China's 'Saxophone Capital,' Plus the World's First T-Rex Violist

While we're all hunkered down in the cold, how about a few fun stories from the classical music world to help pass the time?

1. I am an enormous fan of public pianos. I love the one inside Quincy Market and I have even been known to indulge in a little ivory-tinkling once or twice, despite never having actually learned to play piano. The folks at the BBC are people after my own heart, it seems: they camped out by the piano in St. Pancras Station for a day and filmed all the music-makers who passed through.
   
   
    
2. The New Yorker's inestimable Alex Ross takes a dive into the musical motifs in Star Wars.
    
3. Ok, so, you're stuck inside during this week's #BombCyclone, and you're going a little stir-crazy. What do you do to pass the time? For this violist, the answer is simple: play viola... in a T-Rex suit.
   
   
    
4. A new play recently opened on Broadway, telling the story of how 18th-centuryopera starFarinelli's voice helped heal the King of Spain.
    
5. And finally: visit Sidangkou, also known as the "Saxophone Capital of China," in a fascinating portrait by New York Times writer Javier C. Hernández. 

Thanks for checking out this week's link roundup! If you're in the storm zone, stay warm and be safe. See you next week!