Rhiannon Giddens can do no wrong these days. Artistic director of Silkroad, music director of the upcoming Ojai Festival, Macarthur fellow, singer/songwriter, Grammy winner, multi-instrumentalist, etc., she wrote her first opera libretto a few … » Read

The pitfalls of mixing art with politics are on display in Italy, where far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her council of ministers have declared the new retirement age for foreign heads of opera houses to be 70. Frenchman … » Read

Matthias Pintscher is to be the next music director of the Kansas City Symphony, succeeding Michael Stern as of fall  2024. Pintscher is a composer of note; this will mark his first U.S. orchestra music directorship. German-born, New … » Read

Ben Hartley, CEO and founder of Orama Consulting, whose clientele include “Fortune 500 and not-for-profit clients in luxury, media, lifestyle, and culture industries," is to be the new executive director of Silkroad. He succeeds Kathy … » Read

Washington National Opera has made some staffing adjustments in artistic planning and production. Samuel Gelber has been promoted from director of artistic planning, a post he assumed in 2018 after working in the same capacity with the Los … » Read

The Eastman School of Music has appointed Ran Dank to the fulltime position of associate professor of piano. A noted advocate for contemporary music, Dank has won honors at the Naumburg, the Sydney, and the Hilton Head piano competitions. This … » Read

NEW YORK (AP) — Grace Bumbry, a pioneering mezzo-soprano who became the first Black singer to perform at Germany’s Bayreuth Festival during a career of more than three decades on the world’s top stages, has died. She was 86. … » Read

Ivo van Hove is controversial. Some love his overall work or individual productions. Others hate him/them. So even with interviews and some advance warning from his new staging of Don Giovanni in 2019 at the Paris Opera, the co-producer with the … » Read

Menahem Pressler, legendary pianist, chamber musician, and pedagogue, died on May 6 at the age of 99. “Mr. Pressler was a brilliant pianist, extraordinary teacher and gentle soul who has left an indelible mark on generations of pianists … » Read

The recent policy and funding reversals on the part of the BBC and Arts Council England (ACE) are not to believed. It’s no “time to breathe a sigh of relief,” opines journalist and critic Andrew Mellor, who sees in the … » Read