Leon Fleisher, whose flourishing career as a pianist was interrupted in the early 1960s by focal dystonia, died yesterday in a hospice in Baltimore. He was 92. His son Julian reported that Fleisher was still teaching conducting masterclasses … » Read

Bang on a Can (BOAC)’s virtuosic offspring, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, have a new member in Canadian cellist Arlen Hlusko; she succeeds Ashley Bathgate who left the group last season after ten years to pursue independent projects. Hlusko … » Read

Pianist Joyce Yang has described her journey through enforced quarantine as passage through the Five Stages of Grief from the Kübler-Ross Model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance: She writes in her blog, "The loss of my … » Read

In what seems a made-for-the-moment development, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, American roots musician Rhiannon Giddens is the new artistic director of Silkroad. Her appointment comes to public light for the first time tomorrow night … » Read

Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center, which oversees the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Alliance Theater and is the nation’s third largest, is in the market for a new CEO. Doug Shipman, in the position for three years … » Read

Emma Kail, former general manager of the Kansas City Symphony, is to be the new executive director of the Grant Teton Music Festival, as of September 1. The Festival, whose live orchestral concerts have been cancelled for the season, was … » Read

If you’ve seen a major new opera in recent years, chances are it will have been conducted by Daniela Candillari. The Slovenian native, now resident in the U.S., is blessed with an ability to pull together disparate elements from the most … » Read

As previously reported , the Salzburg Festival, dramatically revised, will feature only two rather than the customary eight to 10 operas—Mozart’s Così fan Tutte and Strauss’s Elektra . The latter production, set to … » Read

The Caramoor Festival’s July 9 th streamed program Tom-Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro has drawn fresh, long-overdue attention to the African American composer, novelist, and racial equality activist Shirley Graham DuBois. Born in 1896 … » Read

Munich-based critic Markus Thiel looks over the possible candidates to succeed the late Mariss Jansons as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a decision to be made by next fall, he says. First choice is Simon Rattle, whose … » Read