No-one did more to expand the audience for opera than the tenor Luciano Pavarotti. He reconnected an elite art-form with popular audiences throughout the world, through his unashamed enthusiasm for life and his unique ability to communicate to vast…

How did artists survive in the Soviet Union? How tricky did they have to be in the face of authorities? What kind of danger and difficulties did they have to fear? Sviatoslav Richter and Gennadi Rozhdestvensky talk about authorities, watchdogs and…

In 2005, Iranian composer Nader Mashayekhi was asked to lead the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. He knew the weak position of Western classical and contemporary music in Iran would make this a difficult task. But he took on the challenge, and after having…

This documentary tells Mahler’s real story, going against any romanticised images we may have of the subject. The film has a visual sensuality, placing the spectator in Mahler’s shoes, and, using documented evidence (drawing on the latest research)…

The mother through the daughter’s eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich’s daughter Stéphanie has…

Uniquely, Django Reinhardt fits several simultaneous archetypes. He is the streetwise kid turned celebrity. He is the miraculous surivor of an accident who went on to overcome his handicap. He is the illiterate who used musical notes as a universal…

Samba is more than dance and lascivious hip movements. Samba is also word, language, text, lyrics or simply said a certain way of life. The composer and singer Martinho da Vila is guiding us through today’s world of Samba and we meet with his Samba…

From 1982 to 1992 Frank Scheffer worked with John Cage on many different occasions, which resulted in a unique archive of historical audio-visual material. Based on this unique archive, including interviews, musical performances and images of…

Jan Peerce was a great singer, universally acclaimed as one of the outstanding artists of his time, a role model of the American Dream. Beginning with Peerce’s roots on the Lower East Side of New York, this film takes us uptown and around the world…

In 2003, after a career spanning nearly forty years, Julia Varady discreetly retired from the public stage. She now dedicates her time to teaching. While for most great singers the transition from performing to teaching generally follows signs of…