The Negaunee Foundation will bestow $20 million on the Lyric Opera of Chicago, half of it to endow education, half of it to guarantee a Mozart opera will be staged every season, including the Da Ponte trilogy. Funds will cover the costs of both … » Read

The Black Orchestral Network (BON) released the third in a series of biennial “Dear American Orchestras” letters on May 19, calling on American orchestras and funders to fundamentally restructure fellowship programs for early-career … » Read

Composer Thomas Adès has long been known to conduct when his own works are on a program, but he has never held a formal conducting title. That will change in September when he becomes principal guest conductor of the Hallé Orchestra … » Read

The orchestral world in North America is undergoing a sea change that seems certain to usher in consequential transformations of purpose and cultural expectations. There are more than 2,000 orchestras throughout North America, a considerable … » Read

From her inaugural performances in 2022 and fall 2023, Elim Chan and the San Franciso Symphony appear to have connected with a jolt, with Chronicle critic Joshua Kosman declaring the 5- feet-1-inch conductor “the real deal.” Today, … » Read

LONDON—With celebrations of American culture going on all around the world, it’s perhaps surprising that composer Brent Michael Davids’s Requiem for America should receive its May 17 world premiere not in a major U.S. city but … » Read

Heartbeat Opera, known for its streamlined, freewheeling mountings of familiar works, has swerved somewhat into esoteric territory in its current production of Vanessa . Although the 1958 Samuel Barber/Gian Carlo Menotti opera has lately been … » Read

After more than a decade of international research led by academics at the University of Sydney, Mima’amakim ( Out of the Depths ) has been translated and published in English for the first time. This rare collection of songs by Jewish … » Read

Valery Saul is to be the Nashville Symphony’s associate conductor for the next three years as of September. She succeeds Nathan Aspinwall.   Saul, whose tenure coincides with Leonard Slatkin’s as music director , will work with … » Read

The prospect of an agreement with the Kingdon of Saudi Arabia that would provide the Metropolitan Opera with as much as $200 million for performing at the new opera house in Riyadh “was not a difficult decision,” Met General Manager … » Read