A performance by Anna Netrebko in the Czech capital Prague has been canceled. The announcement came after the Prague government said on Monday that all its coalition parties opposed the concert at a time Russia wages war on Ukraine. Read More →

Front of the Liszt Academy's concert centre
Photo: Remy Franck

The criticism of the appointment procedure for the post of rector of the Franz Liszt Academy in Hungary, is also being echoed internationally. The responsible minister received numerous letters of support for the Academy in recent weeks, according to Hungarian media reports. Read More →

Conductor Taijiro Iimori died from acute heart failure on Tuesday. He was 82. The late conductor studied at Toho Gakuen College and then honed his skills in the United States. He went on to win prizes at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition for Conductors (1966), and at the First Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition (1969). Read More →

Zubin Mehta
(c) Stephan Polzer

87-year-old ace conductor Zubin Mehta has arrived in his hometown Mumbai to conduct two concerts at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on August 19 and 21 with the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), with whom he is performing for the first time. Read More →

Andras Schiff
(c) Nadia F Romanini

Als einen „wesentlichen Künstler, der Festspielgeschichte mitgeschrieben hat, als einen der bedeutendsten Pianisten unserer Zeit und einen wirklichen Freund der Salzburger Festspiele“, würdigen die Salzburger Festspiele  den Pianisten Andras Schiff. Am Tag nach dessen Solistenkonzert im Großen Saal der Stiftung Mozarteum wurde dem Pianisten die Festspielnadel mit Rubinen überreicht.

Conductor Arnold Östman died in Stockholm yesterday at the age of 83. Born in Malmö, he studied art history and musicology at Lund, Paris and Stockholm. He focused on the subject of early opera, bringing to light a number of theretofore unknown or little-known baroque operas. Read More →

Italian soprano Renata Scotto has died in Savona. Born in 1934, she passed away tonight at the age of 89. After studying in Milan, Renata Scotto made her debut in 1952 on the stage of Savona’s Teatro Chiabrera in La Traviata. During her long career, she sang in theaters such as La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan in New York and the Royal Opera House in London and became an internationally renowned soprano. Read More →

Zoltan Kodaly

30 candidates will face the jury of the Kodaly Conducting Competition starting August 21 in Debrecen, Hungary. This jury, chaired by Jorma Panula and including Janos Acs, Peter Broadbent, Remy Franck, Zsolt Hamar, Oksana Madarash, Dániel Somogyi-Tóth, will evaluate the work of one female conductor and 29 male conductors. Those come from Australia, Austria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, UK, USA. Read More →

Nachdem das Lucerne Festival die Absage von Konzerten der Pianistin Martha Argerich und des West-Eastern Divan Orchestra bekannt gegeben hatte, teilt das Orchester jetzt mit, dass alle Auftritte von Argerich im Rahmen der Sommertournee mit Daniel Barenboim abgesagt wurden. Die Pianistin hatte auf eine baldige Genesung gehofft, nachdem sie vergangene Woche bereits von ihrem Mitwirken bei den Konzerten in Köln und Luzern zurücktreten musste. An ihrer Stelle wird Igor Levit einspringen.

Chopin Monument Zelazova-Wola
Photo: Remy Franck

The Fryderyk Chopin Institute Warsaw announces the International Chopin Competition ‘The Real Chopin’, to be held at the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw from 5 to 15 October 2023. In this competition, including finals with orchestra, candidates will have to play on period instruments which Frederic Chopin was playing himself when creating his works. They are including historical instruments from Chopin Institute Collections as well as new concert instruments built by world famous maker Paul McNulty. Read More →