On January 15 Ruth Slenczynska turned 100 after having played the piano for over nine decades. The daughter of Polish immigrants to California, she made her public debut at age four, and a year later played a Beethoven minuet on television. Her … » Read

Laura Kuhn will retire as executive director of the John Cage Trust in March, having founded the organization at his death in 1992 with the late composer’s longtime life partner, choreographer Merce Cunningham. Kuhn worked with Cage from … » Read

Not for the first time, Amanda Smith has been named President & CEO of Honens, only this time it’s permanent. The organization’s director of marketing and communications for the last seven years, Smith last held the CEO post on an … » Read

Sir George Benjamin will succeed Tania León in September 2025 as composer-in-residence for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The 64-year-old London native, Musical America’s 2014 Composer of the Year , is a student of Olivier … » Read

Martin Rajna, principal conductor of the Hungarian State Opera, is the new chief conductor of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra as of 2026. The Hungarian maestro, 29, succeeds Gustavo Gimeno, in the job for ten years. Gimeno is the current … » Read

Jonathon Heyward, music director of the Baltimore Symphony, will continue his summer job at the helm of Lincoln Center’s Festival Orchestra, the reincarnation of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which played its final concerts in the … » Read

Gary Ginstling was hired Friday as CEO of the Houston Symphony, six months following his  surprise departure from the New York Philharmonic after just one year in charge. Ginstling will start Feb. 3 and replace John Mangum, who had been … » Read

The centenary of Pierre Boulez’s birth this year will be the occasion for several celebrations of his work as a composer, conductor, and musical polemicist. In anticipation of upcoming festivals by the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC … » Read

Otto Schenk, whose opulent productions of Wagner held sway at the Metropolitan Opera from the late 1970s to the early ’90s, died at his home in Austria on Jan. 9. He was 94. Known in Austria for his talents as an actor, particularly in … » Read

Tonight, Bryn Terfel will take to the Metropolitan Opera stage as Baron Scarpia, opposite soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in Tosca . Long a Met favorite, the Welsh bass-baritone has been absent from the company for 13 years due to injury and a … » Read