NEW YORK (AP) — When Vilma Jää enrolled at the Sibelius Academy to study folk music she never expected to end up playing a major role in one of the 21st century’s most acclaimed operas. Kaija Saariaho, Finland’s … » Read

The recently concluded Easter Festival in Salzburg marked the renewal of the partnership, first established in 1967 by Herbert von Karajan, between the Berlin Philharmonic and the festival. The Berliners’ return after a 13-year absence, now … » Read

The 2026-27 season of the New World Symphony (NWS) will intermingle masterworks by Beethoven, Ravel, Stravinsky, Mahler, Mozart, et al. with compositions by such contemporary notables as Billy Childs, Kevin Puts, Thomas Adès, Gabriela … » Read

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has appointed two new string players—violist Jikun Qin as of April 13, and second violinist Jasmine Lin as of July 6. Both won auditions on in October 2025 and are the fifth and sixth musicians appointed by … » Read

LONDON (AP) — On a gray afternoon in the days before Easter, a dozen or so schoolchildren straggled into a side building at Rochester Cathedral and began their transformation. Off went the jackets and backpacks, on came burgundy cassocks … » Read

Beyond a comment that it was unexpected, Andris Nelsons has been close-lipped since the announcement that the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) had decided not to renew his contract at the end of the 2026-27 season. But a recent symposium on Mahler … » Read

In the wake of Markus Hinterhäuser’s abrupt exit , the Salzburg Festival has appointed Karin Bergmann as artistic director for the next two seasons, with immediate effect: The event gets underway in three months. The former artistic … » Read

James Ehnes and John Holloway, respective artistic director and CEO of the Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS), have announced a new in-house record label that will draw on the organization’s archive of live performances. Recordings will … » Read

The music industry across Canada is increasingly under threat by the closure of music programs among the country’s colleges and universities. This is damaging to local music ecosystems, which rely on the schools for everything from … » Read

Innocence by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has made an impact that few other recent operas can match. Following its premiere at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2021, Saariaho’s dramatization (with a multilingual libretto … » Read