This year the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) will renew its decade-long tradition of presenting a chamber opera on the weekend following Thanksgiving. La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina , by the Florentine singer and … » Read

A recent spate of indignities might seem to suggest that the gods of travel have it in for professional string players. Cellist Amit Peled, flush from performing the Penderecki Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Warsaw Philharmonic to celebrate the … » Read

Noh theater has been fascinating the West since the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 opened up Japan and its cultural institutions. Beckett, Yeats, and Peter Brook have all been drawn to Noh. Of its 2000 or so traditional tales, … » Read

Two key Minnesota Orchestra positions have been filled, their prior vacancies due in both cases to retirements. Felicity James [pictured] is the new associate concertmaster, succeeding Roger Frisch, a 35-year veteran. And Erich Rieppel is the new … » Read

The Würth Philharmonic Orchestra, based in Baden-Württemberg and launched last year by German billionaire Reinhold Würth, has named Milan-born Claudio Vandelli [pictured] as chief conductor effective in January, 2020. Based in the … » Read

A recent study bolsters the argument that music training enhances the brain’s functioning. Research published in the journal Psychology of Music measured cognitive skills among 72 college undergraduates grouped according to the extent of … » Read

The Metropolitan Opera and WQXR, New York’s classical music station, have announced ARIA CODE, a collaboration designed to decode some of opera’s most well-known arias. The 10-episode podcast series debuts on Dec. 4 with a program … » Read

BOSTON—The head of MIT’s Media Lab (and Musical America’s 2016 Composer of the Year) has a new opera—a labor of love, not a response to a commission. After a gestation period of some 20 years, Tod Machover’s … » Read

At a press conference in Saint Petersburg last week, Bolshoi Director General Vladimir Urin said that the company would be collaborating with the Metropolitan Opera on three new productions in 2021-2022: Aida, Salome , and Lohengrin . This marks … » Read

Seasoned soloist and chamber musician Grace Park has won the top prize in the 2018 Naumburg Violin Competition, one of the five performers in the finals concerts on November 16 at the 92 nd Street Y Kaufmann Concert hall. She takes home $25,000 … » Read