During the Cultural Revolution in China, playing Mozart or Beethoven was considered a crime, and although pianists were not allowed to practice, many continued to do so.

Pianist Dinu Lipatti’s “pinkie” was his longest finger - a very rare phenomenon.

When Chopin was composing his Waltz #3 in F major, his cat walked across the keys of the piano, amusing Chopin so much that he tried for the same sounds in what is called “The Cat’s Waltz.”

Irving Berlin, one of America’s greatest songwriters, could only play the piano in the key of F#. He owned a piano that would transpose his music into other keys for him.

Jazz pianist Marian McPartland didn’t have any piano lessons until she was seventeen.

According to the French newsweekly "Le Point," the timetable for someone wanting a solo concert career must be: the pianist plays his first scales at the age of four, enters a conservatory by twelve, and wins a few international prizes before the age of twenty. If the pianist has released recordings and toured abroad before the age of thirty, the future should be promising.

John Broadwood of England made pianos from 1770 on. He invented the sustain pedal, strengthened the case and strings to increase volume, and added an octave, extending the keyboard to six octaves.

Pianist Andre Watts made his first appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 9. At the age of sixteen, he substituted for an ailing Glenn Gould at a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The next day, newspapers from coast to coast proclaimed Watts as “the great new pianist.”

Charles Darwin saw sex as the source of all music-making, claiming that the songs of human societies grew out of the mating calls of birds and other creatures.

The ancient Romans loved the bagpipes. Emperor Nero is said to have been a bagpipe virtuoso, playing it regularly at public functions. The Romans carried bagpipes all over the world, but most people rejected this musical gift - except the Scottish.

The song “Over the Rainbow” was almost cut out of the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” and Shirley Temple was considered for the part of Dorothy.

Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, wrote “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

About 20,000 people attended Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral.

The 1994 Iowa State Fair built a life-size statue of Garth Brooks out of 250 pounds of butter.

Johnny Mathis is said to have become one of America’s first black millionaires. His "Greatest Hits" album was on the charts for 490 weeks - almost 9 1/2 years!

The first stereo records were made in 1933.

In 1877, Thomas Edison created a device that recorded sound on tin foil-covered cylinders. He called it a phonograph.

The earliest musical instruments were probably the ones found in caves in France by archeologists. They were carved bones that appear to have been wind and percussion instruments, and date back to about 25,000 BC.

On August 29, 1952, John Cage's piece "4'33"" was given its first performance by his friend, David Tudor. It was first performed on the piano, although it was intended for any instrument or group. The performer sits in silence for four minutes and 33 seconds.

Former President Ronald Reagan, did a song-and-dance comedy routine at The Last Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in 1954. It didn't go over very well, and his act only lasted two weeks.

"Nipper" was the name of the dog RCA Victor used in its trademark "His Master's Voice." Nipper lived from 1884-95, and was born in Bristol, England. He first became the symbol of the Gramophone Company, then the Victor Talking Machine Company, and finally RCA Victor in 1929. For 22 years, the city of Baltimore, Maryland had a 15' statue of Nipper, which they sold in 1975 for $1.