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

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

Canadian pianist Élisabeth Pion was crowned the Gold Laureate of this year’s Honens Competition. The triennial event’s top prize is $100,000 (CAD) plus a three-year artist development program, which Honens values at $500,000 … » Read

The city of San Antonio may just be one of those unfortunate places that cannot support a symphony orchestra. Not for the first time, the San Antonio Philharmonic, est. 2022 from the remnants of the San Antonio Symphony, has postponed upcoming … » Read

While the Big News this week has been the quintennial International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, won by American pianist Eric Lu , there have been other and ample challenging contests over the last two months. They may have a lower profile than … » 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

LONDON—British composer Thomas Adès has built a reputation in recent years as a savvy programmer and an insightful conductor. This October 19 Barbican Centre concert with the London Symphony Orchestra was a chance to hear his … » 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

In an unusual move, the Henry H. Stambaugh Auditorium Association has acquired the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra (YSO). The ensemble gave its first concerts there in 1929, and for the next four decades performed at Stambaugh. Then, from 1969 … » Read