The second edition of the Zoltán Kodály Conducting Competition, held in Debrecen, Hungary from August 20 – 28, failed to produce a first prize winner. Alexander Sinan Binder (Germany) and Mateusz Gwizdalla (Australia/Poland) … » Read

Jasmin White has been announced as the winner of the 2023 Queen Sonja Singing Competition. The American contralto takes home €50,000 as well as an original artwork made by Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway. The second prize of €10,000 … » Read

The International Contemporary Ensemble, an invaluable new-music collective founded in 2001, used to cut a higher profile than it has lately, or at least it seems that way. In a 2007 New York Times article , founder Claire Chase spelled out the … » Read

MODESTO, CA—The Board of Directors of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra Association has announced that Nicholas Hersh will become the organization’s next Music Director. Hersh, who is only the ninth music director in the … » Read

LONDON—Last year, the BBC Proms offered a f ine account of Handel’s Solomon , though its grandeur was slightly scuppered by overly modest forces. The Royal Albert Hall is big, and the otherwise excellent BBC Singers rattled around in … » Read

Sir John Eliot Gardiner made headlines when he assaulted a singer who exited the stage in the wrong direction. Gardiner quickly apologized and stepped aside from upcoming performances. The incident was widely reported, not so much for Gardiner's … » Read

You just can’t keep a good man down, it seems. David Hyslop, a legend in the world of running orchestras and/or consulting for them, is the new interim president and CEO of the Reno (NV) Philharmonic. He steps into the position vacated by … » Read

LONDON—Back in the 19th century, Das Paradies und die Peri (Paradise and the Peri) was Robert Schumann’s most popular work. A mishmash of decorative Orientalism and Christian morality, its slushy sentiment appealed to pious Victorian … » Read

The Salzburg Festival’s choice of operas this summer scarcely ventured beyond the tried and true with one notable exception, Behuslav Martinu’s Greek Passion , a work ardently admired by many but here making its festival debut (viewed … » Read

On Aug. 22, following a concert at the Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André in south-eastern France, 80-year-old conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner slapped and punched bass William Thomas in the face. The singer’s apparent … » Read