News

For the past year we have been working hard on a brand new PianoAccompanists.com, and we are please to say that we have finally finished - you are looking at it now! Our new website contains many, many new features, a completely new graphical design, as well as a complete overhaul of the existing features and inner workings of the site.

Here are a just a few of the improvements...

• New Search Facility - We have completely rewritten the search facility so that you have much more control over the results. For instance, if you are interested in finding someone to accompany you on the harpsichord or organ, you need only tick a box and the search results are instantly filtered to include only them. If you are budget conscious, you can set a minimum or maximum fee for the accompanists returned by the search. You can even search specifically for specialists in areas such as contemporary music, musical theatre or jazz. Additionally we have enhanced the 'search by name / keyword' utility to make it easier to find a particular accompanist who you may have worked with before.


• Professional Profile Upgrades - A few months ago we introduced the 'Professional Membership' option to greatly enhance your profile and jump to the top of the search results by paying a small annual fee. Professional Memberships have since been selling like hot cakes, and some of our pros have reported being contacted several times each day with a deluge of well-paid accompanying jobs. We have considerably enhanced these additional features. You can upload your recordings so people can hear you while browsing your profile. You can even upload videos of your playing up to around 4 minutes long. You can enter your diary schedule, which we order for you automatically so people can see what is upcoming, and what you have done in the past. You can upload as many gallery photos as you like, and even create your own custom pages with anything you want on them. Why pay expensive fees for your own website when we can do it all for you at PianoAccompanists.com!


• New Graphical Design - If you are familiar with the old website, then you will realise that we have completely overhauled the graphical design for the new site. Every single page has been redesigned, and if you thought your profile looked snazzy before - take a look at it now!


• Audio / Video Uploads - We have made the audio / video upload facility clearer and more reliable. We have increased the maximum upload size (for all files) to 32MB, meaning that you can even host 4 minute video tracks (or hour-long audio tracks) on your profile.


• New Profile Information - In keeping with the revised search engine mentioned above, you can now add information to your profile such as your accompanist fees, the keyboard instruments which you play, your areas of specialisation and much more.

We are glad to be able to bring this revised edition of PianoAccompanists.com to you. We hope you enjoy the new site and find it useful, and we would greatly appreciate your feedback. If you have any ideas or views regarding our new design, please let us know. Feedback helps us plan new features, and lets us know what you, the accompanists, really want. We would like to thank all of our members at PianoAccompanists.com, without whom this site would never be possible. We now have over 1720 members from all over the world, making PianoAccompanists.com a truly international resource.

Technically demanding and at times furiously paced, two newly identified Mozart works unveiled Sunday are helping scholars complete their assessment of the maestro's very early achievements.

The childhood creations — an extensive concerto movement and a fragmentary prelude — provide yet more proof the Salzburg native was a true prodigy. And maybe a bit of a showoff.

"We have here the first orchestral movement by the young Mozart — even though the orchestral parts are missing — and therefore it's an extremely important missing link in our understanding of Mozart's development as a young composer," said Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation after a presentation of the pieces in Mozart's native Salzburg.

Mozart, who was born in 1756, began playing the keyboard at age 3 and composing at 5. By the time he died of rheumatic fever on Dec. 5, 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces.

Leisinger said Mozart likely wrote the two newly attributed pieces when he was 7 or 8 years old, with his father, Leopold, transcribing the notes as his son played them at the keyboard.

A series of analyses confirmed the writing as Leopold's; at the time Mozart was not yet versed in musical notation. But Leopold was ruled out as the composer of the pieces based on stylistic scrutiny, the Mozarteum said in a statement.

PianoAccompanists.com is now a truly international website with support for 32 countries worldwide. Full postcode search is available within each of these countries, making it easy to find an accompanist regardless of which corner of the globe you happen to be in. Here is a full list of the countries we now support:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States.

We hope to add support for even more countries soon!