CHICAGO--The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Thursday named 25 people, including academics, activists, artists, scholars and scientists, who will receive $625,000 over five years to use as they please. The Chicago-based … » Read

Within months Pittsburgh will join a select group of cities—Burlington, VT, Boston, Atlanta, and Portland, OR—with an orchestra composed of musicians suffering from mental illnesses. The Me2/Orchestra movement, the inspiration of … » Read

Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber, recent Musical America Rising Star, has just announced his third new appointment in the calendar year 2018. The latest is chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, effective in September 2019. The 36-year-old … » Read

Violinist Joshua Bell was back in Washington, D.C., yesterday, only this time he wasn’t busking in a metro station as he did in a since-much-cited experiment back in 2007. This time, he was attempting to bring a little peace to the ongoing … » Read

Klaus Mäkelä, 22-year-old principal guest conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, is to be the new chief conductor and artistic advisor of Oslo Philharmonic. His three-year contract begins in August … » Read

MILAN — A fire in Venice's rebuilt La Fenice opera house was swiftly brought under control Monday, 22 years after a blaze had destroyed the famous theater. It is expected to reopened tonight, with Il barbiere di Siviglia. Italian news … » Read

Esa-Pekka Salonen is to helm a new, pre-professional conducting program at the Colburn School, its first. Funded by the Chicago-based Negaunee Foundation, it will be called the Negaunee Conducting Program and its participants—no more than … » Read

American conductor Case Scaglione is to be the new music director and principal conductor of the Île-de-France National Orchestra, starting in September 2019. He will succeed Enrique Mazzola, in the job from 2012. Scaglione, onetime … » Read

Nicholas McGegan will retire as music director of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale (PBO) at the end of the 2019-20 season. The British conductor will have served at the artistic helm of the PBO for 35 of its … » Read

Since its premiere in 1935, the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess has been a surefire means of breaking down racial barriers in the opera house. The estate’s insistence on an all-black cast, as will be the case when the English National … » Read