Alma Deutscher’s Plea for Harmony Strikes a Universal Chord

An incredible speech was given by the 14 year old composer Alma Deutscher upon receiving the European Culture Prize at the Vienna State Opera on October 20, 2019. At this prestigious ceremony, the young musician, whose works have sent shock waves through the musical world since she began composing at young age of 6 made…

Germany’s Stockholm Syndrome and the Firing of Valery Gergiev

By Cynthia Chung “No, there is a limit to the tyrant’s power! When the oppressed man finds no justice, When the burden grows unbearable, he appeals with fearless heart to heaven, and thence brings down his everlasting rights, which there abide, inalienably his, and indestructible as stars themselves. The primal state of nature reappears, wherein man…

Poe and Beethoven Debunk Artificial Intelligence Cult

Edgar Allan Poe and Beethoven were not only artists, but both men expressed an extremely matured sense of creative identity that transcended the bounds of all deductive-inductive forms of logic, and embraced a rigorous use of metaphore and irony that no computer could ever approximate. In this RTF Lecture, Matt Ehret showcases the roots of…

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Cross Rhythms of the Soul 

This Rising Tide Foundation lecture is delivered by Dr. Valeria Nolan titled Sergei Rachmaninoff: Cross Rhythms of the Soul, based on her recently published biography of the renowned composer-conductor-virtuoso pianist. The work evolved out of a multi-year project that included five Russian Rachmaninoff scholars and Nollan’s interviews with the composer’s grandson in Switzerland. The lecture…

The Music of the Primes

By Marcus du Sautoy Many people have commented over the ages on the similarities between mathematics and music. Leibniz once said that “music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting”. But the similarity is more than mere numerical. The aesthetics of a musical composition have much…

Tuning Humanity to the Universe: The Role of Education in Shaping Global Citizens

In this address delivered to the last session of the 22nd International Conference of Chief Justices of the World organized by India’s City Montessori School, Matthew Ehret (representing Dr. Edward Lozansky- President of the American University in Moscow) delivered remarks on the role of education in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and also advance…

The Coming Self-Destruction of Atonalism

By Felix Dupin Music is a language we hear and decipher unknowingly since the earliest period of youth. Although expressing both passion and creativity, music is also made of rules and whether studied intellectually or not, it is perfectly comprehensible to the untrained ear and evolved organically transmitting both creative energy and lawful harmonies, consonances,…

Mozart: Sublime Composer of Revolution

By Nancy Spannaus [Originally published on American System Now] Two hundred and sixty-seven years ago today, one of the greatest musical talents[1] known to history was born. I refer to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), composer of all genres of classical music, both vocal and instrumental. Most particularly, I am pointing to his operas, which qualify him,…