The orchestra world has known for a while that the Baltimore Symphony is seething with unresolved conflict. The matter started when the concertmaster Jonathan Carney allegedly made a sexual advance to the principal oboist Katharine […]
In my very early teens, I sneaked into an over-16s ‘A’ film of an all-black casting of Bizet’s opera Carmen. Never having seen Carmen in an opera house, I was overwhelmed and not a little […]
The death is reported of the venerable Jean Laforge, chorusmaster of the Opéra de Paris for three decades and of other major companies for the next 15 years. Laforge entered the Palais Garnier as deputy […]
Vienna has just seen two productions of Bellini’s opera in a week. The Teater an der Wien had a brilliant cast – Asmik Grigorian, Aigul Akhmetshina, Freddie De Tommaso – and spartan sets. The Vienna […]
The death has been reported in Bologna of the effulgent tenor Romano Emili, a revered and popular figure on Italian stages and in the former East Germany. He retired that magnificent voice in 2004. The […]
Vienna-based Yuki Hirano from Sapporo has been pronounced winner of the seventh Jascha Heifetz Competition, which took place in Vilnius, Lithiania. Gidon Kremer chaired the jury. The post Japanese wins Heifetz Competition appeared first on […]
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and the SF Symphony have announced the appointment of Joshua Elmore as Principal Bassoon. He is apparently the orchestra’s first black principal player in 50 years. The SF Symphony have also […]
The death hnas been reported of the venerable violinist Marta Kushnirskaya, soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra for three decades and artistic director of the all-female Marta Kushnirskaya Violin Ensemble. Marta was 91. The post […]
The Oper! awards, voted by a panel of music critics and reporters, have been presented. Best opera house of 2025 is La Monnaie in Brussels. The jury chair said: ‘Brussels opera house La Monnaie / […]
The former KISS guitarist and singer Karl Cochran has been killed in a car accident in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Cochran, 61, was in the passenger seat of a 2015 Subaru Legacy, driven by his mother, […]
