Michael Zwiebach is the senior editor/content manager for SFCV. He assigns all articles and content, manages the writing staff, and does editing. A member of SFCV from the beginning, Michael holds a Ph.D. in music history from the University of California, Berkeley.
If getting to know Benjamin Britten's music is on your to-do list, you can begin with this playlist of pieces from his most celebrated works as well as some lesser-known music.
The space age has inspired many musicians to write music inspired by our efforts to understand our solar system and universe. Here's to inspiration from the stars.
There is so much scary, spooky music out there, Halloween is practically a classical music holiday. This is just a beginning sampler ranging from ghost stories to haunted house staples. Have fun.
Charles Ives was a terrific young musician, son of a bandleader, who went to Yale and studied composition with the highly regarded Horatio Parker. But he had wild musical ideas in his head and his Yankee practicality discouraged him from trying to push those ideas through a conservative musical establishment.
Verdi wrote 23 operas, of which about 10 are consistently among the most-performed operas every year. So a short playlist like this will hardly do justice to the composer’s achievement. But it will get you started.
