It’s a scenario every parent of a teenager will recognise: the bedroom door closes, a volume dial is rotated clockwise and loud music fills the room for hours at a time..

An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word.

Ten years ago, there was chaos and inertia. Now Britain’s opera houses are world class – and its conductors have revolutionised their orchestras.
 

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.
 

The classical-music world has a fraught relationship with fame. On the one hand, people are always pining for the days when Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, and Leontyne Price dominated the airwaves and appeared on the covers of magazines.
 

Norman Lebrecht examines the changing role of the critic in the 21st century.
 

It may be the wood, the glue or the shape — but experts have long suspected that the real secret of the cherished Stradivarius violin’s special sound lay in its gleaming varnish.
 

Young Asian musicians are increasingly choosing Poland as the place to perfect their skills and absorb the atmosphere in the native land of the renowned 19th-century romantic composer Frederic Chopin, who is adored in Asia.
 

Amid all of the Grammy hubbub this evening surrounding Beyonce, the Black Eyed Peas and other mega-stars, it’s easy to forget that classical music is an important part of the annual nominations, accounting for 13 categories and spanning the field from orchestral works to opera and beyond.
 

What makes great creators go silent? And is it always a bad thing?