As of July 2024, Eric Melear will become the new artistic director of the London-based National Opera Studio. He succeeds David Sulkin OBE, in the position for six years. Melear will partner with Executive Director Nicholas Simpson in a new joint … » Read

Anne-Marie McDermott will step down as artistic director of Bravo! Vail Music Festival after the 2026 season, her 15 th since assuming the post. In her remarks, the concert pianist and arts administrator noted, “So many of the dreams I had … » Read

Shira Samules-Shragg , current assistant conductor of the Spokane and Plano (TX) symphonies, is to take the same title as of next season with the Dallas Symphony. She succeeds Maurice Cohn in the two-year position. Described by the DSO as … » Read

Two major British orchestras have announced their appointments of new leaders. The BBC Concert Orchestra has tapped Matthew Swann to succeed Andrew Connolly, who stepped down in 2020 after 20 years, as director, effective on March 27. And at the … » Read

NEW YORK (AP) — Andrea Götsch was surprised when she won her audition in 2019 that led to membership in the Vienna Philharmonic. “When I went home, I was just laughing because I couldn’t realize that they had really taken … » Read

With the end of its 50 th -anniversary season approaching in June, the Kronos Quartet—having morphed in the last half-century from zany, experimental string quartet to zany experimental pantheon of contemporary music—will undergo a 50 … » Read

Klaus Heyman, founder and head of Naxos, a vast distribution and recordings empire now based in Hong Kong, has personally acquired Chandos, one of the most distinguished classical music labels, with some 3,000 titles in its catalog. He has done … » Read

CHICAGO—At any experimental music function, taking the good with the not-so-good is a given. Experiments, by definition, sometimes fail. That made the end-to-end dazzle of this year’s Frequency Festival (Feb. 20 to 25), anchored at … » Read

Breaking the Silence , a U.K. concert tour by the Afghan Youth Orchestra, is on again after the British Home Office reversed an earlier decision refusing the group the necessary visas. The reprieve came just four days before the first … » Read

LONDON—When Simon Rattle recorded The Jazz Album back in 1987 it became clear that here was a British conductor with an affinity for American music and an instinct for Gershwin. Likewise, his lasting friendship with John Adams can be dated … » Read