CHICAGO--Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, there is little point in dwelling on what the American classical music scene has lost. Like the Flying Dutchman’s doomed vessel, that ship has sailed. Yes, the artistic casualties have been … » Read

Even if you can’t see a lot of opera on stage right now, there are still plenty of chances to hear it on record with four intriguing contemporary American works among the best of the recent releases. Missy Mazzoli ’s track record as a … » Read

Julius Eastman died at 49, homeless and destitute, much of his music lost. Many of his compositions that do survive have been painstakingly reconstructed or transcribed from recordings since his death in 1990. Over the past few years … » Read

The Kennedy Center reintroduced live music in grand style on Sept. 26, when Renée Fleming and Vanessa Williams offered an eclectic, hour-long array of songs for a small, very select audience. The locale was the Opera House, dramatically … » Read

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s perennial ATM machine, the Hollywood Bowl, was forced to close its gates to the public this summer, blowing a gaping hole in the Phil’s budget and dealing a devastating hit to … » Read

On Sept. 19 the English National Opera (ENO) presented Europe’s first live, drive-in opera. A parking garage at London’s Alexandra Palace is the venue for an eight-day run of 12 performances of a 90-minute version of Puccini’s … » Read

DALLAS--In a world that might have been, 2000 music lovers would have cheerfully witnessed the opening concert of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s 2020-21 season in Meyerson Symphony Center on September 11. They would have seen Fabio Luisi, … » Read

It’s a rare to encounter all four symphonies of that cranky, visionary American iconoclast Charles Ives live over the span of just a week. That’s what happened six months ago in Walt Disney Concert Hall, in the last purely symphonic … » Read

Amid the current artistic doom and gloom, each of Bang on a Can’s three marathons have stood as beacons of light, while also providing psychological insights into where artists, particularly composers and musicians, find themselves in these … » Read

There’s a telling photo included in the booklet for the world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison . Taken in 1922 at the inaugural International Society for Contemporary Music Festival in Salzburg, there she stands, … » Read