George Lewis is a man with a mission, opening the concert-music field to composers previously marginalized or overlooked, and International Contemporary Ensemble audiences are reaping the benefits of his zeal. Since he became artistic director in … » Read

CARDIFF–Welsh National Opera is currently on a hunt for a new general director, Aidan Lang having thrown in the towel after just four years in the job amid drastic cuts to the company’s touring program by Arts Council England. Holding … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—Hours after the stunning news broke that Esa-Pekka Salonen would be stepping down as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, effective at the end of his five-year contract in June of 2025, he took the podium at Davies … » Read

A Bruckner symphony in a standard orchestral concert will almost always serve as the closer—the major work after the intermission—or, in the case of the sprawling Eighth, fill the entire program. But Symphony No. 9 is a special case … » Read

CHICAGO—At any experimental music function, taking the good with the not-so-good is a given. Experiments, by definition, sometimes fail. That made the end-to-end dazzle of this year’s Frequency Festival (Feb. 20 to 25), anchored at … » Read

LONDON—When Simon Rattle recorded The Jazz Album back in 1987 it became clear that here was a British conductor with an affinity for American music and an instinct for Gershwin. Likewise, his lasting friendship with John Adams can be dated … » Read

SAN FRANCISCO—Alexander Scriabin, to put it mildly, had a multi-track mind. His never-realized dreams for Mysterium called for a seven-day, appeal-to-all-senses piece to be staged in a cathedral built for the occasion in the Himalayan … » Read

Even though Émigré is billed as “an oratorio,” it bears quite a few of the earmarks of opera. It names its characters, specifies the settings of their scenes, and derives much of its impetus from the conflicts among … » Read

Taking to a topless Bösendorfer grand piano situated smack-dab in the middle of Zankel Hall on a recent Friday night, Timo Andres got busy immediately with the world premiere of Fiddlehead, a new piece he’d written for the occasion. … » Read

Since arriving at the Los Angeles Opera as music director in 2006, James Conlon has reveled in presenting works by composers silenced by the Nazis during World War II and since forgotten. His “Recovered Voices” project has brought … » Read