CHICAGO—In the summer of 2005, four young percussionists gave their first performance as a standalone quartet at Northwestern University, where they’d all studied.  Twenty years, a Grammy, and a couple lineup changes later, that … » Read

LONDON—With his eclectic taste, imaginative aural palette, and a talent for quirky, occasionally barmy music-making, 35-year-old Alex Paxton is one of the U.K.’s most original voices. As such, he was the perfect provocateur to curate … » Read

CHICAGO—In a charmed scheduling alignment, the Ravinia Festival recently hosted two strongly linked string quartets within a few days of each another: The Isidore String Quartet, on June 22, and the Juilliard String Quartet, on June 25. The … » Read

LONDON— Le nozze di Figaro was the beginning of it all for Glyndebourne, opening the very first season on May 28, 1934, in a theater holding 300. On the same date 60 years later, the work was chosen to launch the new opera house. There have … » Read

CHICAGO—The annual Grant Park Music Festival, 10 weeks of free symphony concerts outdoors in downtown Chicago, has been one of the city’s most popular music offerings since the mid-1930s. There’s no counting how many adult music … » Read

LONDON—Nestled among the Chiltern Hills, Garsington is one of the most picturesque venues on the English country-house-opera circuit. Founded in 1989, the company relocated in 2011 to Wormsley Park at the invite of Mark Getty, younger son … » Read

In Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Ariadne auf Naxos , an opera seria ensemble and a commedia dell’arte troupe are ordered to perform “gleichzeitig”—simultaneously. In fact, Ariadne ’s opera-within-an-opera achieves … » Read

LOS ANGELES—Arriving for the third performance of LA Opera’s current run of Verdi’s Rigoletto on June 12 felt like entering an updated authoritarian Mantua in the twilight zone. The streets were almost deserted, as an 8 p.m. … » Read

Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella is known to many a young voice student for a single song, “Pietà, Signore,” included in a classic G. Schirmer anthology 24 Italian Songs and Arias . Some musicians may recognize him … » Read

Claire Chase’s Density 2036 selections, [ covered in Part I ], were tied into the sprawling overall themes of Ojai Festival 2025: music in everyday places; the intermingling of music and environment; the processes of ritual over vast … » Read