An article by Chicago Symphony Orchestra bassist and players committee chair Steve Lester outlines the basic issues the led to the musicians' strike and the tactics used to achieve their goals. The end result was a 13.25 percent wage increase … » Read

In 1807 a slave ship transported Omar Ibn Said, an enslaved African from Senegal, to Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston. He will return, figuratively, during the 2020 Spoleto season as the protagonist in a new, as yet untitled opera by … » Read

In May it appeared that financial distress would force The Song Company, a widely praised Australian vocal ensemble, to  cease performing . Thanks to a significant individual gift as well as ongoing generous support from both Create NSW and … » Read

The widespread disdain for Robert LePage’s 2012 treatment of the Ring cycle at the Met, recently revived,  has largely overshadowed his earlier, more successful staging of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust . The French … » Read

“When I am laid in earth,” Dido sings just before she dies at the end of Purcell’s famous opera. Rarely has the aria been heard in a more fittingly sepulchral setting than when the hour-long opera, composed in the 1680s, is … » Read

On Wednesday,the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would be reviewing the two key music licensing agencies, ASCAP and BMI, to determine if their consent decrees, granted 75 years ago, were still relevant to the way the music industry … » Read

For the first time in a decade, the State of Illinois’s capital budget is proposing major expenditures in the arts. More than $60m out of a total of $45b has been identified for arts-related projects. The capital funds for the arts are … » Read

Too busy to commit to a multi-concert subscription, or too financially strapped to spring for more than a concert at a time? The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has a solution for you. Music lovers unable to take advantage of the discounts … » Read

If you find the prospect of sitting through Wagner’s entire Ring cycle daunting, then you will at all costs want to avoid the Licht cycle of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Written over a 25-year-period beginning in 1978,  it includes an opera … » Read

Democratic lawmakers in Maryland are urging Republican Governor Larry Hogan [pictured] to release $1.6 million in funding set aside for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Eighteen senators and 54 delegates have signed a letter indicating that, … » Read