No one has ever become world-famous by playing the oboe. Although the instrument has an integral role in the orchestral ecosystem—every ensemble tunes to its piercing A—the sweet-and-sour tang of its ...

Tim Mohr, the journalist and translator who chronicled the political importance of the 1980s East German punk scene and co-wrote memoirs with Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan and Kiss leader Paul Stanley, ...

We Americans complain of Big Brother’s unblinking eye in the post-Patriot Act, corporate e-mail era — as well we should. But, as The Lives of Others makes plain, things could be worse. Set in East ...