The LOUD Weekend has been the culminating event of the Bang on a Can (BOAC) Summer Music Festival for the past 22 years. Based at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA., the three-week professional development program gathers 40 young musicians and five … » Read

Lorenzo Viotti is to be music director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, with a three-year contract commencing with the 2026-27 season. He succeeds Jonathan Nott, who departs after 12 years at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. A native of … » Read

SUFFOLK, UK—It’s a John Wilson summer in England. The inspirational conductor has been bewilderingly busy since The Merry Widow opened at Glyndebourne in June , and before that run was done he was back in business with his supergroup, … » Read

LONDON—When it comes to composer anniversaries, the BBC Proms likes to bring out the big guns. In this case it was Ferruccio Busoni, the centenary of whose death is being celebrated this year. This August 5 performance at London’s … » Read

Before the end of apartheid in 1994, opera in South African was largely a niche performing art for white audiences, with white singers brought in from abroad. Now black casts perform European classics in a distinctive manner that resonates with … » Read

Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen comprises more than 15 hours of music. It is little wonder, then, that there have been several efforts to condense the tetralogy into a manageable evening at the opera house. One of the more successful, … » Read

Beginning in September 2024, Anja Bihlmaier,  chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest, The Hague, is to be principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. She joins Finnish conductor John Storgårds , who has served as the … » Read

In what Terence Blanchard rightly describes as a “coup,” the Seattle Opera has lured director James Robinson away from Opera Theater of St. Louis to be its next general and artistic director. His 15-year tenure with OTSL has been … » Read

Conductor Dalia Stasevska’s debut program with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood on Aug. 10—two pieces by Sibelius and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with Leila Josefowicz—represents a departure from her usual … » Read

The Notos Quartett [pictured] has selected cellist Benjamin Lai to replace the departing Philip Graham, beginning in September 2024. He will join pianist Antonia Köster, violist Andrea Burger, and violinist Sindri Lederer in the Berlin-based … » Read