Quick: Name the Largest Factory in New York City
It's venerable Steinway & Sons, now celebrating 150 years of carefully crafting grand pianos... the old-fashioned way.  More...

Berklee tackles the Turntable: New Instrument or Party Trick?
The premier school of jazz is wrestling with turntablism - the LP-scratching technique that launched rap and is still a staple of hip-hop. Initially rejected as a course, a best-selling book has turned the tables.  More...

24 Violins + 2 Violas + 4 Cellos...
Your total comes to $50 million.  Want Fries with That?
Why did philanthropist Herbert Axelrod give the NJ Symphony a deep discount on his collection of Stradavari, Amati and Guarnari?   More...



How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall? Jackhammer, jackhammer, jackhammer...
New York's Carnegie Hall is not known for underground music, but its new $100 million Zankel Hall was carved out of the bedrock below its main stage.  More...

Miracle on 44th Street: Hollywood Church belts Show Tunes
Rev. John Griffin had only 4 worshipers at his first service at his Crescent Heights church.  Now songs from "Mame" and "Oklahoma" help deliver messages on hope, faith and hunger, and the local Bishop has requested "La Cage aux Folles" for Mother's Day.  More...

Girl Emerges from 6-Year Coma at Bryan Adams Concert
We are not making this up: In Munich, Christiane Kittel entered a coma in 1997 at age 18.  When her parents wheeled her to a concert of her pop star hero, she started a remarkable recovery.  More...



Play it Again, Gilbert!
Gilbert Kaplan is a man with a mission, and that mission is to conduct Mahler's Second Symphony.  That's all this self-taught conductor EVER conducts.  More...

Takin' Care of Business: Corporate Bands Set to Battle Again
Get your motor runnin'... now.  Entries for the 3rd annual "Battle of the Corporate Bands" are due at the end of May, with Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame awaiting the 8 finalists, who will compete live in October.  More...

Attain Nirvana... Only $195 a Share
Or perhaps a more affordable Springsteen at $156 a share.  The Donnas are an out-and-out steal at $13.99.  At the Interactive Music Exchange, you can make actual trades in a futures market for hundreds of artists.  More...



That 'Special Sound' is Found... in a Basement in Santa Monica
In a world of ironies, consider this:  Advertising executives looking for the perfect sound for trendy selling turn to tiny public station KCRW, housed in the basement of Santa Monica College's cafeteria.  More...

Out Standing in the Field: The Art of Recording the Natural World
Some of the best music is none at all.  Great phonographers (that's a real word) go to great lengths to bring us sounds of the earth.  More...

Iraqi Singer Tours US, Sings of Home
The biggest pop star in Iraq spent the late winter in an unlikely place - touring the US.  His fans include Carlos Santana and Sarah Brightman, as well as the people of Baghdad.  More...



Sphinx Competition Solves Riddle Posed to Some Minority Musicians
With more than $100k of cash and scholarship prizes awarded each year, along with recital opportunities with top orchestras, Detroit's Sphinx Competition gives a leg up to black and Latino musicians, who make up less than 3% of American orchestras.  More...

Famed NYC High School dumps Annual Musical for Opera
New York's LaGuardia High School, the basis of the musical "Fame," has decided not to mount a musical show this year. It's trying an opera.  More...



Attain Nirvana, part 2: Classic Sounds on a Chip
The sounds that make pop groups distinct often come from classic guitars and amplifiers that are heading for extinction.  New products capture the essence of this aging equipment and make it available to everyone.  More...

New Holocaust Survivors: Executed Composers' Music Revived
Viktor Ullmann died at Auschwitz in 1944.  But thanks to American conductor James Conlon, his music (which includes Hitler satire "The Emperor of Atlantis") is enjoying new life.  More...

Beat it, or Just Eat it.  The Music of Food.
Most music is about love, but a lot of it is about food.  An Atlanta Journal-Constitution food writer lists the tastiest items in the jukebox. More...



Sounds Cool Enough to Chill a Cold One
Thermo-acoustic refrigeration may be the way to keep both food and our environment cool.  The trick is getting sound waves in tune with some molecules of helium.  More...

Sounds Hot Enough to Zap Anthrax
High-frequency sound kills microscopic bugs.  Now scientists have found a way to transmit ultrasound through air, which could lead to news ways to sterilize food, air ducts and suspected bio-weapons.  More...

Computer Plays 'Name that Tune'
Every song has unique audio fingerprints, and now computers can quickly match what they "hear" with some enormous musical databases.  More...