Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, whose music is as rigorous as it is imaginative, died at her home in Paris this morning at the age of 70. She had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021.  Among her milestone works, L’Amour de Loin, … » Read

Giancarlo Guerrero has announced his departure as music director of the Nashville Symphony at the end of his current contract, through 2024-25. He will have been in the job 16 years. It has been, by all signs, a landmark tenure, marked by 11 … » Read

Riley Nicholson will attempt to fill the huge shoes left by Executive Director Ellen Primack when she steps down at the end of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music this summer. Primack, in the job 33 years, announced her intent to exit in … » Read

SHANGHAI--In a sudden but not unexpected move, Long Yu [pictured] has stepped down as music director of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra after being at the helm for two decades. He is retitled Lifetime Music Director Emeritus and remains chair of … » Read

When German conductor Thomas Guggeis made his North American debut last night at the Met leading Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer , he was scarcely five years removed from his role as repetiteur of the Berlin State Opera. It was there … » Read

Jonathan Heyward, who made a smashing debut with the New York Philharmonic just one month ago, is to be the music director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) “summer orchestra,” a moniker not to be confused with the … » Read

Just one week out from the start of the 2023 event, the annual Ojai Music Festival has announced the music director of the 2024 iteration: Mitsuko Uchida, Musical America’s 2022 Artist of the Year. Uchida, pianist, conductor, co-artistic … » Read

In January 2021, Fiona Maddocks, the classical music critic for The Observer , committed to delivering a 90,000-word manuscript on the last 25 years of Sergei Rachmaninov’s life within 15 months. It was the start of the second year of the … » Read

Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music has hired Jonathan Bailey Holland as dean, starting in September and succeeding Toni-Marie Montgomery, who exits at summer’s end after 20 years in the job.   Holland is the current … » Read

In October, Andrés Orozco-Estrada will succeed Ernesto Schiavi as principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, the official ensemble of Italy’s public radio and television company RAI. His contract is for … » Read