Hong Kong Sinfonietta has named German conductor Christoph Poppen as its next music director, a notch or two up from principal guest, a post he’s held since 2015. He takes on the new role as of 2023-24, succeeding the Yip Wing-sie, who … » Read

Olivier Py is to be the new artistic director of Paris’s famed Théâtre du Châtelet. Py, former director of the Avignon Festival, is something of a cultural hero, and news of his appointment had been deemed "a sure promise … » Read

Founded in Vienna in 2006, the Exilarte Center for Banned Music locates, preserves, and presents music lost during the Holocaust. The forensic musicologists who work there function as the "monuments men" of Nazi-era composers and manuscripts, and … » Read

Ashley Magnus will step down as general director of the Chicago Opera Theater as of March 3, with the intent of joining her family in a new business venture elsewhere. With an MBA from the University of Utah, Magnus and her spouse have … » Read

Berlin Philharmonic Principal Conductor Kirill Petrenko has been forced to cancel all of his February concerts, due to follow-up surgery on a previous foot injury. The first surgery was last August, This applies to both the subscription concerts, … » Read

Last weekend marked the first major West Coast appearance by soprano Julia Bullock in three years, when she sang the role of Dame Shirley in Girls of the Golden West by John Adams [ see today’s review ]. First Covid, and then the birth of … » Read

The Munich Philharmonic has announced 34-year-old Israeli conductor Lahav Shani as it next music director. Shani will succeed Valery Gergiev,  fired for his support of Vladimir Putin, and in the process assume a position previously held by … » Read

Older man. Younger man. A dimly lit hotel room. Cheap beer. A financial transaction. Such was the visual image that Irish composer Emma O’Halloran built to frame the soundworld of her breakthrough opera,  Trade , right down to the buzz … » Read

Lee Elman, who cofounded the Aston Magna Foundation and Festival 50 years ago with the late harpsichordist Albert Fuller, died on November 27, 2022, at Mount Sinai Hospital, of complications from heart surgery. He was 86. Aston Magna, the … » Read

On the heels of Steven Sloane's brief tenu re, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra has announced violinist and conductor Julian Rachlin as its next music director, effective in October 2023, at the launch of its 85th-anniversary season. Dubbed … » Read