classical music

We hear the Orchestre de Paris is about to name Esa-Pekka Salonen as its next music director. The official word is expected within hours. E-P, who is 67, will replace his fellow-Finn Klaus Mäkelä, whose […]

The Southwestphalia Philharmonic has chosen Ingmar Beck as its chief conductor, starting a year from now. He is a former chorister at Augsburg Cathedral and a winner of the Aspen conducting prize. The post Baton […]

An advisory about interval bells has been issued in the website’s disability section: ‘The bell is loud and can be startling. It is rung ten minutes before the show starts and at each interval.’  So […]

The Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri starts work today as director of the Vienna State Ballet, taking responsibility for ballet to both the Staatsoper and Volksoper, and at the Ballet Academy. Ferri, 62, has starred as […]

News from the Grafenegg Festival: Zubin Mehta has had to cancel his appearance at the Grafenegg Festival on September 7. Daniel Barenboim will conduct the concert with Rudolf Buchbinder and the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower […]

The 15th Banff International String Quartet Competition  was decided overnight in Canada. The winners come from Cinicinnati and are known as the Poiesis Quartet. A peculiar press rerlease goes on to designate their preferred modes […]

The Mexican soprano Lourdes Ambriz, the voice of Belle in Disney’s 1990 Spanish-language version of Beauty and the Beast, has died at 67. After a diverse international opera career, Lourdes served from 2015 to 2017 […]

Message received:   The Dutch lutenist and theorbo player Fred Jacobs died last Thursday. As fine a player of those instruments as there could be, whether as a soloist or as a continuo player, he […]