The 2020 Bayreuth Festival was cancelled, due to the pandemic, but things are looking up for next summer. For one, Katharina Wagner returned to the helm on September 21, apparently recovered from what sounds like a very serious illness, as DW … » Read

The story of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and its founder, artistic director and longtime conductor Charles Dickerson III, a  Musical America Top 30 for 2019, will become a live action feature film from Disney. Founded in … » Read

In honor of voter registration day, pianist and arts activist Lara Downes has assembled a group of colleagues to record, individually, Leonard Bernstein’s “Take Care of This House,” from his musical 1600 Pennsylvania … » Read

On Sept. 19 the English National Opera (ENO) presented Europe’s first live, drive-in opera. A parking garage at London’s Alexandra Palace is the venue for an eight-day run of 12 performances of a 90-minute version of Puccini’s … » Read

The Indianapolis-based American Pianists Association, which holds alternating jazz and classical piano competitions every two years, said on Tuesday that its longtime president and CEO, Joel Harrison, will retire on June 30, 2021. Harrison has … » Read

On Sept. 20, a protest forced Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house to abandon a performance of Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera .  Complaining that they were seated too close together, audience members clapped and shouted. Their protest … » Read

San Francisco Opera and its musicians have come to terms, ratified on September 18 and retroactive to August 1 and effective through July 31, 2023. The agreement, which continues healthcare, cuts salary by 50 percent of its current level (between … » Read

In an interview first published in Italy’s Corriere della Sera and subsequently picked up by Austrian media, Zubin Mehta, the 84-year-old India-born head of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (among other jobs), blasts American media for defaming … » Read

Individuals “familiar with the terms” of the Metropolitan Opera’s settlement with James Levine, reached in August of 2019 , have disclosed that the company and its insurer paid the conductor $3.5 million to settle out of court. … » Read

The death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Sept. 18 not only deprived the U.S. of one of its most storied jurists but also one of its most avid opera lovers. “She was our greatest advocate and our greatest … » Read