A new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, always big news, is even more noteworthy as the classical music world slowly emerges from the pandemic. On Nov. 19 the English National Opera (ENO) introduces director Richard Jones’s staging … » Read

The Spoleto Festival, never one to shy away from the new and unusual in its opera programming, has announced the three that will highlight its upcoming season, May 27-June, the first under new General Director Mena Mark Hanna . He succeeded Nigel … » Read

The city of San Francisco is providing an acid test for the willingness of audiences to return to post-pandemic live performances. Tech companies, which now account for 19 percent of the city’s private work force, led the way in instituting … » Read

On Nov. 16 two 13-year-old girls—Zohra and Farida, a trumpet player and a violinist—arrived in Qatar’s capital city of Doha, where they were met by Ahmad Naser Sarmast, the founder and head of the Afghanistan National Institute … » Read

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, an alumna of her country’s El Sistema, has challenged last weekend’s  widely reported gathering of 8,100 young musicians to set a Guinness world record. The government, she posits, ordered … » Read

Song recitals are traditionally rather staid affairs, with stiffly attired singers tucked into the curved embrace of a concert grand piano performing music that only connoisseurs can enjoy. But this need not be the case, suggests Thomas Guthrie, … » Read

Alistair Spalding, artistic director of Sadler’s Wells, one of the first U.K. arts organizations to tour internationally post-Brexit, describes the experience as a “nightmare…. For most of the pandemic we couldn’t tour … » Read

The Cleveland Orchestra, which returned to live performances for the first time since March 2020 on October 14, had to cancel all but one of its concerts this past weekend when one of its musicians tested positive for COVID-19. Orchestra members … » Read

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Hundreds of violins, violas and double basses sounded at Venezuela’s military academy Saturday, then woodwinds, brass and percussion gradually joined in — and thousands of musicians, mostly children and … » Read

When Robert Spano departs the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) at the end of the season and heads to Fort Worth, he will leave an enviable record as one of the country’s leading proponents of new music. “Under Robert Spano,” … » Read