classical

The Standard has a sweet story about Victoria Canal who, born with one arm, dreamed all her life of playing with Coldplay. Then she got the call from Chris Martin. She says: ‘He literally just […]

Michael Graubart, who came to England as an eight year-old refugee from Nazi Vienna, has died after a long life of service to music and education. After first studying physics and working as an engineer […]

Hamburg Ballet is putting on a 14-day tribute this Sunday to its American director John Neumeier who, at 85, is stepping down. Neumeier has contributed a new work to the festival. ‘Epilogue’ is danced to […]

The Würth Group has signed on to be the Salzburg Festival’s main sponsor from 2025. The group is a $22 billion business that makes industrial and domestic attachments and owns a chair of appliance supermarkets. […]

The theatre and opera director Benoît Jacquot was charged with rape by Paris prosecutors on Wednesday. Evidence against Jacquot, who directed Werther for Antponio Pappano at Covent Garden in 2003, was given by two actresses, […]

The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos has fired its Dutch artistic director Ivan van Kalmthout abruptly and without explanation. His contract was due to run another three years. In a statement last night, the theatre’s […]

The National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa has named Henry Kennedy, 27, to the new position of Resident Conductor. The job was open only to Canadians. Kennedy, from Nova Scotia, was assistant conductor last summer […]

The state theatre of Kassel, where the young Gustav Mahler learned the conducting ropes, has chosen the Lithuanian Ainars Rubikis as its Generalmusikdirektor. Rubikis, 45, was formerly GMD at the Komische Oper Berlin. The post […]

In one of few Labour setbacks last night, voters in Bristol Central unaseated Thangam Debbonaire, who was destined to be Culture Secretary in Keir Starmer’s new government. Debbonaire, 57, a former orchestral cellist who founded […]

Jean Cocteau’s 135th Birthday Click here to watch This week also marks the 135th birthday of Jean Cocteau,  the celebrated French author, playwright, artist and director. Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – […]