The Philadelphia Ballet’s annual Nutcracker has become an ideal training ground for young conductors eager to test their abilities in front of a professional orchestra. Each season Beatrice Jona Affron, the company’s music director … » Read

Richard Gaddes, cofounder of Opera Theater of Saint Louis and longtime leader of the Santa Fe Opera, died on December 12 in New York City. He was 81. Born in Wallsend, a small town in northeast England, Gaddes studied at London’s Trinity … » Read

LONDON—As chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a decade, Sakari Oramo has made a major contribution to British music. A December 8 concert at London’s Barbican Centre found him on his other home turf in an … » Read

As it approaches its 45 th anniversary with the 2024-25 season, the Atlanta Opera joins Opera America’s official “Budget One” status for opera companies with budgets of $15 million and above. There are but ten of them, out of … » Read

The largest venue at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Benedict Music Tent, has been renamed the Michael Klein Music Tent in honor of a gift from its namesake, a longtime board member and supporter.  Festival and School President and … » Read

The Groton Hill Music Center’s new, 300-seat Meadow Hall, created by Cambridge architects Epstein Joslin and Chicago’s Threshold Acoustics, may be “the region’s most acoustically alive concert venue.”  This … » Read

Trinidadian conductor Kwamé Ryan is to succeed Christopher Warren-Green as music director of the Charlotte (NC) Symphony, effective as of the 2024-25 season for four years; he serves as designate for the remainder of 2023-24. Ryan, 53, is … » Read

MILAN—December 7 is a city holiday in Milan, which celebrates the feast day of its patron, Saint Ambrose. For decades now, the date has been marked by opening night at the Teatro alla Scala, Italy’s leading opera house, which throws a … » Read

CHICAGO—And to think it all started as a group chat. Jessie Montgomery [Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year ] is beginning her final season as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Mead Composer-in-Residence, whose … » Read

On Dec. 3 Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe had its world premiere at Theater St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Based on the life of the eponymous 20 th -century Danish painter, it is the first major opera about an historical transgender … » Read