A 250th birthday celebration is a big deal. Only a miniscule number of figures from history merit a worldwide outpouring after so much time. So what is it about Beethoven that elicits such a personal reaction from masses of people? Even during an … » Read

The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs has announced over $47.1million in grants to 1,032 cultural groups in fiscal 2020. Recipients range from the Brooklyn Steppers to the Metropolitan Opera, from under $9,000 to over $100,000. In its … » Read

Music historian, writer, and activist Robert Jackson Wood has made a compelling case that the classical music industry will never successfully address its historical lack of diversity unless it also grapples with the matter of economic class. … » Read

Julia Fischer, among the world’s top violinists, today divides her time between international concert appearances (pre- and post-Covid) and teaching at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts in her hometown. In a thoughtful … » Read

It was beginning to look as if Roberto Alagna’s aspirations to sing Lohengrin might be jinxed. He was scheduled to take the role at the 2018 Bayreuth Festival but canceled reportedly because overwork prevented him from spending enough time … » Read

NEW YORK (AP) — Ann Reinking, the Tony Award-winning choreographer, actress, and Bob Fosse collaborator who helped spread a cool, muscular hybrid of jazz and burlesque movement to Broadway and beyond, has died. She was 71. Reinking died … » Read

Americans for the Arts (AFTA), the nation’s top lobbying group on behalf of arts and culture, has come under fire from former employees and its own advisory council for failing to address issues ranging from lack of diversity to sexual … » Read

Stephen R. Smoot, who for 15 years produced hundreds of concerts for the Ravinia Festival, died suddenly on Nov. 27 at the age of 57. No cause of death was given by the festival. Smoot was a master at making artists (and audiences) happy through … » Read

Last October “Take me out to the ballgame” took on a whole new meaning in baseball-crazed Boston. Instead of the city’s beloved Red Sox, members of another of the city’s iconic teams—the Boston Pops—patrolled … » Read

The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra (OPO) will kick off 2021 with an outdoor concert at Exploria Stadium, home to the city’s two professional soccer teams, on Jan. 9. In her first concert appearance with an orchestra since the pandemic … » Read