Jessica Duchen

Jessica Duchen was a classical music correspondent for The Independent for 12 years and her work has also appeared in BBC Music Magazine, The Guardian and The Sunday Times. Her writing about, for and with music includes novels, dramatic works, libretti and biographies. Her latest novel, Ghost Variations, was chosen as Best Read of 2016 by John Suchet in the Daily Mail.

Latest from Jessica Duchen

Searching for the next piano master

Last year the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition was cancelled, thisyear it will be held in cyberspace. Jessica Duchen found out how.

By Jessica Duchen

4 min read

We’re in perfect harmony

3 min read

Dame Fanny Waterman

3 min read

Dame Fanny Waterman: A life in music

3 min read

More from Jessica Duchen

Nurturing musical talent in the Galilee

A unique charity is giving children in Northern Israel the chance to train as classical musicians

4 min read

December 11, 2020 09:05

Our orchestra must play on

Live music has been a casualty of the pandemic this year. Ahead of a major fundraiser, musicians from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra tell Jessica Duchen how they've coped

6 min read

December 3, 2020 13:05

‘My viola gives me space to be myself’

Musician Shiry Rashkovsky has organised a classical music festival in a London cafe - first steps to bringing back live music in the pandemic

4 min read

October 29, 2020 11:47

Even in lockdown, Perlman’s music plays on

One of today’s greatest violinists is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Gramophone Magazine. But now he has a surprising new role: social media lockdown hero

6 min read

October 8, 2020 09:33

Even in lockdown, Perlman’s music plays on

‘I had never met anyone just like me’

The trauma inherited by the children of Shoah survivors is the focus of Maya Lasker-Wallfisch's new book

4 min read

June 18, 2020 11:09

From prodigy to superstar

Virtuoso violinist Maxim Vengerov puts his success down to his upbringing as a Jewish boy in the heart of Russia.. With celebrations of his 40 years as a performer on ice, he talked to Jessica Duchen about his career

6 min read

May 14, 2020 15:44

I'm not Jewish, but I'm a Klezmer musician

Violinist Meg-Rosaleen Hamilton loves the emotional intensity of Jewish folk music

2 min read

January 8, 2020 14:26

I'm not Jewish, but I'm a Klezmer musician

A home for exiled music

A generation of musicians was wiped from Vienna’s history by the Holocaust — some murdered, others exiled. Now their work is being collected and celebrated

4 min read

January 2, 2020 11:08

Interview: Vanessa Paloma Elbaz

The writer, performer, anthropologist and cultural diplomat speaks to Jessica Duchen

4 min read

December 30, 2019 11:06

At 82, composer achieves a first

Born into a Chasidic family in Vienna, 1936, Erika Fox always dreamed of becoming a musician. This week her first CD is released

6 min read

June 27, 2019 12:27

Meet the Jewish opera singer taking the role of a Pharaoh

Counter tenor Anthony Roth Costanzo takes on the title role of "visionary" Pharaoh Akhnaten at the ENO

3 min read

February 7, 2019 11:44

Meet the Jewish opera singer taking the role of a Pharaoh

The citizen of nowhere is on the musical map at last

The music of "genius" composer and Holocaust survivor Mieczyslaw Weinberg was forgotten for years. Now a new concert will celebrate his work

4 min read

January 9, 2019 17:00

The citizen of nowhere is on the musical map at last

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