La Scala closed its doors in February , as the coronavirus ripped through Lombardy—Italy's worst hit region, with over 13,000 of the nearly 28,000 national deaths recorded to date. Grim economic forecasts soon came out of La Scala, with … » Read

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is pressing ahead with plans for 2020-21, even amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. The season is scheduled to open on Sept. 16 with Music Director Andris Nelsons leading an all-Beethoven program … » Read

The Salzburg Festival has said it will announce its contingency plans, if any, for Summer 2020 on May 30. In a recent interview with Der Standar d, Artistic Director Markus Hinterhäuser, noting that the July 18-August 30 season was announced … » Read

The Berlin Philharmonic will perform to an empty Philharmonie on May 1, with Music Director Kiril Petrenko conducting a chamber-sized ensemble—safely distanced from of each other—in Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, music by Ligeti, … » Read

We will be updating this on Wednesdays. Please note that British Summer Time (BST) is currently five hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time (ET) and Central European Time (CET) is currently six hours ahead. Central Daylight Time (CDT) is currently one … » Read

The sudden world-wide onset of COVID-19 brought the performing arts to a screeching halt. An article in Vanity Fair  likens the pandemic’s impact to “a giant hook in a nightmare vaudeville performance, yanking artists offstage … » Read

One by one, summer festivals that were hoping to keep to their original time frames are letting go. Today, the Lucerne Festival, not scheduled to start until August 14 (and run through September 13), cancelled. This marks only the second … » Read

As predicted, the San Francisco Symphony has cancelled not only all remaining concerts in the 2019-20 season, but those in the summer season, through August 31, as well. Lost in the bargain, apart from 64 performances, a three-week tour of … » Read

For his first season at the artistic and executive helm of UC Berkeley’s Cal Performances, Jeremy Geffen, appointed by the multi-genre presenter last year , appears to be pulling out all the stops. Nothing like the support of a major … » Read

The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on American artists is becoming much clearer as time passes. Artists Relief , a new national coalition of arts organizations, has received almost 55,000 applications for its first round of 200 … » Read