Billboard’s top ten best-selling “classical” albums of 2018 is, er, instructive. Topping the charts is Andrea Bocelli’s Si , described as a “celebration of love, family, faith, and hope” that features among its … » Read

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has a new chief financial officer in Steven Rosenzweig [pictured]; he succeeds James Garrone who is retiring after 15 years of service. Rosenzweig arrives after filling the same function at the city's … » Read

With its conductor laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen soon to be otherwise occupied as music director of the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic last night named another former music director, Zubin Mehta, as conductor emeritus. The … » Read

One likely consequence of the 2017 Trump tax cut is a decline in charitable giving, estimated by one study to total from $13 to $20 billion, or 3 to 5 percent of the 2017 total of $410 billion. Half of all not-for-profit groups depend on … » Read

In a recent conversation with Marianne Sciolino, founder and CEO of Manhattan-based Sciolino Artist Management, we touched on the issues of how a relatively small artist management firm (SAM has a roster of 20) competes in a world of large ones, … » Read

The Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society has added three new principal players to its ranks. Emi Ferguson [pictured] is the new principal flute, succeeding Christopher Krueger who retired at end of last season after 40 years with H+H. Heather … » Read

Gianandrea Noseda is wasting no time in bringing new musicians into the National Symphony Orchestra. He’s been music director just over one year and, as of yesterday, has already brought in eight new members. Added to the six he appointed … » Read

The Metropolitan Opera introduced its fourth and last new production of the current season on New Year’s Eve with Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur , an opera many will associate with critical scorn of long standing. Indeed, half a … » Read

As many may surmise, the title of Conrad L. Osborne’s massive tome-- Opera as Opera: The State of the Art --was prompted by Joseph Kerman’s Opera as Drama , a work first published in 1956 that, among other things, influenced certain … » Read

The U.K.’s 2019 New Year’s Honor List represented a bit of a dry spell for the performing arts after last year’s list contained dozens from that world. Two of the most distinguished honorees are Christian Blackshaw, the first … » Read