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background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
Entering Music

Dmitri Shostakovich

By Stratton Rawson,
Richie English
Published September 25, 2026 at 10:00 AM EDT
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background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that

Beethoven, sitting in a basement, wrote his 5th piano concerto while Napoleon’s troops bombarded the city of Vienna, Messiaen wrote the Quartet for the End of Time while in a prisoner of war camp. When Shostakovich found himself in besieged Leningrad during WW II, he started to write his 7th Symphony. He wasn’t terrified because he had already written his 5th symphony with Stalin’s gun pointed at his head.

Entering Music 2026
Stratton Rawson
Stratton Rawson grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State midway between the Hudson River and the Appalachian Trail in the shadow of some the oldest mountains on earth.
See stories by Stratton Rawson
Richie English
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Richie English has worked extensively as a pianist, teacher, and composer since childhood. He began studying piano at ten years old with Frieda Manes, and within a year was the youngest piano teacher registered with Denton, Cottier & Daniels in state history.
See stories by Richie English
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