Since we are such a new group with relatively few members I thought we might introduce ourselves here.  What's your connection to classical music?  What role does chess play in your life?  Anything else we should know about you?

Hi, I'm Sam, and I'm a pupil at Chethams School of music. I play the piano to a pretty high level, but probably can't make a career out of it. Chess is just a hobby which I didn't really do much until I found this site!! Thanks for making this group, I had been searching for one, and am glad its now here

Thanks Christophe for creating the group! I'm a staff trainer at an insurance company but I've enjoyed classical music since high school. My only instrument is my voice (some choral and ensemble experience) - I don't know if harmonica counts!!:)) Chess is also a hobby as is my midi composing. My mom and sister are trained classical singers and my son is a trained classical guitarist so it must be in the genes!! Great to meet you all...

Hello to All and indeed thanks for forming this group.  I have always loved classical music, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner.  I play saxophone, celtic harp, bagpipes, and a small amount of pipe organ.  I have sung in choral groups, choir, stage plays as tenor and baritone.  My bass range is OK, but weak.  I love to play chess while listening to classical music.  Last night I was playing to Handel's Messiah.  I usually lose when listening to Wagner.  I'm trying to build up my library of CD's for when I have to go to the old folks home.  I look forward to playing some of you and chatting about music.  J.Charles

Hello everybody,

the idea of connecting the ancient arts of chess and music to form this group, seems a splendid one to me, thanks for creating this group.

I'm playing chess since I was 13, at the same age I started to learn French Horn. While I have remained a fairly average chess player, I have been able to direct some regular energy into music - the only thing which I ever managed to put so much constant effort in. Consequently I have become a professional musician, specializing in period instrument playing :-)

Ususally I do only one thing at a time - listen to music or play chess. However I have found myself wondering about my next online chess move during rehearsals *slaps Torkil*

Happy to meet you all,

Torkil

Well, I am learning the violin, guitar, and piano. I started playing the piano at age 11, butI stopped. ButI started again like 2 years ago. :D The violin I started this year, and the guitar I started like 2 years ago.

Chess, I started in 2007.

I am delighted to meet you all.^_^

Hi, I'm Dimitrije. I started playing the violin in the Music school, then named "Vojislav Vučković", in Niš, Serbia, 1999, when I was six, and I am currently going to the music high school that's a part of that music school (we only have one public music school here in Niš). Although it led to some complications (I started going to a regular elementary school a year after I started going to the music school, and I had to accelerate through the eighth grade of the elementary, and repeat fifth and sixth grade in the music school), I am now attending the second grade of the music high. I am going to be the greatest musician in the world ever! Ironically, I learned to play chess even before I started playing violin, but wasn't too good. But a year ago I discovered this website and took interest in chess again. It's a great game for developing logic. I listen to classical music (well, duh, Bach's my favourite composer), Britpop, alternative rock, rock 'n roll, blues, jazz, funk, acid jazz, gospel etc. I hope we get along nicely.

Hi, it's really nice to see this group in chess.com.

I play the bassoon in my college amateur orchestra. My early favorites were mostly concertos for violin and piano, or piano pieces written by Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, etc.. After joining the orchestra I also began to enjoy symphonies or other various orchestral musics.(The symphonic poem "Les Prelude" by Liszt ROCKS!!) Recently I became a member of a woodwind quintet team, so I could use some helps with introduction to chamber musics from y'all. I'm also a big fan of ALI PROJECT and Sakamoto Maaya.

I don't remember exactly when I first met chess. Probably around 10. Then I fell deep into the game since I got in the college 3 years ago. Like the bassoon, chess is the thing that I just enjoy as an amateur but I'm taking both of them seriously, maybe for the lifetime :)

Hi all,

I am John and as you can see from my picture I play the cornet in the Croydon Symphonic Band of which I am also webmaster, www.csb.org.uk . A Symphonic wind band is the civilian equivalent of a military band. I also play the trumpet and flugel horn. I played in a youth symphony orchestra but more or less stopped when I left school and only took up it up again seriously last year after a break of nearly 30 years! Favourite classical composers include Sibelius, Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams.

Chess wise I run a chess book and equipment business with my wife and travel around the country attending chess congresses.

Hey everyone, my name is Cameron, from the state of Montana, where skies are always blue.

Piano and music are what make up half of my life.

The other half is made up of my basic needs.

I love you because this is such a great group; thank you forever more.

This guy is a friend of mine, starting yesterday, so if any of you harrass him, I will come and stab you in the achilles tendon when you're not looking.

 Is that the Psycho part of PsychoMath?....

Hi, All!

I just joined this group and went through all the introductions above -- lovely! I'm probably the oldest person in this group, so I hope you-all fancy a granny personality.

When I was a teenager, I rebelled in every way except one: I never turned my back to classical music simply because my parents liked it. I grew up with classical music and loved it right from the start. I started playing the piano at around six or seven and continued through my entire life, up until about three years ago. I became our church's pianist/organist and continued long after I rejected the religion. Sacred music is among my favorite to this day, though I discard the text. The beautiful requiems of Faure, Mozart, Brahms, Berlioz, Britten..... the great Masses of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn...... the terrific Oratorios of Bach, Handel..... oh, I know I've missed a great many, but these come quickly to mind -- how I love them!!

And then the wonderful symphonies by the Masters, the concerti, the chamber music.....

Through music, I have many times been transported to some otherworldly place that I cannot begin to try to describe.

It saddens me that (here in America, at least) many (most?) young people are growing up without being exposed to classical music.

As for chess -- ah, that is an addiction with me. I've been playing for a great many years, with a hiatus now and then due to a variety of circumstances.

Music, chess, books, cats...... life is good.