The Portland (OR) Opera has announced the exit of its longtime Music Director, George Manahan. The move appears to be immediate; he is not scheduled to conduct any of its three productions next season. Manahan, 69, also just left his post at the … » Read

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- At a free open-air concert in Budapest last week Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) Chief Conductor Iván Fischer removed his jacket to reveal a white dress shirt with a hole cut out of the sleeve. As he kept his … » Read

Li Xincao, chief conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO) since 2018 and its vice president since 2019, has been named the orchestra’s president by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism. He fills a post vacated by Zhang Yi … » Read

The Curtis Institute of Music has accepted Gary Graffman's resignation. After discussions with school administrators, the 92-year-old pianist and former director and president is no longer on the faculty of the storied institution. Graffman lives … » Read

Life for Mannes School of Music master’s student Martín García García took a dramatic turn last month, and the road ahead is looking even curvier.  With his August win at the 2021 Cleveland International Piano … » Read

Singapore-born conductor Kahchun Wong is to be the new principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic as of next month, succeeding the ailing Neeme Järvi. Wong's debut with Japan Phil came last March when he stepped in for Pietari … » Read

Plans were announced yesterday for a statue of Marian Anderson to be erected on the front steps of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the famed contralto’s hometown. The house she grew up in in South Philadelphia was placed in 2011 on … » Read

Canadian composer and writer R. Murray Schafer, whose work lent the concept of the “soundscape” wide public currency, died on Aug. 14 at his Ontario home. He was 88. Born in 1933 in the Lake Huron city of Sarnia, Ontario, Schafer … » Read

After a near half-century at the top of its game, the Emerson String Quartet is announcing today its plan to retire at the end of summer 2023. Formed at Juilliard in 1976, the group has gone on to become one of the top string quartets in the … » Read

Joshua Kosman, longtime music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle , has written a moving remembrance of the late Michael Morgan . Understandably, they came to know each other well over the years, not just as colleagues in a business, but as … » Read