LONDON—When reviewing live music it helps to witness a performance from a good seat. This, dear reader, is not because journalists somehow deserve the best, but because you do. A critic's primary task is to serve as your eyes and ears: to … » Read

In announcing a new board leadership slate, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) has disclosed an endowment gift from longtime trustee Roger Sant of $10 million, the orchestra’s largest ever single gift and bringing Sant’s largesse … » Read

On June 7 in David Geffen Hall, Jaap van Zweden conducted the second of three performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ( Resurrection ), his swansong as music director of the New York Philharmonic. (He conducts the orchestra again presently … » Read

Moscow-born pianist Ilya Shmukler [pictured] has swept the triennial Géza Anda Competition awards, winning first prize of 40,000 CHF (about $45,000) along with the audience prize, the Mozart prize, the special prize of the Hungarian Radio … » Read

Like most non-profit performing arts institutions, the San Francisco Opera is struggling financially with smaller post-pandemic audiences and rising costs. Decreasing its 2024-25 season to only six productions, as opposed to the usual eight or … » Read

SAN FRANCSICO—With the downstage platform of Davies Hall cleared for the Alonzo King LINES Ballet dancers in the first half of the program and a Peter Sellars-directed monodrama in the second, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen appeared to be … » Read

Peruvian conductor Dayner Tafur-Diaz, 26, was yesterday announced as winner of the Siemens Conductors Scholarship, entitling him to work with the Berliner Philharmoniker Karajan Academy for two years starting in October. He will also assist … » Read

Retirements in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have prompted several new appointments, along with promotions within. In the former category, the PSO has announced a new associate principal cello in Korea-born Dale Jeong, age 21 (three years … » Read

NEW YORK (AP) — Jaap van Zweden decided during the pandemic that he wanted to jettison the jet-setting life of a transatlantic conductor, so the less-flying Dutchman cut short his New York Philharmonic tenure, the orchestra’s shortest … » Read

As the Cleveland Institute of Music continues to wrestle with pending lawsuits , a vote of no confidence in President Paul Hogle by the faculty, and a call by this last group for unionization in AFM (which the school deems unnecessary), it rolls … » Read