MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, Dec. 14-21

We will be updating this list weekly. Please note that all times are given in U.S. Eastern Time (ET). To calculate in other time zones or counties, British Summer Time (BST) is currently five hours ahead of ET and Central European Time (CET) is currently six hours ahead. U.S. Central Daylight Time (CDT) is one hour behind ET. Mountain Time (MT) is two hours behind ET, while Pacific Time (PT) is three hours behind. Contact editor@musicalamerica.com.

Classical music coverage on Musical America is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.  Musical America makes all editorial decisions.

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Monday, December 14

8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Jack Liebeck & Katya Apekisheva. Program: Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor Op. 105, Mozart’s Violin Sonata in A, K526, Fritz Kreisler’s Caprice viennois Op. 2 and Syncopation, de Falla’s Danse Espagnole. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Henze’s Das Verratene Meer. Conductor: Simone Young, director: Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito. With Vera-Lotte Boecker, and Bo Skovhus. Register for free and view here. LIVE **

2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Iestyn Davies. The British countertenor performs alongside regular partners Arcangelo (conducted by Jonathan Cohen), lutenist Thomas Dunford, and Jonathan Manson on viola da gamba. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE **

7 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Courtney’s Stars of Tomorrow: Feel the Spirit Concert II. Mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford sings traditional spiritual arrangements by Lena McLin and J. Rosamond Johnson, as well as an original setting entitled “Lord, I’ll Go” by Jacqueline Hairston. Tenor Edwin Cotton rounds out the program with arrangements by the father of the Concert Spiritual H.T. Burleigh, as well as spirituals by William Grant Still and Wendell Whalum. Tickets $13. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila. Starring Elina Garanca, Roberto Alagna, Laurent Naouri, Elchin Azizov, and Dmitry Belosselskiy, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. From October 20, 2018. View here and for 24 hours.

7:30 pm ET: SalonEra presents Medieval Christmas. Members of Blue Heron (Scott Metcalfe, director) and Trobàr (featuring Elena Mullins and Allison Monroe) bring a mix of mysticism and merriment illuminating Medieval music for Advent and Christmas while Kevin Allen previews his new work for Blue Heron, Puer Natus. Suggested donation $10, register and view here.

Tuesday, December 15

8 am ET: Medici.TV presents Ludwig à Paris. The complete Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Renaud Capuçon and friends. Recorded behind closed doors in the Salon de Musique of the Fondation Singer-Polignac on the occasion of Beethoven's 250th birthday. Capuçon is accompanied by a cast of young musicians, including Alexandre Kantorow, Grand Prize winner at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, plus violinists David Petrlik, Fanny Robilliard, Raphaëlle Moreau, Guillaume Chilemme, Thomas Lefort, Anna Göckel, Cosima Soulez Lariviere, Eva Zavaro, and Pierre Fouchenneret. Tickets Euro 9.90. View here.

10 am ET: Lyric Opera Kansas City presents Amahl & the Night Visitors. Menotti’s Christmas story for the whole family. Three kings, following the star to Bethlehem, stop at the home of a shepherd boy. As Amahl entertains the guests, he offers his own gift to the Christ child and learns the miracle of generosity. This new production utilizes puppets brought to life by a team of puppeteers and live voices. Digital access $40. View here until January 31, 2021.

12 pm ET: Academy of St. Martins in the Fields presents Festive Family Carols. An hour of readings and music for families from St Martin’s Voices including much loved favorites: Jingle Bells, Little Donkey and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. Tickets £10. View here and on demand until December 31.

1 pm ET: Medici.TV presents Equilbey conducts Beethoven's Ninth. Conductor Laurence Equilbey conducts the Insula Orchestra and Accentus at Seine Musicale with soloists Camille Schnoor, Okka van der Damerau, Benjamin Bruns, and Günther Groissböck. The set-up of the orchestra will change for each movement to show how differences in the position of each section impact the listening experience. Tickets Euro 9.90. View here.

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Conductor: Adam Fischer, director: Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier. With Jörg Schneider, Olga Bezsmertna, René Pape, Hila Fahima, and Thomas Tatzl. Production from September 2017. Register for free and view here. 

2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents Choir of Westminster Abbey. A selection of seasonal choral music, ranging from Tudor polyphony to contemporary classics, showcases the choir, while carols and biblical readings tell the story of Christmas. Presented in the gothic splendor of Westminster Abbey. Tickets £12.50 and view here.

2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Tenebrae. Traditional carols alongside more modern works by Howells, Poulenc, Holst, and more. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE

7 pm ET: Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal presents OSM Celebrates the Holidays. Works by two baroque masters are performed by vocal soloists, the OSM Chorus and musicians led by Quebec conductor Bernard Labadie. Program includes Vivaldi’s Gloria and excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. Tickets $20. View here.

7 pm ET: Miller Theatre at Columbia University presents Simone Dinnerstein. Filmed live, the pianist plays Phillip Glass’s Etude No. 2 and the Molto moderato from Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960. View here and on demand.

7 pm ET: Live From The Barbican presents A Choral Christmas. The celebration of the magic, jubilation, and fun of seasonal music is brought to life by Bob Chilcott, the BBC Singers's Principal Guest Conductor. Singer Katie Melua and saxophonist Jess Gillam add Christmas sparkle into the mix with solo sets. Tickets £12.50 and view here. LIVE

7 pm ET: International Contemporary Ensemble & Civic Orchestra of Chicago present Inescapable Spiral Remote. Nicole M. Mitchell’s Inescapable Spiral, premiered at Ojai Music Festival 2017, is written for open instrumentation and a variable ensemble. Performers can range anywhere from 5 to 20 players. An informal Q & A with the artists will follow the performance. Register and view here.

7:30 pm ET: Interlochen Arts Academy presents Sounds of the Season. Performances by students and faculty from all of the Academy’s artistic disciplines: creative writing, dance, film and new media, interdisciplinary arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. Seasonal selections will be individually recorded and woven together into a light-hearted holiday postcard. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Wagner’s Lohengrin. Starring Eva Marton, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hofmann, Leif Roar, and John Macurdy, conducted by James Levine. From January 10, 1986. View here and for 24 hours. **

7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Front Row Mainstage: The Brandenburg Concertos. Continuing a CMS tradition, this newly curated HD concert features archival recordings of Bach’s Six Brandenburg Concertos. View here and on demand until December 31.

10 pm ET: Daniel Vnukowski presents A 2020 Nutcracker. The pianist will feature music by Bach, Handel, Tchaikovsky, and a special arrangement of Metallica in the style of Rachmaninov. Vnukowski plays a Fazioli F308, the largest piano on the world market. There will be a pre-concert discussion on Zoom at 9:30 pm ET and all raised funds will support the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Register and view here.

Wednesday, December 16

9 am ET: Virtual Concert Halls presents Yael Weis: 12-hour Beethoven Marathon. In celebration of Beethoven’s 250th Anniversary, pianist Yael Weiss presents an all-day marathon featuring performances of Beethoven sonatas and newly commissioned works written for her project 32 Bright Clouds as well as conversations with the composers and special guests. Along with world premieres by composers from Cambodia and Hong Kong, Weiss will also perform new pieces by composers from South Africa, Myanmar, Philippines, Turkey, Colombia, and more. View here until 9 pm ET and then on demand. LIVE

10 am ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Beethoven Celebration. In honor of Beethoven's 250th birthday, an all-day series of more than a dozen performances and lectures from CMS's archive and online resources that illuminate Beethoven's life and work. Highlights include performances by Anthony McGill, Alyssa Weilerstein, and Inon Barnatan (playing the Trio in B-flat for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 11) as well as appearances by the Jerusalem Quartet, Miro Quartet and Danish String Quartet, and the Archduke Trio with Jeremy Denk, Erin Keefe, and Efe Baltacigil. View here. **

12 pm ET: Apollo’s Fire presents Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain. A communal celebration of the American immigrant experience with fiddlers, medieval harp, hammered dulcimer, bagpipes, and singers joining with children’s voices to evoke the Celtic roots of an Appalachian Christmas. Tickets $18. View here and for 30 days.

12 pm ET: Academy of St Martins in the Fields presents A Baroque Christmas Celebration. An hour’s sequence of baroque music for Christmas from St Martin’s Voices and St Martin’s Players including choruses from Handel’s Messiah from home. Tickets £10. View here and on demand until December 31.

12 pm ET: Hanns Eisler Academy Berlin presents Kirill Gerstein. An online seminar with Russian theater, opera and film director Kirill Serebrennikov on what makes a modern actor. Since 2008, Serebrennikov is a professor of the Moscow Art Theater School, where he has a class of actors and directors, and since 2012, he has been leading the Gogol Center, an avant-garde theater that has become a hothouse nurturing the next generation of multifaceted actors. Register here for the free Zoom seminar. LIVE

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Strauss’s Capriccio. Conductor: Michael Boder, director: Marco Arturo Marelli. With Camilla Nylund, Markus Eiche, Michael Schade, Adrian Eröd, Wolfgang Bankl, and Angelika Kirchschlager. Production from May 2018. Register for free and view here. 

2 pm ET: IDAGIO presents Classical (R)evolution with Rachel. Join soprano Rachel Fenlon as she explores what breaking the rules, embracing uncertainty, and thinking “outside the box” does for classical music-making. In this episode: Cuban-American operatic soprano, Lisette Oropesa. View here. LIVE

2 pm ET: Medici.TV presents Beethoven's Fidelio. Jürgen Flimm's minimalist staging and Nikolaus Harnoncourt's musical approach focuses the drama's power on the ineffable power of love. Fidelio tells the story of Leonora (soprano Camilla Nylund, in one of the roles that launched her international career), who disguises herself as a man to rescue her husband, Florestan (in 2004, a young Jonas Kaufmann), unjustly imprisoned by his enemy Pizarro (Alfred Muff) and guarded by the jailer Rocco (László Pólgár). Tickets Euro 9.90. View here.

2 pm ET: Austrian Cultural Forum NYC presents ZEN. Violin and cello duo strings&noise collaborates with filmmaker Melanie Hollaus and composer Daniel Riegler in ZEN, a music video about the balance of controlling things and letting go. Filmed at a construction site next to the Südosttangente—one of Vienna’s major highways—strings&noise tear down misperceptions that string instruments, especially when played by women, are only made only for sweet-sounding melodies. View here.

2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents Mitsuko Uchida. The pianist plays Schubert’s Piano Sonata in C D840, Reliquie and his Fantasy Sonata in G D894. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE **

2:30 pm Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra presents A Baroque Christmas. Conductor Robert Howarth and soprano Anna Devin join the BSO for an evening of music to herald the coming of Christmas. In addition, violinist Alina Ibragimova will direct and play Autumn and Winter from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Tickets £6 and view here. LIVE

3 pm ET: London Philharmonic Orchestra presents All the World’s a Stage. The LPO celebrates Brett Dean, their new Composer in Residence, with the UK premiere of The Players. The scene is Elsinore, setting of Dean’s opera Hamlet, with the solo role played by accordion player James Crabb. The concert begins with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and ends with Stravinsky’s mock-Baroque Pulcinella. View here. 

6 pm ET: Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents Mark Steinberg, Marcy Rosen, and Jonathan Biss play Beethoven. Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday as three chamber music luminaries play a program of early masterworks: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 5 No. 2, Violin Sonata in A, Op. 30, No. 1, and Piano Trio in G, Op. 1, No. 2. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Kaufman Music Center presents Adam Tendler plays Christian Wolff's Fantail. Tendler premieres Fantail, a 22-movement, unofficial response to Schumann's Carnaval, and like Schumann’s legendary set, a tour of Wolff’s musical laboratory and universe. Tendler will intersperse Fantail with Schumann’s Carnaval in a mash-up that puts both complete works, and their composers, in a fresh dialogue. Tickets $15. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Starring Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Karen Cargill, Bryan Hymel, Eric Cutler, Dwayne Croft, and Kwangchoul Youn, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From January 5, 2013. From March 15, 2008. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presents Joy to the World: A Holiday Brass Spectacular. A festive evening of holiday favorites performed by the ASO Brass Ensemble. Associate Conductor Jerry Hou leads a program of traditional holiday anthems and carols for all ages. Tickets $20. View here.

Thursday, December 17

1 am ET: Chicago Symphony Orchestra presents CSO Sessions Episode 10: Home for the Holidays. CSO musicians share the sounds of the season including Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, as well as Baroque and festive works for brass quintet performed by members of the CSO brass section. View here and on demand for 30 days.

8:10 am ET: Scottish Chamber Orchestra presents Bacewicz, Bach & Beethoven. As a violinist herself, Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz knew how to write for the instrument in a way that was impressive to listen to and enjoyable to perform, beautifully expressed in her Quartet for Four Violins. In contrast, Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge is known for being fiendishly difficult to play. Bach’s Art of Fugue completes the program. View here. LIVE

10 am ET: Gustavo Dudamel presents The Complete Beethoven Symphonies. The complete symphony cycle, in celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday, featuring the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela filmed at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Spain. This is the first time these videos have been made publicly available on social media. View here. 

12 pm ET: Academy of St Martins in the Fields presents Carols for Christmas. St Martin’s Voices and presenter Zeb Soanes offer an hour of favorite carols and readings in a celebration of the Christmas season. Tickets £10. View here and on demand until December 31.

1 pm ET: Philharmonie de Paris presents Quatuor Ébène: Beethoven Cycle VI. The Ébène Quartet begins its complete cycle of Beethoven’s quartets with a concert bringing together String Quartets Nos. 4, 5, and 12. View here. LIVE

1 pm ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Getting to Know Hansel and Gretel. Part of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival, which will run from December 17 through December 21. Music educator Timothy Brendler leads viewers through Humperdinck’s operatic version of this classic story. View here until December 21.

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Puccini’s Tosca. Conductor: Marco Armiliato, director: Margarethe Wallmann. With Sondra Radvanovsky, Piotr Beczala, Thomas Hampson, Ryan Speedo Green, and Alexandru Moisiuc. Production from February 2019. Register for free and view here. 

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Krystian Zimerman: Beethoven Piano Concertos I. The Polish pianist joins the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle for a three-concert cycle of the five piano concertos. Streamed on the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, this opening concert begins with Concerto No. 1, written after No. 2 but published first. Second on the program is Concerto No. 3, in the key of C minor, associated in Beethoven’s work with drama and foreboding. Tickets $13. View here.

2 pm ET: London Symphony Orchestra & Takt1 presents Weinberg & Shchedrin. Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts the LSO in Weinberg’s Symphony No. 2 for string orchestra and Bizet arr Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite. Tickets Euro 10. View here.

5 pm ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Part of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival, which runs through December 21. Starring Christine Schäfer, Alice Coote, Rosalind Plowright, Philip Langridge, and Alan Held, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. From January 1, 2008. View here until December 21.

7:30 pm ET: Emusic & The Gilmore presents Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Beethoven & the Avant-Garde. Recorded at the Teldex Studio in Berlin, the pianist performs works by Beethoven, Messiaen, Stockhausen, and the world premiere of a new work by György Kurtág. The repertoire spans centuries to connect four brilliant composers who pushed the limits of sound, composition, and the piano itself to challenge the musical conventions of their time. Tickets $13. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Live With Carnegie Hall presents Music as Medicine. They are on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19. But when they are not in hospitals or research labs, many medical professionals find creative outlet as musicians. Carnegie Hall provides a platform for these modern-day heroes to showcase their musical talents, including a special performance by the National Virtual Medical Orchestra and a guest appearance by violinist Joshua Bell. Additional guests to be announced. View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini. Starring Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Levine. From April 7, 1984. View here and for 24 hours. **

7:30 pm ET: 92nd St Y presents The New York Philharmonic String Quartet plays Schubert, Mendelssohn & Ravel. A thunderstorm seems to interrupt a Viennese ball in Schubert's Quartettsatz. Then, the Quartet performs Mendelssohn’s A-Minor Quartet and concludes with Ravel's String Quartet, in which soaring melodies are juxtaposed with folk dance. Tickets $15. View here.

8 pm ET: The Detroit Symphony presents Music Director Jader Bignamini conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 Eroica, R. Strauss’s Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra in D major with principal oboe Alexander Kinmonth, and Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst. 

8 pm ET: The Philadelphia Orchestra presents Favorites from The Nutcracker. Erina Yashima conducts Humperdinck’s Crackle Waltz from Hansel and Gretel, selections from The Nutcracker, and various Holiday Sing-Alongs. With Charlotte Blake Alston, narrator, Patrice Hawthorne, vocalist, The Rock School for Dance Education. Tickets $15. View here and on demand until December 31. LIVE

10:30 pm ET: Seattle Symphony presents Morlot Conducts Debussy & Martin. Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot leads a program including Seattle Symphony Principal Flute Demarre McGill in Martin’s Ballade for Flute and Orchestra and Seattle Symphony Principal Harp Valerie Muzzolini in Debussy’s Danses sacrée et profane. Honegger’s Symphony No. 2 completes the program. View here. 

Friday, December 18

12 am ET: Wheaton College Conservatory of Music presents Christmas Festival. Alumnus, baritone Will Liverman, is the soloist for a Christmas Festival concert featuring the Wheaton College Concert Choir, Women's Chorale, Men's Glee Club, and Symphony Orchestra. Risen with Healing in His Wings celebrates the comfort that comes from God in times of trial. View here and on demand.

12 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Conductor: Philippe Jordan, director: Otto Schenk. With Martina Serafin, Daniela Sindram, Günther Groissböck, Erin Morley, and Jochen Schmeckenbecher. Production from September 2017. Register for free and view here. LIVE 

1 pm ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Feeling Crafty. Part of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival, which runs through December 21. Professional clown Stephanie Sine helps viewers get their hands dirty as they build a special craft inspired by Hansel and Gretel’s adventure in the wild woods. View here until December 21.

1 pm ET: OperaVision presents La Soupe Pop. Inspired by director Marie-Ève Signeyrole's real-life experience volunteering in a soup kitchen around Christmas, La Soupe Pop invites its audience to share a bowl of soup among the actors and singers on Montpellier's Opera Comédie stage. Halfway between theatre and cabaret, the immersive experience unfolds in a series of raw, yet poetic scenes accompanied by the music of British cult band The Tiger Lillies. View here and on demand for six months.

1:30 pm ET: Oxford Philharmonic presents Tribute Concert to the Oxford Vaccine Group. In recognition of the work accomplished by the team of scientists at the University of Oxford on their Covid-19 vaccine, the Oxford Philharmonic has recorded a concert in the city's historic Sheldonian Theatre. Program includes seasonal classics and items by special guests Sir Bryn Terfel and Maxim Vengerov. John Rutter and Marios Papadopoulos conduct with presenter John Suchet and the Choir of Merton College. View here.

2 pm ET: Medici.TV presents Grigory Sokolov in Recital. Pianistic virtuosity and artistic dedication take center stage at the at the UN Human Rights Chamber in Geneva as Grigory Sokolov performs a selection of works highlighting Schumann and Chopin’s contributions to the pianistic repertoire. The artist first performs Schumann’s Fugues and Bunte Blätter, before concluding with four of Chopin’s Polonaises. Register and view here.

2 pm ET: Royal Opera House presents The Royal Opera Christmas Concert. Soloists Jennifer Davis, Hanna Hipp, Jeremy White, and Roderick Williams perform with the Royal Opera Chorus, Jette Parker Young Artists, and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Staging will include extracts from Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Mozart's The Magic Flute. The full flavor of Christmas will come via Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Tickets £10. View here.

2 pm ET: NDR Elbphilharmonie presents Alan Gilbert conducts Dvorák & Mahler. Hamburg's NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert are joined by cellist Gautier Capuçon and soprano Anna Prohaska for a live performance of Dvorák's Cello Concerto and Mahler's Fourth Symphony. View here. LIVE 

2:30 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Christmas with Bach Live from The Eternal City. Trevor Pinnock conducts Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and an international cast of soloists: Robin Johannsen (soprano), Catriona Morison (mezzo), Stuart Jackson (tenor) and Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone). Tickets $13. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Our Concerts Live presents Stephanie Blythe: Home for the Holidays. Ms. Blythe and her blue ukulele hosts and performs from her home in the Poconos. Special guests include soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough as well as soprano Gabrielle Gilliam and tenor Darius Thomas with pianist Dr. Charlene Lotz. Later in the show, Blythely Oratonio, Blythe’s drag alter ego, will emerge to “sleigh” with a tender, testosterone-filled tenor performance. Tickets $20. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. Starring Ekaterina Semenchuk, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Oleg Balashov, Evgeny Nikitin, René Pape, Mikhail Petrenko, and Vladimir Ognovenko, conducted by Valery Gergiev. From October 23, 2010. View here and for 24 hours. **

7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Front Row Mainstage: The Brandenburg Concertos. Continuing a CMS tradition, this newly curated HD concert features archival recordings of Bach’s Six Brandenburg Concertos. View here and on demand until December 31.

7:30 pm ET: Detroit Symphony Orchestra presents Home for the Holidays Part II. Thomas Wilkins leads a heartwarming program of carols and classics. Tickets $12.99. View here.

7:30 pm ET: The Gilmore presents Film: In the Key of G. Fred Child sets the stage for the 2004 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival with a behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsals, back-stage nerves, shenanigans, and final performances. Follow 1991 GYA Christopher Taylor, 2000 GYA Orion Weiss, 2002 GYAs Kirill Gerstein and Jonathan Biss, and 2004 GYAs Elizabeth Schumann and Christopher Falzone as they navigate learning and performing Franz Lizst’s Hexameron for Six Pianos. The film also discusses the history of the Festival and the decision-making process behind choosing a Gilmore Young Artist or Gilmore Artist. View here.

7:30 pm ET: The Washington Chorus presents A Candlelight Christmas. A series of livestreamed performances that celebrate the spirit of the Christmas season with joy, reflection, and holiday cheer. Re-imagined as a socially distanced chamber chorus concert led by TWC Artistic Director Eugene Rogers, members of TWC are joined by organ, bells, and other instruments of the season for a Christmas concert with carols and a holiday carol sing-along. Tickets $15. View here and repeated December 19 at 7:30 pm and December 20 at 3 pm.

7:30 pm ET: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents Tapestry of Light. Filmed in Heinz Hall, Principal Pops Conductor and soloist Byron Stripling leads a holiday celebration for all ages. Offering comfort and joy in uncertain times, the program celebrates music, faith, peace, and light with old favorites and new surprises; a sensory-friendly version will also be available. View here and for six months.

7:30 pm ET: Cantus presents Lessons and Carols for our Time Part II. Recorded on November 6, 2020, following a period of intensive quarantine guided by medical professionals. Cantus offers a contemporary take on a British Christmas tradition elevated by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Weaving together poetry and song, the program draws on classic carols like “Silent Night” and “A La Nanita Nana;” modern works by Abbie Betinis and Saunder Choi, and the Cantus favorite Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria.” Tickets are pay what you can. View here for three days.

8 pm ET: Library of Congress presents Stradivari Anniversary Concert. For more than 80 years, the Library of Congress has celebrated the craftsmanship of Antonio Stradivari with an annual concert highlighting five “Strads,” the gift of Gertrude Clarke Whittall. Here are just a few, from a rare wartime video recording of the Budapest Quartet filmed in 1944 to excerpts of recent concerts by some of the world’s finest quartets along with conversations with Stradivari scholars. Register and view here.

8 pm ET: On Air presents Mahler’s Re-Orchestration of Beethoven 9. To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Johannes Vogel conducts Gustav Mahler’s re-orchestration of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Synchron Stage Vienna. A 123-member orchestra and choir will broadcast from a state-of-the-art recording facility with high-end production, set-design and lighting with Covid-secure protocols in place for rehearsal and performance. Tickets Euro 9.99. View here and repeated on December 19 and 20. 

9 pm ET: Minnesota Orchestra presents A Midwinter Gathering. As part of the Minnesota Orchestra's series of live Friday night concerts, community and family are invited to celebrate this holiday season in a way that will likely be different than in years past. Led by Sarah Hicks, the orchestra performs holiday favorites, while storyteller Kevin Kling, and local poets and writers share what coming together means in these unprecedented times. View here. LIVE

10 pm ET: San Diego Symphony presents Noel Noel. A virtual multi-disciplinary collaboration of the Symphony's popular holiday concert hosted by musical artist Storm Lever and actor/filmmaker Scott Rad Brown. Joining the orchestra will be San Diego Children's Choir, San Diego Master Chorale, Principal Dancer of the California Ballet Reka Gyulai, and singer/songwriter Jason Mraz in holiday selections led by guest conductor Timothy Semanik. Register and view here.

11 pm ET: Old First Concerts presents Symphonies & Concertos without Orchestra. Pianist Daniel Glover will perform solo piano works which also exist as orchestral works. Performed in honor of Beethoven’s 250th birthday (December 16) the program features works by Liszt, Clementi, Alkan, and Corigliano with a connection to Beethoven, including a newly discovered work by the master found and published in Vienna this year. Tickets $20. View here.

Saturday, December 19

11 am ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Kid in the Holiday Kitchen. Part of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival, which runs through December 21. New York Times food writer Melissa Clark and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo join forces to teach a recipe from Clark’s new cookbook, A Kid in the Kitchen in a family-friendly celebration of all things food-related and festive. View here until December 21.

11 am ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Vienna Boys Choir: Silent Night. As the end of a difficult year approaches, the Vienna Boys Choir shares their most treasured traditional Christmas music. filmed at the Salon of the Augartenpalais. Tickets $13. View here until December 31.

12 pm ET: Boston Symphony Orchestra presents Music in Changing Times. Ken-David Masur conducts the BSO in Ives’s The Unanswered Question, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, New World, and Florence Price’s String Quartet in G. Tickets $100 to access full season. View here.

1 pm ET: Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall presents Iván Fischer & Seong-Jin Cho. Seong-Jin Cho is the soloist in Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto. The program also includes Iván Fischer conducting Dvorák’s Eighth Symphony and Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture. Tickets EUR 9.90. View here. LIVE

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Strauss’s Elektra. Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst, director: Harry Kupfer. With Ricarda Merbeth, Camilla Nylund, Doris Soffel, Derek Welton, Jörg Schneider. Production from September 2020. Register for free and view here. 

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Krystian Zimerman: Beethoven Piano Concertos II. The central chapter in a three-concert cycle of Beethoven’s five piano concertos performed by Krystian Zimerman with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle features Nos. 2 and 4. The Second was in fact the composer’s first full-length orchestral work. The Fourth responds to the developments in the instrument itself. Tickets $13. View here.

2 pm ET: Academy of Ancient Music presents Handel’s Messiah. Richard Egarr directs the seasonal classic with soprano Rowan Pierce, countertenor Iestyn Davies, tenor Ben Johnson, and bass Ashley Riches. Messiah will mark AAM’s first performance to a live audience since March 2020. Tickets £12.50. View here and for 48 hours. LIVE **

2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents Amarcord. Christmas from Germany with vocal ensemble Amarcord including Christmas carols such as Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, Joseph, lieber Joseph mein and Maria durch ein' Dornwald ging, along with international seasonal music. Tickets £12.50 and view here.

3 pm ET: Mandolin presents Joshua Bell & Jeremy Denk. Violinist and pianist join to play a program including Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas No. 5, Spring and No. 9, Kreutzer, plus music by Chopin (program subject to change). Tickets $25. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Handel + Haydn Society presents Handel’s Messiah for our Time. A streamed and televised performance of Handel’s Messiah, Part I and “Hallelujah” Chorus. With Ian Watson, conductor, Joélle Harvey, soprano, Reginald Mobley, countertenor, Aaron Sheehan, tenor, Sumner Thompson, baritone, and members of the H+H Orchestra and Chorus. View here and on demand.

7 pm ET: Five Boroughs Music Festival presents Juxtapositions: Old and New Music for Baroque Instruments. In Part I, music from The Well-Tempered Clavier and by Biber is juxtaposed with works by Elliot Figg. With Elliot Figg, harpsichord, Manami Mizumoto, violin, and Michael Unterman, cello. In Part II, Monica Huggett, violin and Byron Schenkman, harpsichord play Bach Sonatas. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Detroit Symphony Orchestra presents Home for the Holidays Part I. Thomas Wilkins leads a heartwarming program of carols and classics. Tickets $12. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Nabucco. Starring Liudmyla Monastyrska, Jamie Barton, Russell Thomas, Plácido Domingo, and Dmitry Belosselskiy, conducted by James Levine. From January 7, 2017. View here and for 24 hours. **

7:30 pm ET: White Snake Projects presents Sing Out Strong: Essential Voices. Ten composers have set texts by ten healthcare workers, including a helicopter flight nurse, a physician tending Native American populations in Arizona, and workers in the COVID wards of East-Coast hospitals. Performers: Carami Hilaire, soprano, Sarah Coit, mezzo-soprano, Agnes Kim, cello, Nathan Ben-Yehuda, piano, and Tian Hui Ng, Music Director. Donations go to support the Coronavirus Response Fund for Nurses. Register and view here.

7:30 pm ET: iSing Silicon Valley presents Holidays@Home. Pre-recorded and streamed, each singer was provided with a high-quality mic to use for audio recording. In preparation, the singers spent 203 hours and practiced 1,345,652 notes in Zoom classes as well as submitting 592 videos and 613 audio tracks (with the longest traveling 5,995 miles!). Register and view here.

9 pm ET: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra presents Encore Broadcast: Handel’s Messiah. The rebroadcast of a previous performance conducted by Jeannette Sorrell with Carine Tinney, soprano, Reginald Mobley, countertenor, Rufus Müller, tenor, Jesse Blumberg, baritone, and The Singers. View here and repeated Sunday December 20 at 3 pm ET.

Sunday, December 20

9:30 am ET: Opera Streaming presents Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. A coproduction between Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro Municipale di Piacenza. Conductor: Nikolas Nägele, director: Beppe de Tomasi. With Manuel Amati, Giuseppina Bridelli, and Simone del Savio. View here. LIVE

12 pm ET: Royal Stockholm Philharmonic presents Christmas Concert. Classic Christmas carols and favorites from the American tradition with soprano Elin Rombo, bass Henning von Schulman, musical theatre actor and singer Malena Laszlo, and soul and gospel singer Samuel Ljungblahd. The RSPO and choir are led by Ingar Bergby. View here.

1 pm ET: OperaVision presents Massenet’s Cendrillon. When a budding ballerina falls badly, her dreams are shattered along with her leg. Is there a life for her beyond her fantasy? And will Prince Charming take notice of her even though she may never dance again? The Komische Oper Berlin lifts Massenet's opera out of the cinders. In his surprisingly tragic interpretation, Damiano Michieletto plays with the clichés of the ruthless ballet world and crosses the line between fairytale magic and reality. Recorded on 12 June 2016. View here and on demand for one month.

1 pm ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Creative Carols. Part of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival, which runs through December 21. Joel Waggoner, a star of Broadway and the Met Opera Global Summer Camp, will teach viewers how to write songs and music inspired by holiday traditions. View here until December 21.

1 pm ET: Houston Chamber Choir presents A Time to Bring Hope. The Grammy award-winning choir, led by Artistic Director Robert Simpson, celebrates the promise of hope and peace at Christmas in new performances of favorite carols and new material from around the world as well as shared reflections from seasons past. Tickets from $9.99. View here.

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Verdi’s Otello. Conductor: Graeme Jenkins, director: Christine Mielitz. With Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kurzak, and Dalibor Jenis. Production from March 2018. Register for free and view here. 

2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents Anúna. A program of music for winter infused in the mystical and literary connections omnipresent in the Irish landscape. The concert will include seasonal classics alongside the distinctive repertoire that has been created by Anúna’s composer and artistic director Michael McGlynn with music from the Irish tradition including Irish carols alongside Anúna repertoire such as Jerusalem, Song of the Wind and Dúlamán. Tickets £12.50 and view here.

2.15 pm ET: Czech Philharmonic presents Live in Your Living Room. Tomás Netopil conducts Pavel Vejvanovský’s Sonata Vespertina, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 6 in D, Op. 60. With Stanislav Masaryk and Walter Hofbauer, trumpets, and Josef Spacek, violin View here.

3 pm ET: Chautauqua Institution presents Ying Quartet: Beethoven Cycle Part II. The Grammy Award-winning quartet continues their series of concerts performing the complete cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets. Register and view here.

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. Starring Deborah Voigt, Wendy Bryn Harmer, Waltraud Meier, Jay Hunter Morris, Iain Paterson, Eric Owens, and Hans-Peter König, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From February 11, 2012. View here and for 24 hours.

Monday, December 21

8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Stile Antico: A Spanish Nativity. A seasonal program in which the vocal ensemble performs Christmas music from the Spanish Golden Age. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE

1 pm ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Solstice Songs. Part of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival, which runs through December 21. It’s either the shortest or longest day of the year (depending on where you live). Musician and educator Goussy Célestin explores how songs and stories have always helped understand the passage of time. View here.

1 pm ET: Wiener Staatsoper presents Henze’s Das Verratene Meer. Conductor: Simone Young, director: Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito. With Vera-Lotte Boecker, and Bo Skovhus. Recorded December 14, 2020. Register for free and view here. ** 

2 pm ET: Metropolitan Opera presents Solstice Dance Party. The final event of the Met’s free, online Family Holiday Festival. To join the celebratory dance party, join via ZOOM here. LIVE

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Krystian Zimerman: Beethoven Piano Concertos III. Krystian Zimerman, the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle bring their Beethoven piano concerto cycle to an end with the Emperor Concerto. The most symphonic of his piano concertos, No. 5 was the only one not to be premiered by Beethoven himself. Tickets $13. View here. **

2:30 pm ET: Wigmore Hall presents The Cardinall’s Musick. Andrew Carwood conducts the award-winning choir in seasonal music by Palestrina, Schütz, and Praetorius. Register, view here and on demand for 30 days. LIVE **

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Starring Ying Huang, Erika Miklósa, Matthew Polenzani, Nathan Gunn, and René Pape, conducted by James Levine. From December 30, 2006. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: DACAMERA presents Schubert’s Winterreise. The winter solstice is observed with Schubert’s song cycle A Winter’s Journey, presented as a solitary wanderer without shelter in the context of the worldwide refugee crisis, and sung by baritone Tyler Duncan with pianist Sarah Rothenberg. Register and view here.

8 pm ET: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra presents Warm Wishes. Associate Conductor Jerry Hou leads a program of classical holiday favorites and beloved carols featuring vocalists Talise Trevigne and Russell Thomas. Tickets $20. View here.

8 pm ET: The Oratorio Society of New York presents The Grand Tradition Continues: OSNY Messiah 2020. A performance of selections from Handel’s Messiah taped in October in the barn at Kent Tritle’s house in Stone Ridge, New York. Tritle leads 24 members of the OSNY chorus, a 12-member orchestra, and soloists Susanna Phillips, Heather Petrie, Joshua Blue, and Sidney Outlaw. View here.

8 pm ET: Boston landmarks Orchestra presents At Home for the Holidays. A free multicultural musical celebration on the winter solstice to bring joy and light with music from around the world. View here.

Artists and Organizations Offering Free Content

Academy of Ancient Music
The most listened-to period instrument ensemble, directed by Richard Egarr, has made a number of streams available on its website. Guest artists include Louise Alder, soprano, Nicola Benedetti, violin, Mary Bevan, soprano, David Blackadder, trumpet, Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Tim Mead, countertenor, Christopher Purvis, bass, and Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short. Explore here.

American Opera Project
First Glimpse is a video album of 20 songs created during the first year of AOP’s 2019-21 fellowship program, Composers & the Voice. Originally intended as a live concert, the videos will be released every Friday beginning October 23 and for the following six weeks. The composers are Alaina Ferris, Matt Frey, Michael Lanci, Mary Prescott, Jessica Rudman and Tony Solitro, with librettists Amanda Hollander and Jonathan Douglass Turner. Videos will be free for one week following their release, after which they will be available to rent or purchase, individually or as a full set through AOP's Website. Explore here.

American Symphony Orchestra
American Symphony Orchestra releases weekly recordings from its archives with content alternating between live video recordings of SummerScape operas and audio recordings from previous ASO concerts. Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe aus Danae, and Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, all conducted by Leon Botstein, are all highly recommended and available now.

Apollo’s Fire: Music for the Soul
The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra founded by Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell is offering a series of video streams entitled “Music for the Soul.” New episodes are posted here.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
BSO Sessions continues to bring the stories of BSO musicians, conductors, and collaborators to life through a documentary-style narrative. In addition to the first three episodes currently available upcoming episodes celebrate a responsible return of winds and brass to the stage, as well as the series debut of Music Director Marin Alsop and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly. Assistant Conductor Jonathan Rush interviews film composer Michael Abels and Artistic Partner Wordsmith joins in a special holiday episode with a new rendition of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Explore here.

Bard SummerScape & Fisher Center
Archival works highlight Bard’s wealth and breadth of programming, including performances from its SummerScape Opera and BMF archives. Recent include Bard SummerScape’s 2011 production of Strauss’s rarely performed Die Liebe der Danae and last year’s Daniel Fish directed staging of Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta. More details here.

Carnegie Hall
More than 200 teen musicians hailing from 41 states across the US came together in July 2020 as an online virtual community to form three musical ensembles: the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz. All three ensembles recorded exuberant virtual performance videos during the residency, directed by Emmy Award-winner Habib Azar. The first four videos—Valerie Coleman’s Umoja by the musicians of NYO-USA; a unique adaptation of Grieg’s Morning Mood by NYO2; and Thad Jones’s Cherry Juice and Wycliffe Gordon’s We’re Still Here by NYO Jazz—are now available for viewing. Explore here.

The Cleveland Orchestra
Concert videos filmed at restaurants, shops, Cleveland Clinic, and iconic locations throughout Greater Cleveland will be released weekly on social media starting November 23. Cleveland Orchestra assistant concertmaster Jessica Lee and her colleagues created these videos to share the power of music with healthcare workers, patients, and the community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This series of 7-10 videos will be released weekly as part of the Music Medicine Initiative: The Power of Music for Health and Well-Being, a community collaboration between The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Clinic’s Art + Design Institute. Explore here.

Cliburn Kids
The Cliburn launches its expanded, robust online music education program for elementary-school students. Created as a resource for school districts, teachers, and parents, the initiative includes 27 lesson plans to date, each with a seven- to ten-minute video, and corresponding individual and class activities that meet objectives of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). New episodes and lesson plans are released every Tuesday of the 2020–2021 school year for a total of more than 50 by May 2021. Explore here.

NEW: Daniel Hope: Hope@Home, Next Generation
With the return of restrictions throughout Europe, violinist Daniel Hope is once again playing live from his Berlin living room every evening. As he explains: “I think it is important now for established artists to use their influence to help the next generation, so that they have a chance in the future. That is why I have decided to restart Hope@Home, as well as to reconnect to people in lockdown around the world. Selected mentors will present young, freelance artists. All artists will receive a fee for their performances, and we will adhere to all COVID-19 regulations.” Mentors—performing either virtually or live—include Christoph Eschenbach, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Renaud Capuçon, Sol Gabetta, and Sarah Willis. View here with episodes archived here.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has made its webcast archive available for free. The collection features 200+ works going back three years, and highlights include Leonard Slatkin conducting John Luther Adams’s climate change-inspired Become Ocean from 2019, several world premieres, and a host of bite-sized encores. Explore here.

Deutsche Grammophon Yellow Lounge
The German classical music giant is streaming Yellow Lounge broadcasts from its archives. Recent additions include clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, pianists Alice Sara Ott and Chihiro Yamanaka, and cellist Mischa Maisky. Performances are broadcast in rotation, one video at a time, adding a new performance every few days. DG communicates the start of each new performance by newsletter at the start of each week. To keep updated sign up here.

Finnish National Opera
Finnish National Opera presents Stage24, a series of streamed archived performances on its website, which are then available for the next six months. Recent content includes a staged version of Sibelius’s Kullervo, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Caspar Holten’s staging of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer with Camilla Nylund, and Christoff Loy’s Tosca. An excellent company and some interesting and original work worth investigating. Explore here.

Handel and Haydn Society
Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society has created the H+H Listening Room where you can hear and watch H+H performances including Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas filmed at New York’s Met Museum. There are also more than a dozen videos of musicians performing from their homes, a special video of principal flutist Emi Ferguson teaching people how to make their own baroque flute, and a new podcast called “Tuning In”. In the first episode Principal Cellist Guy Fishman interviews Artistic Director Harry Christophers about Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Explore here.

Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center is offering a free, live digital performance initiative, Couch Concerts, to help inspire, uplift, heal, and bring the performing arts into homes across the country and around the world during these difficult times. Couch Concerts stream direct from artists’ homes on the Kennedy Center website. Audiences can discover a wide range of other at-home programming through the Kennedy Center at Home webpage.

La Scala/RAI
Italy’s RAI presents five productions from La Scala Milan including the world premiere of Kurtág’s Fin de Partie, Daniel Barenboim conducting Götterdämmerung, Lisette Oropesa in Verdi’s I Masnadieri, Montedervi’s Orfeo conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini, and Les Vêpres Siciliennes conducted by Daniele Gatti. A wide range of concerts are also available. Explore and register here.

Les Arts Florissants
Les Arts Florissants’s annual Festival in Thiré, France included a series of 10- to 15-minute “Meditation” concerts recorded earlier this summer. Now available to enjoy online, the Meditations include performances by students of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program in the spirit of their annual participation in the Festival. View here.

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center Passport to the Arts
A variety of virtual classes, performances, and bonus content designed for children, teens and adults with disabilities and their families. Offerings include programs with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Families can attend dance, music or drama classes, watch exclusive performances, check out behind-the-scenes content, and even meet performers—all from their homes. Families will receive pre-visit materials, including social narratives, photos, and links before each program. All programs take place via Zoom. Register here.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
LACO AT HOME offers streaming and on demand performances, including a full showing of the orchestra’s critically acclaimed West Coast premiere of Dark with Excessive Bright for double bass and strings by LACO Artist-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli. View streaming here and on demand here.

Los Angeles Master Chorale
Videos recorded as part of the “Offstage with the Los Angeles Master Chorale” series from April 24 to June 19 included interviews conducted by Artistic Director Grant Gershon and Associate Conductor Jenny Wong with notable performers—including special guests Reena Esmail, Morten Lauridsen, Anna Schubert, Peter Sellars, Derrick Spiva—as well as Master Chorale singers. Available on demand here.

Metropolitan Opera Live In Schools
The Metropolitan Opera’s HD Live in Schools program has launched a new series for the 2020–21 school year, creating cross-disciplinary educational opportunities across the country. For the 2020–21 school year, students and teachers will receive free subscriptions to the Met Opera on Demand service, with a catalogue of more than 700 Live in HD presentations, classic telecasts, and radio broadcasts. Ten operas have been selected for the HD Live in Schools program, and will be presented in five educational units, with two thematically paired operas per unit. The series opens with Beethoven’s Fidelio and Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment (September 28–October 16), both of which explore the intersection of music and politics. The Met will continue to offer teachers HD Live in Schools Educator Guides and access to Google Classroom materials that can be adapted for virtual learning lesson plans. In addition, the Met’s National Educators Conference will be hosted on a virtual platform this year and take place on five Saturdays throughout the 2020–21 school year. Two conferences, scheduled for October 10, 2020, and October 17, 2020, will also feature live conversations with Met artists. More information here.

Minnesota Orchestra
Minnesota Orchestra at Home shares video, audio, and educational materials through the categories of Watch, Listen and Learn, including videos from the orchestra’s archives and newly created “mini-concerts” directly from the homes of Orchestra musicians. Explore and view here.

National Sawdust Digital Discovery Festival, Volume One
With more than 65 events, featuring over 100 artists premiering in a four-month span, National Sawdust Digital Discovery Festival: Volume One was a bright spot in NYC's post-COVID live music world. Featuring post-COVID performances from Robert Wilson, Julian Lage, Tyondai Braxton, Emel Mathlouthi, Matthew Whitaker, Dan Tepfer, Ashley Bathgate, Emily Wells, Brooklyn Rider, Joel Ross, Conrad Tao, Andrew Yee, and Lucy Dhegrae, and recently recorded Masterclasses with Tania León, Ted Hearne, Vijay Iyer, Jamie Barton, Lawrence Brownlee, Trimpin, and Lara St. John. Archival performances include David Byrne, Lara Downes and Rhiannon Giddens, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Explore here.

New World Symphony
The New World Symphony presents a web-based series called NWS Archive+. Michael Tilson Thomas moderates discussions with NWS Fellows, alumni, guest artists, and visiting faculty about archived recordings. Performances will be available here. NWS Fellows also play live, informal chamber music concerts from their homes in Miami Beach and broadcast via Facebook Live. In addition, the NWS online archive contains master classes, tutorials and town halls, which can be found here. Finally, for the past 10 years, the Fellows have performed one-hour concerts for local school children. These concerts and preparatory material will be available free to students and parents. NWS Educational concerts can be found here.

Opera Australia
OA | TV: Opera Australia on Demand is the Sydney-based company’s new digital space. Alongside the world’s largest collection of Dame Joan Sutherland on video, OA will offer exclusive content from the OA back catalogue, productions from Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, and a new series of chat show-style interviews conducted by AD Lyddon Terracini. The first posted full show is Sutherland in The Merry Widow, and the fileted aria’s in the section labelled “The Best of Dame Joan Sutherland” are even better. View here.

Opéra National de Paris
The Palais Garnier and Bastille Opera have made their digital stage, “The 3e Scène,” free. The platform is a pure place of artistic adventure and exploration, giving free rein to photographers, filmmakers, writers, illustrators, visual artists, composers, and choreographers to create original works. Visit here. Some of Opéra National de Paris’s productions are accessible on the company’s Facebook Page. In addition, Octave, the Paris Opera’s online magazine, is posting articles, videos, and interviews here.

Opera North
One of Britain’s most respected smaller opera companies, Opera North has put its acclaimed semi-staged concerts of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle online. “Beg, borrow, or be like Wotan and steal a ticket for this show,” said the UK’s Times of Das Rheingold. “You’d be lucky to hear as good at Bayreuth,” said The Telegraph of Die Walküre. Richard Farnes proves a seriously impressive Wagner conductor. Watch here.

OperaVision
OperaVision offers livestreams of operas available for free and online for six months. Previous offerings include Barrie Kosky’s visually spectacular Moses und Aron, David McVicar’s superb Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Glyndebourne, and Deborah Warner’s thoughtful Death in Venice for English National Opera. View upcoming and past content here.

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra: Beethoven at Home

RPO bring Beethoven to living rooms in December playing all nine symphonies. The musicians will perform the first eight symphonies in small chamber ensembles varying from a string sextet to a 15-strong brass ensemble. The Grand Finale takes place on New Year’s Eve: Beethoven’s Ninth, played by the full orchestra with chorus and soloists. View here.

Orli Shaham Bach Yard Playdates
Pianist Orli Shaham brings her acclaimed interactive concert series for kids to the internet. Bach Yard Playdates introduces musical concepts, instruments, and the experience of concert-going to a global audience of children and their families. A number of 10-minute episodes are already available for on-demand streaming. Programs and performances range from Bach’s Two-Part Invention to Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. Explore here.

The Sixteen
The Sixteen and founder Harry Christophers launched Quarantine with The Sixteen, a regular schedule of digital content. The Sixteen Virtual Choir’s performance of Sheppard’s Libera nos involved each part being recorded at each singer’s home. Other features include: Choral Chihuahua, a podcast by The Sixteen and I Fagiolini; Stay at Home Choir performing Sir James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn; Archive performances, including MacMillan’s Stabat Mater performed in the Sistine Chapel and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Streetwise Opera; Recipes for isolation; Video diaries providing insight into daily lives during lockdown; Weekly playlists. Explore here.

Trinity Wall Street
New York’s Trinity Church Wall Street introduces daily weekday “Comfort at One” (1 pm ET) streaming performances on Facebook with full videos posted here. Tune in for encore performances of favorite Trinity concerts, professionally filmed in HD, along with current at-home performances from Trinity’s extended artistic family.

University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado Boulder College of Music faculty artists perform with students and colleagues in Faculty Tuesdays, chamber music recitals featuring world premieres alongside classics. Free most Tuesdays from September 2020 through March 2021. Upcoming performers include violinist Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O'Neill, cellist David Requiro, pianist David Korevaar, harpist Janet Harriman, and more. Explore here.

Vertical Player Repertory: The Constitution
VPR is releasing of a series of videos from Benjamin Yarmolinsky’s oratorio The Constitution, a work which played six sold-out live performances in 2019 and was called “an important work,” and “uniformly excellent,” by Musical America. First up is Voting Rights, which sets the text “The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of age, by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax, on account of sex, on account of race, on account of color, or of previous condition of servitude.” Future releases will include The First Amendment (Treason), The Fifth Amendment (Self-Incrimination), The Sixth Amendment (Impartial Jury), The Eighth Amendment (Cruel and Unusual Punishment), The Thirteenth Amendment (Abolition of Slavery), and The Miranda Warning (a world premiere). Explore here.

Voices of Ascension
New York choir Voices of Ascension, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next season, is posting a daily offering of choral beauty on its website. Music is chosen by staff, members of the chorus and orchestra, and listeners. View here.

Warsaw Philharmonic
The Warsaw Philharmonic has made a selection of video recordings available on its YouTube channel. Recent offerings include Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony and Arvo Pärt’s Swansong conducted by Artistic Director Andrzej Boreyko, as well as rarities by Polish composers like Grazyna Bacewicz. It’s an excellent orchestra very much in the Eastern European tradition and concerts have been master edited for posting online.

Paid Digital Arts Services

Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall
The BPO Digital Concert Hall contains over 600 orchestra concerts covering more than ten years, including 15 concerts with the orchestra’s new Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko, interviews, backstage footage.

Medici TV
Thousands of classical music videos are available by subscription, as well as hundreds of events that are broadcast live for free each year, available for 90 days. Subscriptions cost $83.85 per year. www.medici.tv

Pictured: Pianist Krystian Zimerman