For the first time in a decade, the State of Illinois’s capital budget is proposing major expenditures in the arts. More than $60m out of a total of $45b has been identified for arts-related projects. The capital funds for the arts are … » Read

The Philadelphia Orchestra has received $55 million, the largest gift in its history, with five million unrestricted and the rest earmarked for the endowment. The gift, made through the California-based Silicon Valley Community Foundation, comes … » Read

Democratic lawmakers in Maryland are urging Republican Governor Larry Hogan [pictured] to release $1.6 million in funding set aside for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Eighteen senators and 54 delegates have signed a letter indicating that, … » Read

The Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and National symphonies have co-commissioned a “multimedia work that integrates film and pre-recorded sound with live orchestra performance” titled World’s Greatest Synth: The … » Read

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra has suddenly fired its director of artistic planning. Lam Fung, also a composer, had been in the job since 2017 and was its highest-ranking native-born employee. The orchestra offered no explanation; Lam Fung, … » Read

Kelly Tweeddale, president of Canada’s Vancouver Symphony and its School of Music, is to be the next executive director of the San Francisco Ballet, one of the three largest ballet companies in the U.S. She starts in September and succeeds … » Read

Too busy to commit to a multi-concert subscription, or too financially strapped to spring for more than a concert at a time? The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has a solution for you. Music lovers unable to take advantage of the discounts … » Read

If you find the prospect of sitting through Wagner’s entire Ring cycle daunting, then you will at all costs want to avoid the Licht cycle of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Written over a 25-year-period beginning in 1978,  it includes an opera … » Read

Suppose the number of soldiers who died in the First World War was less important than their relative heights? What if our news consisted purely of silent imagery rather than being illuminated (or obfuscated) by the spoken word? And is it … » Read

The Orlando Philharmonic has joined the ever-burgeoning group of orchestras to hire David Hyslop as its interim executive director. He succeeds board president Mary Palmer and founding musician Mark Fischer, who have been serving as co-interims … » Read