In announcing its 151 st season, May 17-25, 2024, the Cincinnati May Festival has also unveiled a new business model, which follows the Ojai Festival’s pattern of bringing in a new programmer—here titled “festival … » Read

On Jan. 4, after a five-month negotiation, the management and musicians of the Oregon Symphony announced the ratification of a three-year collective bargaining agreement. The contract takes immediate effect and runs through the 2025-26 season. … » Read

Citing “still significant financial pressures on the organization,” San Francisco Symphony CEO Matthew Spivey has announced the cancellation of one of two remaining SoundBox programs for the current season as well as the likely … » Read

There are 13 operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan that are still in the canon today. When they were written in the late 19 th century, lax copyright laws led D'Oyly Carte, the company that introduced the works, to keep tight control over the scores … » Read

While the traditional opera canon contains works that often bear little relevance to contemporary issues, a number of the newer ones decidedly do, using either real and/or recent events that are immediately relatable as their bases.   The … » Read

Arts funding is in turmoil in Nashville. Metro Arts, the agency that oversees the city’s cultural grants program, has had four executive directors in two years, one of whom resigned amid allegations of racism and workplace toxicity. In … » Read

On Jan. 4 the choristers of the English National Opera began voting on whether or not to strike or take other labor action in their dispute over pay. “Equity’s members cannot accept the devastating contract cuts which are being … » Read

The recent news that Music & Event Management, Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), is purchasing Coney Island, the city’s 137-year-old amusement park, with an eye toward spending $118 million to … » Read

The recent announcement of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative by Secretary of State Antony Blinken represents a reboot of a decades-old strategy by the U.S. to use music as a means of transcending political and geographical borders. It first … » Read

The pandemic wreaked havoc with audience behavior in the performing arts across the U.S. The forced abandonment of live performances for a year or more, combined with the explosion of streaming services, served to gut post-pandemic subscriptions … » Read