Connecticut-based composer Kyle Rivera will be the fifth recipient of the Emerging Black Composers Prize (EBCP), renamed the Michael Morgan Prize in 2023 in honor of the late Oakland Symphony music director. The prize includes a $15,000 … » Read

Katie Mitchell, the director whose feminist stagings during the past three decades have won praise and caused controversy, is retiring from opera. “I’m definitely bringing my work in opera to a close because of the misogyny,” … » Read

The U.K.’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO) has appointed Lucy Bayliss as director of engagement & partnerships, a newly created position, effective in mid-November. Her remit, according to the announcement is “to open up orchestral … » Read

Benita Valente, a lyric soprano whose four-decade career established her as one of America’s greatest recitalists as well as a much- admired performer in opera, chamber music, and with orchestras, died in Philadelphia on Oct. 24. She was … » Read

Just on the heels of receiving the 2025 Birgit Nilsson Prize , the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence has announced its General Director as noted opera director Ted Huffman. His five-year contract is effective as of January 1, 2026.  Huffman, … » Read

Polly Kahn, a leading voice in the orchestral field, died on Oct. 14 after a brief illness. She was 77. As vice president for learning and leadership development at the League of American Orchestras between 2000 and 2014, she had a daunting … » Read

The Portland (ME) Symphony Orchestra has a new, full-time executive director in Derek Beckvold. He was previously splitting his time between the Boston Philharmonic, where his most recent job was managing director, and Portland, where he succeeds … » Read

The Mozarteum University Salzburg has added three high-profile artists—conductor Christian Thielemann, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, and pianist Claudio Martínez Mehner—to its teaching faculty as of the beginning of the 2026 … » Read

German conductor Aurel Dawidiuk , 24, is to be the next general music director of the Bochumer Symphoniker in North Rhine-Westphalia. He starts his new job on August 1, 2026, when the current artistic chief, Tung-Chieh Chuang, exits. Dawidiuk is … » Read

Alan Fletcher, longtime CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School, will exit his position to become president emeritus as of January 1, 2027.  Robert Spano, whom Fletcher takes credit for hiring as music director in 2011 (after David Zinman … » Read