FRANCE & SPAIN--The Ravel Festival’s three weeks of late summer offerings took place in a range of Basque Country locales—in a farmhouse in the Spanish resort town of San Sebastian, on September 3 [see The Ravel Festival, Part I … » Read

On the night of March 10, Sergiy Ivanchuk, an aspiring Ukrainian opera singer, was helping fellow civilians flee the Russian assault on Kharkiv when he was shot five times. That he survived was a miracle; one of the four fleeing passengers in his … » Read

FRANCE & SPAIN— Almost as old as the Pyrenees Mountains that loom above it, the Basque community nestles in the crook where southwest France meets the north coast of Spain. The Basques are fiercely proud and protective of their ancient … » Read

Four rising artists have recently signed with their first artist management firms. Latvian conductor Aivis Greters [left], 29, has joined HarrisonParrott; in the last season alone, he made debuts the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Riga … » Read

Robert Spano, newly arrived as music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra after a 20-year stint in Atlanta, opened the season with a performance that was, according to Scott Cantrell in the Dallas New s, “compelling start to … » Read

Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), the Lenox, MA, summer program for young musicians ages 14 to 20 founded in 1954 that links the BU College of Fine Arts with Tanglewood and the BSO, has a new executive director in Nicole Wendl. She … » Read

When Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, the world of classical music lost a devoted patron, a monarch who inspired the creation of great music and supported the art form throughout her seven-decade reign. In 1930, when Elizabeth was only four … » Read

HONG KONG – Jaap van Zweden’s season-opening program with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra last weekend, intended to celebrate the music director’s first appearance here since September 2021, lost much of its thunder due … » Read

Alan Davey, Controller of Radio 3, BBC Proms, and BBC Orchestras and Choirs for the past eight years, will leave his post in March 2023 to focus on his interests in academics and arts groups. The announcement arrives on the heels of Paul … » Read

Opera-goers have Renée Fleming to thank for what is sure to be one of the season’s “must-see” productions—the Metropolitan Opera’s staging of The Hours . Adapted by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Greg … » Read