Conductor/flutist Ransom Wilson and educator Gregory Robbins are the new director and associate director, respectively, of orchestral programs at California’s Idyllwild Arts Academy. Both are newly created, 12-month appointments. Wilson … » Read

OPERA America has awarded its first two IDEA Opera Grants, which are intended to support and promote new works by promising composers and librettists of color. “By facilitating their work,” noted Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO of OPERA … » Read

The proliferation of film streaming services is good news for viewers eager for ever more content. It is not such good news for the musicians who create the soundtracks for movies such as Noelle , Disney Plus’s holiday comedy that went … » Read

Chinese-American composer Lei Liang has won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams , an orchestral work about climate change. The piece was commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project … » Read

The New York Philharmonic has unveiled plans for a major renovation, maintaining the outer skeleton of what is currently known as David Geffen Hall, but changing just about everything else, from bathrooms to bass frequencies. The projected cost … » Read

Elijah Moshinsky’s grand staging from 1995 of The Queen of Spades , which was conducted by Valery Gergiev in his first Russian assignment at the Metropolitan Opera, exemplified the company’s commitment to Russian opera following the … » Read

Conductor Donald Runnicles, music director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, has said he will not continue in that capacity unless three members of the orchestra recently fired by management are reinstated. Last month violist Kristin Linfante, a … » Read

Renovating a building like the Hungarian State Opera House (HSO), which dates from 1884, has a way of costing more and taking longer than originally anticipated. The Neo-Renaissance structure closed 18 months ago, and was scheduled to reopen in … » Read

Mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti has succeeded Jonathan Eaton as artistic director of the Pittsburgh Festival Opera, which this summer runs July 10-26. Eaton, in the job since 2012, left in October. Cornetti, dubbed “world-renowned” by … » Read

Mariss Jansons, one of the world’s most highly esteemed conductors, died on November 30 at his home in St. Petersburg. Both the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which he was chief conductor, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, of … » Read