective undergraduate program. He understood the level of preparation this would require and was initially willing to commit to…

As a classical musician and educator, I’ve spent much of my life immersed in the works of Bach, Beethoven, and countless other composers from the Western tradition. I value the richness, nuance, and discipline that classical music demands. At the…