C minor (abbreviated c or Cm) is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, and B♭. The harmonic minor raises the B♭ to B♮. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.

Its key signature consists of three flats (see below: Scales and keys). Its relative major is E-flat major, and its parallel major is C major.

In the Baroque period, music in C minor was usually written with a two-flat key signature, and some modern editions of that repertoire retain that convention.

Of the two piano concertos that Mozart wrote in a minor key, one of them is in C minor, No. 24, K. 491.

C minor has been associated with heroic struggle since Beethoven's time.^{[citation needed]} Beethoven wrote some of his most characteristic works in the key of C minor, including the Symphony No. 5 and no fewer than three piano sonatas. (See Beethoven and C minor.)

Brahms's first symphony and first string quartet were composed in C minor; these were both genres with which Beethoven was closely associated during Brahms's lifetime.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC (born 20 April 1943, Fontmell Magna, Dorset, England) is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir (1964), the English Baroque Soloists (1975) and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (1989). Gardiner has recorded over 250 albums with these and other musical ensembles, most of which have been published by Deutsche Grammophon and Philips Classics. Gardiner is most famous for his interpretations of Baroque music on period instruments with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, but his repertoire and discography are not limited to early music. With the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique Gardiner has performed a wide range of Classical and Romantic music, including many works of Hector Berlioz and all of Beethoven's symphonies. A recording of the third symphony of the latter was used in a dramatisation by the BBC of Beethoven's writing of that symphony. Gardiner has served as chief conductor of the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as guest conductor with such major orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.

Valentina Igoshina (b. November 4, 1978 Bryansk, Bryansk Oblast, Russia) is a Russian classical pianist.

Valentina Igoshina began studying piano with her mother, and first took lessons at home at the age of four. At the age of twelve she began attending the Moscow Central School of Music and became a student of Sergei Dorensky and Larissa Dedova at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

Igoshina has also served as a teacher of piano at the Peter Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Between recitals and concerts, she currently divides her time between Moscow and Paris.

In 1993, at age 14, she won first prize at the Artur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz, Poland. In 1997, at age 18, she won first prize and a special award at the famed Rachmaninov International Piano Competition in Moscow.

Igoshina has also competed in four other worldwide piano competitions:

Igoshina appears on the list of great women pianists as compiled at forte-piano-pianissimo.com. (see external link below)

Henri Casadesus (September 30, 1879 in Paris – May 31, 1947 in Paris) was a violist and music publisher. He was the brother of Marius Casadesus, uncle of the famous pianist Robert Casadesus, and granduncle of Jean Casadesus.

Casadesus received his early musical instruction with Albert Lavignac and studied viola with Théophile Laforge at the Conservatoire de Paris, taking first prize in 1899. From 1910 to 1917, he was the violist of the Capet Quartet.

Along with Camille Saint-Saëns, Casadesus founded the Society of Ancient Instruments in 1901. The society, which operated between 1901 and 1939, was a quintet of performers who used obsolete instruments such as the viola da gamba, or Casadesus's own instrument, the viola d'amore.

The quintet was also notable in its day for premiering rediscovered works by long-dead composers. It was later discovered that Casadesus and his brothers, notably Marius Casadesus, wrote these works. The Adélaïde Concerto, allegedly by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Henri but is actually by Marius.

The Ying Quartet is an American string quartet. The Ying siblings from Winnetka, Illinois, formed the quartet in 1988 while studying at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The quartet began performing in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa, as the first artists involved in the National Endowment for the Arts Chamber Music Rural Residencies Program. The original members of the quartet were Timothy and Janet Ying (violins), Phillip Ying (viola), and David Ying (cello). In April 2009, Timothy Ying announced his departure from the ensemble. In 2009, Frank Huang became the first violinist of the Ying Quartet. When Huang left the quartet in 2010 to assume the position of concertmaster of the Houston Symphony, Ayano Ninomiya was appointed first violinist of the Ying Quartet.

While the Ying Quartet was in Jesup, it won the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In the years since, the Yings have performed in many major American cities; at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen and San Miguel; and in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. The Yings have played in diverse settings including Carnegie Hall, the White House, hospitals and juvenile prisons. The EMI Classics recording of works by Osvaldo Golijov on which the Ying Quartet appeared with the St. Lawrence Quartet was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award. The Quartet was nominated once again for a Grammy in 2007 in the "Best Chamber Music Performance" category for a recording of the three Tchaikovsky Quartets and the Sextet on Telarc. The Quartet won a 2005 Grammy for its collaborative recording with the Turtle Island String Quartet, entitled 4+Four, and has recorded for the Telarc, Quartz, Elektra and Albany record labels.