​I have enjoyed playing, teaching, and listening to Spanish music throughout my musical life. The guitar effects, exotic rhythms and harmonies, and mesmerizing moods captured my imagination and emotions, as well as that of my students. I enjoyed playing Andaluza, Córdoba, Capriccio Catalano, Asturias, Granada, Sevilla, and The Jota Aragonese. One o...

An internationally recognized authority and leading music educator on early childhood music, Christine H. Barden is a coauthor of Alfred's Music for Little Mozarts preschool piano method, along with Gayle Kowalchyk and E.L. Lancaster. A graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in piano performance, she also spent four years studying...

The first program notes I wrote were for my college senior recital. I learned a great deal and enjoyed the process so much I continued to write them for all my solo recitals. In more recent years, I have spoken directly to the audience about the music in a type of "verbal program notes," but they are also thoroughly researched and planned. In ...

When I was in eighth grade, I fell while roller-skating and broke my right arm just above the wrist. I assumed that piano lessons would be on hold for at least six weeks as it healed, but instead, my teacher assigned me a piece for left hand alone called "Andante Finale" from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Theodore Leschetizky. I loved the challe...

​During Morty Manus's tenure as owner and president of Alfred Music Publishing Company, he guided its growth from a small print and pop song catalog to the world's largest educational music publisher. Upon completion of a business degree from City College of New York, Morty joined the company his father had owned since 1928.In 1975, Alfred moved th...

​When Sergei Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union to live after many years in the West, many were surprised; and he was probably even more surprised himself when his compositional style was soon publicly attacked and condemned by the Soviet government and press. Newly released documents are giving greater insight into the life, struggles, and mus...

A prizewinner in the first Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition (1958), Daniel Pollack was invited, following the competition, for a two-month concert tour throughout the Soviet Union, becoming the first American to record on the Soviet Melodya label. Over the next several decades many recordings followed, all of which sold in the millions a...

from the series: ​Putting It All Together: Repertoire & PerformanceNancy Bachus, EditorI do not remember when I first "discovered" the Tarantella in A Minor of Albert Pieczonka. I do know I have taught it many, many times, and always with great success. I measure "success" in different ways. One measure was that every student gre...

from the series: Putting It All Together: Repertoire & PerformanceWe know that some students are kinesthetic in the waythey learn, while others are more aural or visual ...How would you teach the same piece of music to students with different learning styles? Nancy Bachus, EditorI have found it interesting to read articles about ...

Anyone who has ever walked on stage and performed a piano solo by memory has had to deal in some way with "stage fright" or performance anxiety. I remember walking toward the piano as a child and thinking, "I don't know the first note of my piece. I hope my hands can find it." Fortunately, they did, but it was very unnerving. I also remember feelin...