A deal struck on Aug. 24 between the Metropolitan Opera and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the union representing orchestra members, assures that the nation’s largest performing arts organization will open its 2021-22 season as … » Read

Plans were announced yesterday for a statue of Marian Anderson to be erected on the front steps of the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the famed contralto’s hometown. The house she grew up in in South Philadelphia was placed in 2011 on … » Read

Canadian composer and writer R. Murray Schafer, whose work lent the concept of the “soundscape” wide public currency, died on Aug. 14 at his Ontario home. He was 88. Born in 1933 in the Lake Huron city of Sarnia, Ontario, Schafer … » Read

After a near half-century at the top of its game, the Emerson String Quartet is announcing today its plan to retire at the end of summer 2023. Formed at Juilliard in 1976, the group has gone on to become one of the top string quartets in the … » Read

Joshua Kosman, longtime music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle , has written a moving remembrance of the late Michael Morgan . Understandably, they came to know each other well over the years, not just as colleagues in a business, but as … » Read

An ocean traffic jam threatening to scuttle the Los Angeles Opera’s much-anticipated season opener of Il Trovatore is calling for desperate measures by company officials. The sets for the Verdi warhorse, on their way from the Opera de … » Read

In the summer of 1990, the 76-year-old John Cage admitted defeat, telling a German audience, “I no longer consider it necessary to find alternatives to harmony. After all these years I am finally writing beautiful music.” The … » Read

Bramwell Tovey is to be the next music director of the Sarasota (FL) Orchestra, officially starting in fall of 2022, serving as designate in the coming season. Tovey, 68, is perhaps best known as the longtime music director of Canada's Vancouver … » Read

BAYREUTH -- For Die Walküre , seen August 19, the vast Bayreuth stage has been turned into a giant, bright white triptych. Controversial Viennese artist Herman Nitsch, charged with creating the “artistic action” for this concert … » Read

Marc Stevens is to succeed Paul Dornian as president and CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra next month. Dornian is retiring after six years in the job. Stevens arrives after seven years at the National Arts Center (NAC) in Ottawa, where he … » Read