The $200 million deal the Met Opera made with Saudi Arabia last fall, for a three-week residency at the new Royal Diriyah Opera House, is apparently looking a little shaky. As a result, the Met has announced significant cuts, including laying off … » Read

Touring the U.S. has never been easy or inexpensive for artists from abroad. The time and expense of obtaining a visa have been daunting for decades, and with the Trump administration’s recent introduction of restrictive travel bans, the … » Read

“Does good art need to be popular art to be worthwhile art?” asks Michael Andor Brodeur, the Washington Post’s classical music critic in a recent column. It’s a fair question, particularly in light of the current … » Read

Precisely one week after publicly disclosing its exit from the Kennedy Center , the Washington National Opera has announced its plans for the coming months, along with a flood of donations from over 500 individuals, prompted by its decision to … » Read

A bipartisan spending bill released on Jan. 18 allocates $643 million for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), Voice of America’s (VOA) parent agency, and $10 million for capital improvements. The figure is 26 percent less than the … » Read

Rhoda Levine died on Jan. 6 at 93. A native New Yorker, she was the rare female opera director in the 1970s who worked regularly and was known for her intent, in her own words, to “provide an audience with a very human experience that … » Read

Bandcamp, the 18-year-old American online music distribution platform that enables independent artists to sell directly to fans, is banning any music or audio "wholly or in substantial part" made by generative artificial intelligence (aka … » Read

“Let Freedom Ring,” an annual concert that has celebrated the life of Martin Luther King Jr. for more than 20 years at The Kennedy Center, is relocating to the Howard Theater. Georgetown University, which produces the event, cited the … » Read

The Martha Graham Dance Company will skip the Kennedy Center on its centennial tour of the U.S. The company was booked for four performances in the Eisenhower Theater, April 2-4. “The Martha Graham Dance Company regrets that we are unable … » Read

Good news in the universe of American arts and culture has been in short supply during the current administration, but Jan. 8 brought some when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in support of several funding measures. The National … » Read