"At the Heart of Chamber Music" features the prize-winning Jupiter Quartet and Paul Katz, founding cellist of the Cleveland String Quartet. It was created by Gillian Rogell, director of the Heart of Chamber Music Institute, who narrates the film and offers a practical yet philosophical approach to chamber music. The film opens with Brahms' G Major Sextet performed by the Jupiter Quartet with Paul Katz and Barry Shiffman. Several groups - a piano trio and two string quartets - are coached by Rogell and the Jupiters, while Paul Katz contributes fascinating commentary throughout the film. Over the years the author has developed many coaching techniques, and through the process of making this video, has found that they fall into four major categories: creating a group sound; learning to see in order to hear; characterizing the music; and being the music. When there are many problems of ensemble, bowing, dynamics, and intonation, a coach is apt to become very busy getting all the details exactly together - and of course, that is step one; but if at the same time the players are encouraged to hear each other, to breathe and move together, even an elementary group will reach the desired end more quickly.

"Barrage" has made thousands of fans as they tour the world playing exciting fiddle music from different cultures. Now, their music has been notated into fiddle books with a special CD. This enhanced CD acts as a play along in any stereo, or can be put into a computer for easy printing of the piano and guitar accompaniments!

A seven-year-old boy listens to his first concert at Milan's La Scala Theater and is enchanted by the magical sounds of the music. "Someday," he confides to his diary, "I hope to conduct this music." Claudio Abbado was Musical Director of the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic from 1989 to 2002. In The House of Magical Sounds, he takes us back to his childhood home, a house resounding with music, and recounts the journey that led him to study music and realize his dream to be a musician. Then we see how he works with the orchestra to bring a musical score to life. With animation and excerpts from live rehearsals and concerts, this is a film that both children and adults will appreciate. As we learn how music speaks to Claudio Abbado, we begin to hear it in a new way ourselves. Included is music by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Mozart, Schubert and more.

In this eye-opening DVD watch the rehearsals and long hours of preparation for Verdi's famous opera come together. It's a "behind-the-scenes" look at what it takes from start to finish. Combining rehearsal footage with flash-forwards to the final performance, you see first hand the complex world of staged opera.

Leroy Anderson's works have been played in symphony halls and band shells around the world for more than 50 years. His pieces such as Sleigh Ride; The Syncopated Clock; Blue Tango and The Typewriter are at once accessible to general audiences and appreciated by artists for their musicality. "Once Upon a Sleigh Ride" chronicles the life and work of composer Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) through interviews with colleagues, family members and others who worked with him, as well as archival and contemporary performances of his work. Narrated by Dick Cavett. Singing the praises of the composer are conductors Keith Lockhart, Frederick Fennell and Seiji Ozawa; and choreographer Mark Morris, who created "Sandpaper Ballet" (1999), featuring tunes by Anderson, for the San Francisco Ballet. At the heart of the program is Anderson's infectious music, heard in long excerpts by various incarnations of the Boston Pops (conducted by Fiedler, Williams and Lockhart) and other orchestras, and in delightful television clips with Steve Allen, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli and Jack Jones.

This stunning visualization accompanies a highly acclaimed performance of Gustav Holst's suite by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis. In this powerful statement of Holst's vision, three elements are combined: Holst's music; stunning photography of the planets; and eloquent visual images of Holst's own interpretation of the astrological significance of each planet, as revealed in his subtitles: Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus, the Bringer of Peace; Mercury, the Winged Messenger; Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus, the Magician; Neptune, the Mystic

Would you like advice from two of the top string educators around? Would you like their years of experience in recruiting and training young string players? Well, here it is! This DVD contains two hours of valuable information on topics such as: Getting Children Excited About Playing Strings; Advocacy in the Community, School Administrators, and Colleagues; Designing Your Own Successful Recruiting Demonstration and more. It also includes live demonstrations of 10 different sample recruiting performances with students, and written resources such as sample letters, scripts, and more. You love music, you know how to teach it, and this is a step-by-step way to recruit even more players! Bob Phillips is a well-known clinician, conductor, and author of "Fiddlers Philharmonic," "String Explorer" and more. Bob Gillespie is Professor of Music at Ohio State University, conductor and author of many works including "Essential Elements for Strings."