The Ojai Music Festival will mark its 80 th edition, June 11 to 14, 2026, with composer/conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director. The announcement comes several months before the 2025 event, June 5 to 8, in which Claire Chase serves as music … » Read

Paul Plishka, a powerful bass with a ready smile and hearty laugh who sang 1,672 performances at the Metropolitan Opera over 51 years, has died. He was 83. Plishka died Monday at a hospice in Wilmington, North Carolina, his wife, Sharon Thomas, … » Read

Natalie Johnsonius Neubert, recent executive director of the Berkshire Music School, is to be president and CEO of the Berkshire Opera Festival, coming up on its tenth anniversary season next summer. She succeeds Abigail Rollins, who served as … » Read

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) has extended Music Director Kazuki Yamada’s contract for two years, through the end of the 2028-29 season. He assumed the post in April of 2023, after having served as guest conductor since … » Read

The story of Edmond Dédé [pictured] was a dismayingly common one in 19 th -century America. Born a free person of color in New Orleans in 1827, his considerable skills as a musician and composer were unable to overcome racial … » Read

The turmoil in the executive suite at Opera Australia (OA) continues, as Fiona Allan, CEO for less than three years, announces her departure. She is leaving barely six months after Jo Davies, the company’s first female artistic director, … » Read

Chilean-Italian conductor Paolo Bortolameolli is quickly becoming a major force in Chile’s classical music world. The current music director of the country’s National Youth Symphony Orchestra, he is to take the same title with Opera … » Read

Kari Watson claims to be tired, but you wouldn’t guess it, apart from the sheepish acknowledgment and an occasional yawn. In a conversation at a café on Chicago’s West Side, Watson confessed to being up late copying scores for … » Read

In the fall of 2025, Huang Ruo will begin a three-year tenure as composer in residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO). Music Director Jaime Martín welcomed him as “a singular artist…[who] creates compelling … » Read

Simon Halsey, a three-time Grammy winner with the Berlin Radio Choir (2008, 2009, 2011), has been named choral director and artistic advisor to the Oslo Philharmonic for the next five years, with immediate effect. There he will join Klaus … » Read