Between its designate and emeritus-for-life music directors, the Chicago Symphony has carved out a mostly want-to-be-there 2026-27 season. The former, Klaus Mäkelä, spends five subscription weeks on the podium plus an eight-city … » Read

Thor Steingraber, executive and artistic director of Los Angeles’ Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, is to succeed 15-year veteran Gary Dunning as president and CEO of Vivo Performing Arts (formerly Celebrity Series … » Read

Bernard Rands, the British-born composer of nearly 100 works, died in Chicago on March 4, 2026, at the age of 92. A native of Sheffield in northern England, he studied composition first in Wales before moving to Italy. There he became a student … » Read

On March 4 the Sphinx Organization announced the recipients of the 2026 Sphinx Medals of Excellence: violinist Nathan Amaral, percussionist Josh Jones, and conductor Na'Zir McFadden. The organization’s highest honor recognizes early-career … » Read

Domingo Hindoyan will oversee his inaugural, 2026-27 season as music director of the LA Opera, conducting two of the five mainstage offerings at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (Each mainstage opera has a six-performance run.) The schedule also … » Read

LONDON—With the exception of his Cantus Arcticus , the music of Einojuhani Rautavaara has been unfairly neglected outside of his native Finland in the ten years since his death in 2016. It was rewarding, then, to hear the first of his three … » Read

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Opera was among the first opera companies in North America to present all three of Philip Glass’s “portrait operas,”  Einstein on the Beach (2013), Akhnaten (2016), and Satyagraha … » Read

There is an trend among symphony orchestras toward presenting semi-staged or concert operas. Certainly they cost less than in the opera house, which require the full complement of sets, costumes, lighting, and other stage business. There can also … » Read

The 2026-27 season for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO), the seventh for Fabio Luisi as music director, features one-night appearances by Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, organist Anna Lapwood, and Broadway star Idina Menzel; a first-time ever performance … » Read

The new symphony by Philip Glass, originally scheduled to have its first hearing with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in June, will instead premiere with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on July 5 as part of a four-day … » Read