classical

On March 24, 2015, we reported the crash of a Germanwings flight in which two opera singers – Maria Radner and Oleg Bryjak – lost their lives. They were among 150 victims of the disaster, […]

The music director of the Cleveland Orchestra has written a commentary on recent events for the Backstage Classical site. In it, the Austrian conductor spoke out strongly against artist boycotts, arguing that ‘culture must remain […]

The Swiss composer Pierre Mariétan died yesterday in his 90th year. A former associate of Boulez and Stockhausen, he leaves 300 instrumental, orchestral, vocal and electro-acoustic works. His pièce de résistance is Paysmusique (1991), which […]

The following message has just gone out from the sinking South Bank Centre: Important update: Royal Festival Hall closure on Mondays From Monday 7 April the Royal Festival Hall, including the Members Lounge, will be […]

Announcement from the Black Orchestral Network: We congratulate our friend Dana Kelley who recently won the position of Associate Principal violist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Learn more about Dana: Violist Dana […]

Beckett Briefs Click here for tickets ​Don’t miss this. For this week only, until March 30th, the Irish Rep is streaming their critically acclaimed production of Beckett Briefs. When this show premiered live at the […]

Message from the maestro after Maria Valverde’s debut as a director at the Malaga Film Festival: Some beautiful memories from the premiere of El Canto de las Manos at the Málaga Film Festival, a film […]

The Grawemeyer-winning composer Olga Neuwirth is working on a new opera with Nobel Prize literature winner Elfriede Jelinek. Titled ‘Monster’s Paradise’ it features an incompetent, brutal king, easily recognised in today’s political pantheon. The style […]

Tavish Forsyth, a program director at the Kennedy Center’s Opera Institute, has been fired after posting a naked video of himself on Youtube and X, deriding the Center’s new president. ‘America had quit me and […]

We have been notified of the death of Alan Cuckston, a widely recorded English harpsichordist and pianist. Born in Leeds, he toured with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Pro Cantione Antiqua and recorded much […]