Carolyn Kuan
c) Jane Shauck

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra (Connecticut) announced that Music Director Carolyn Kuan, 44, has signed a new, two-year contract that will continue her commitment to the HSO through May 2024. Kuan was chosen as HSO’s 10th Music Director in 2011. Her initial three-year contract was extended for two additional years in 2014, and then for an additional six years in 2015. Her new contract begins with the 2022-2023 season.

Kenneth Overton

Opera On Site is currently presenting a very special project: The Road We Came, in which historian Eric K. Washington and baritone Kenneth Overton are exploring Black music history and the landmarks of New York City. It’s an app-based musical walking tour with a timeline that begins with NYC’s earliest Black inhabitants and ends with the 2021 debut of the first African American composer at the Metropolitan Opera. Read More →

Juan Perez Floristan

The 28-year-old Spanish pianist Juan Perez Floristan has won the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Alviv. In addition to the Gold Medal, Floristan was awarded four special prizes: Best performance of an Israeli piece, Best performance of a Beethoven Concerto, Best Chamber Music performance, Audience favorite. Read More →

Nachdem die Bayerische Staatsoper letzte Woche die Gründung ihres eigenes Labels Bayerische Staatsoper Recordings – kurz BSOrec – angekündigt hatte (Pizzicato-Bericht), wurde heute mitgeteilt, dass die Naxos Music Group sich um den physischen und digitalen Vertrieb der Veröffentlichungen kümmern wird. Read More →

British composer Anthony Payne is dead, the BBC reported. Payne was born in London in 1936. He started composing at a very early age, inspired by composers like Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. Read More →

Fang Zhang
(c) BBC

The Chinese-born 17-year-old percussionist Fang Zhang has been named BBC Young Musician 2020. His playing « elicited a kaleidoscope of colours and expression » that « deeply moved the jury », said Angela Dixon, who chaired the judging panel. Read More →

The Polish radio today announced the death of conductor Kasimierz Kord. He was 90 years old. Born in Krakow, Kord first studied piano in Katowice as well as in Russia before graduating in conducting from the Krakow Music Academy. Read More →

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the singers Okka von der Damerau, Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, Kevin Conners, Christian Gerhaher and the conductors Hansjörg Albrecht and Thomas Hengelbrock, on behalf of and with the support of the initiative ‘Aufstehen für die Kunst’ (Standing up for Arts), have filed an urgent constitutional complaint in summary proceedings with the Federal Constitutional Court against the closure of theatres, opera houses and concert halls, with an infection incidence above 100, in Germany, as provided for in the Notbremsegesetz (Emergency Brake Law). An urgent appeal to the Bavarian Administrative Court was dismissed on 15 April.

The third Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (SISIVC), which has been postponed for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, kicks off on August 12, 2021. The competition received 102 applications from 31 countries and regions around the world by the application deadline in January last year, and now the list of 36 contestants selected for the Quarter-Final Round is officially released. Read More →

Opéra Bastille, Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron announced today the schedule for the reopening of cultural venues to the press. Seated concerts will be authorized from 19 May, within the limit of 800 spectators indoors and 1,000 spectators outdoors. Museums, theaters, monuments and cinemas will also be allowed to reopen from this date. The curfew will also be postponed to 21h. Read More →