Gustavo Dudamel is to conduct the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) on August 26, the first time he will have led his alma mater outside of Venezuela in seven years. He last … » Read

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021 meant the reintroduction of a regime that criminalizes musical expression, especially among women. For Huma Rahimi, who had learned to play the sitar at the Afghan National Institute of … » Read

Patty Isacson Sabee, current executive director of Planet Word in Washington, D.C., former CEO of the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, is to succeed Wayne S. Brown as president and CEO of the Detroit Opera. Brown, who succeeded the late founding … » Read

This has been a summer of epic thunderstorms and steamy heat in Bayreuth, paralleling the controversy surrounding the storied festival’s future. Through four generations of Wagners, and legendary internal and external squabbles, the … » Read

OPERA America has announced the seven inductees of the Class of 2023 into the Opera Hall of Fame. Established in 2020 to mark the 50 th anniversary of Opera America, the Hall of Fame includes artists, administrators, and advocates who have … » Read

In announcing its upcoming season of eight programs performed at four different venues, Santa Barbara chamber music group Camerata Pacifica noted that its new executive director, in the job since June 1, was Ana Papakhian [pictured]. She succeeds … » Read

Wanted! A good home for a custom-built organ that weighs 40 tons and needs 800 square feet with a 50-foot ceiling to operate. Although it is over 100 years old and has been in storage since 1994, the Exposition Organ is in good shape. The city is … » Read

Music lovers in search of a unique concert venue will not do much better than a trip to the Mt. Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, CA. Founded in 1904 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the observatory was … » Read

In his most recent column, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross discusses a subject  frequently brought up in this space, and that is the demise of classical music at Lincoln Center. He points out that the complex was built as a home for the … » Read

Although it has remained a bastion of conservatism musically, devoting itself exclusively to the operas of Richard Wagner, productions at the annual Bayreuth  Festival have become increasingly radical and provocative under the management of … » Read