Nigel Kennedy has walked away from a concert at Royal Albert Hall, citing Classical FM’s decision to prevent him from performing a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. “This is musical segregation,” the 64-year-old violinist told The … » Read

Robert Schumann’s death in a German asylum in 1856 was neither the first nor last incidence of psychiatric illness in his family. His father likely had a nervous breakdown, his mother suffered from depression, and his sister Emilie … » Read

Toledo Opera has named not one but two artistic directors to succeed James Meena, who left as general director and principal conductor last year to take the same post with Opera Carolina, in Charlotte, NC. Toledo’s James Norman, employed by … » Read

Jaap van Zweden isn’t the only music director for whom the pandemic has caused a change in priorities and lifestyle preferences. As Van Zweden exits the New York Philharmonic at the close of 2023 and the Hong Kong Phil one year later, … » Read

For more than four decades, most music in Iran has been banned because, according to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, it caused people to be “inactive and frivolous.” Based on interpretations of religious texts by the Ministry of Islamic … » Read

Debra Lew Harder, a classical music host and producer for Temple University’s WRTI-FM in Philadelphia, as well as a concert pianist and a medical doctor, is to be the new host of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts, starting when the … » Read

The San Francisco Symphony (SFS) has added three men and a woman to its conducting staff in advance of the 2021–22 season. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser joins as the resident conductor of engagement and education, while Kyle Dickson, Molly … » Read

Sean Michael Gross is to be the new director of Warner Classics U.K., reporting to Alain Landeron, president of Warner Classics and Erato, based in Paris. Gross succeeds Patrick Lemanski, who left last year and is now consulting for Naïve … » Read

Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada is to succeed Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla as chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) as of April 2023; he moves up from the post of principal guest conductor of the orchestra, which he has … » Read

Polish soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara died on Aug. 28 in Lodz, Poland at age 91. At the height of her career in the late 1960s, the 1970s, and the early 1980s, she appeared regularly at the world’s major opera houses, including 232 performances … » Read