SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—An uneasy orchestral prelude sets the mood: muffled percussion, brooding woodwinds, anguished strings. The curtain rises and the first voices we hear are of two young men cowering in the shadows. “I … I … » Read

“I have to say, you guys are very brave, showing up to hear a piece that hasn’t been heard in 127 years,” clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson cheerily greeted an audience in Gilder Lehrman Hall at the Morgan Library & Museum … » Read

The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) has chosen the three-time Grammy Award winning violinist Hilary Hahn as visiting professor for a 12-month period beginning in September 2024. In the press release announcing Hahn’s appointment, Graham … » Read

Hugues Randolph Gall, longtime general director of the Paris Opera, died on May 25 at age 84. Born in Honfleur, Germany, he began his professional career working for several government ministries, before joining the Paris Opera in 1973, first as … » Read

CHICAGO— Before It All Goes Dark , the newest opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, commissioned by the Music of Remembrance organization, is short. A one-act piece, it’s barely 40 minutes long. The musical forces … » Read

The Galloping Cure , a new opera under development by John Berry, former artistic director of English National Opera, promises a degree of timeliness absent from most modern works. The crisis of opioid addiction kills thousands of people every … » Read

The Juilliard School has selected the Katarina String Quartet as its next graduate resident string quartet, with its two-year residency beginning in September and extending through spring 2026. The Canadian foursome—violinists Jeanel Liang … » Read

We live in an increasingly noisy world, a state of existence exacerbated by our embrace of earbuds and headphones. Last year over half a billion pairs of headphones were sold, a number almost twice that of a decade ago. Many people wear earbuds … » Read

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Richard M. Sherman, one half of the prolific, award-winning pair of brothers who helped form millions of childhoods by penning the instantly memorable songs for Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang … » Read

Leah Hawkins has been awarded the Met Opera's 2024, $50,000 Beverly Sills Artist Award. Her 2023-24 Met performances were in Verdi’s Requiem, as soprano soloist, and as Louise/Betty in the house premiere of Anthony Davis’s X: The Life … » Read