Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek is the new artistic director for the Toronto-based Against the Grain Theater (AtG). He succeeds Joel Ivany, the founder of the Toronto-based opera company who left in the summer of 2023 to head up … » Read

Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras (MCO), which performs regularly in Central London at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, has announced a new partnership with the Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance. The collaboration will enable the school, … » Read

LONDON—Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw may be a masterpiece, but it’s a delicate one, especially with child abuse such a hot button issue today. The composer went about as far as anyone could in 1954 to foreground an … » Read

A visit by the London Philharmonic and its principal conductor Edward Gardner on Oct. 11 kicked off the 71 st season of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County with a program that featured Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. [The orchestra comes to … » Read

Two years remain before Gustavo Dudamel takes over as music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026, and until then his podium appearances will be infrequent: for the current season, two weeks of subscription concerts plus a third for the … » Read

The impact of the pandemic is still being felt by many arts and cultural institutions, as illustrated by a recent report issued by SMU DataArts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. By examining financial and operating trends between 2019 and … » Read

Matthias Pintscher’s 25-minute tone poem neharot is quite explicitly a piece of program music, one that is governed by its external referent. Written in 2020, the piece is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic; the composer has described it … » Read

CHICAGO—It was not orchestral music as usual last week in downtown Chicago. Yes, the Chicago Symphony was in residence at Symphony Center Thursday and Friday with repertoire including a Chopin piano concerto and Shostakovich’s Fifth … » Read

Since announcing major cuts to funding for the nation’s opera companies in November 2022, Arts Council England has come in for harsh criticism for its apparent disregard for the art form, with special ire reserved for its decision to force … » Read

This past weekend, MAiRA Pro S, the next-generation robot conductor, debuted with Dresden’s Sinfoniker. Artistic Director Markus Rindt offered assurances that the intent was “not to replace human beings.” Instead, it was to … » Read