classical

This is the 2025 list of Guggenheim award winners, out today. Three have been selected as ‘notable’ (good word for a composer) – Katherine Balch (pictured), Michael Patrick Dease and Huang Ruo. Full list: Holland […]

Having slashed the executive team last July, the haemmorhaging Nashville Symphony laid off eight more staff on Friday. Amounting to 13% of remaining staff, they are: Director of Analytics Director of Marketing Digital Communications Manager […]

Bessie Smith was a blues and jazz singer of the Harlem Renaissance who is still known as the ‘Empress of the Blues’. Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Smith was the youngest child of seven, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee […]

We have been informed of the passing of two important players. Bernard Ringeissen, who died on April 4 at the age of 90, was an early champion on record of the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan, […]

The Korean National Symphony Orchestra has named Roberti Abbado as its next artistic director, for three years from January. Abbado, 70, is a nephew of the late La Scala and Berlin chief Claudio Abbado. He […]

Sunday’s annual charity fundraiser by the German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not contain a single work by a German or Austrian composer. Very outward looking, especially towards the US. Here’s the rundown: George Enescu […]

‘Am I a criminal?’ demands the Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis in an interview with Der Spiegel. The challenging performer, 53, has been shunned by many western organisations for receiving financial support from the Kremlin and […]

Last week we reported much dissatisfaction with the Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, who reverted from a Beethoven recital on his UK tour to last year’s tried-and-tested Goldberg Variations. The switch was all the more aggravating […]

The German Music Information Center has published a survey showing that 16.3 million people aged six and ove regularly play music, around 21 percent of the population. What is striking is that the figure is […]

The family and friends have reported the death of Peter Seiffert, one of the most popular singers within his profession and one of the finest Heldentenor performers of recent years. Born in Düsseldorf, Seiffert made […]