When I was 11, I wanted to perform the 3rd mvt of this sonata. My father, who was my teacher at the time would only let me play it if I practiced 2 hours a day every day. That was a big deal for me.

Movement I  
Movement II  
Movement III  

Bartok leaving just a few bars of orchestration unfinished. 2nd mvt Includes actually bird calls from Asheville, NC, where Bartok spent his last winter.  

Borodin was a full time Chemist and his friends used to say "I hope you are sick." instead of wishing him well because it meant he could be home composing.

One of Chopin's greatest works. The distant arpeggios in the opening gradually come to the foreground as the piece develops.
 

 Alfred Cortot, a great French pianist, called this Prelude "The Race to the Abyss."

The right hand weaves an intricate chromatic web of notes.

A Word is dead if it is said some say. I say it just begins to live that day. -Emily Dickinson

-Sasha Cooke mezzo-soprano

An assignment from Sam Adler. Write a song in one sitting.

-Abby Fischer mezzo-soprano