Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, creator of contemplative music, photographed in 1990 by influential patron Betty Freeman.

The Silence And Awe Of Arvo Pärt

The Estonian composer’s contemplative yet powerful music has found popularity beyond the borders of classical music. He’s making a rare appearance in the U.S. to attend a festival of his music.

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Violinist-turned-Olympian Vanessa-Mae checks out her fellow skiers in Sochi, Russia on Feb. 10.

Fiddler On The Slopes

One of the world’s most successful crossover musicians, violinist Vanessa-Mae, will fulfill a lifelong dream by skiing the women’s giant slalom at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next Tuesday. Though she is British, she is one half of the Olympic team from Thailand.

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Mieczyslaw Weinberg's opera The Passenger tells the story of an Auschwitz prisoner and a Nazi guard, whose lives continue to interweave after the the war.

A Holocaust Tale Unfolds On Two Levels

The Houston Grand Opera is presenting the American premiere of The Passenger, an opera written nearly 50 years ago about an Auschwitz survivor who meets a former Nazi officer on a cruise ship. The opera premiered to acclaim in Europe in 2010 — but its Polish-born composer never heard it performed.

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