Marin Alsop
Photo: Grant Leighton

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians have ratified a one-year contract with the management three months before the current one expires. Read More →

Rund 12.400 Besucher aus 42 Nationen sind zu den Pfingstfestspielen 2017 nach Salzburg gekommen. Dies ist ein Besucherplus von über 8% gegenüber dem Vorjahr. Read More →

Victor Julien-Laferrière

French cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière (*1990) has won the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Cello competition! The other prizewinners are:  Yuya Okamoto (Second Prize), Santiago Cañón-Valencia (Third Prize), Aurélien Pascal (Fourth Prize), Ivan Karizna (Fifth Prize), Brannon Cho (Sixth Prize). Read More →

The problem with child Trump and his middle-finger politics is that his deplorable behavior generates followers. It’s spreading out like cancer. Probably relying on POTUS’s opinion that culture is waste, Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott has cut $500,000 in funds to help the Florida Orchestra pay for their new outreach program Beyond the Bay for schools and community orchestras across Florida. Read More →

Marek Janowski

Nachdem die Baden-Badener Pfingstfestspiele mit einem Klavierabend von Andras Schiff und einem Opernrezital mit Diana Damrau und ihrem Mann Nicholas Testé begonnen hatten, folgte Richard Wagners ‘Rheingold’. Es war die letzte von vier Aufführungen mit dem NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester auf seiner Deutschland-Tour. Alain Steffen berichtet. Read More →

Hélène Boulègue
Photo: Eric Chenal

French flutist Hélène Boulègue has won the Kobe International Flute Competition, Pizzicato learned from the Luxembourg Philharmonic, of which the musician is a member. Read More →

William Christie
(c) Denis Rouvre

Conductor and musicologist William Christie has announced that he is setting up a new Public Foundation to which he will leave his heritage. Among the properties is a villa and garden in Thiré (Vendée). Born in New York in 1944, Christie settled in France in 1971 and acquired the French nationality in 1995. He created the instrumental and vocal ensemble Les Arts Florissants in 1979.

British conductor Sir Jeffrey suddenly died from a stroke today at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo. He was 74 years old. Read More →

Jochem Hochstenbach

Für die Stelle des Generalmusikdirektors  am Theater Trier hat die Findungskommission den Niederländer Jochem Hochstenbach (*1970) vorgeschlagen. Er ist erster Kapellmeister am Konzerttheater Bern und seit 2012 Musikalischer Leiter der Sinfoniekonzerte des Festival Esterhazy. Read More →

Valery Gergiev
(c) Marco Borggreve

Russian conductor Valery Gergiev has inaugurated his private concert hall in Repino, a suburb of St. Petersburg, the Russian Internet magazine ‘Classical Music News’ reports. Gergiev used a piece of land which he got on a long-term lease for the construction of a two-story cottage back in 2005. He later revised his plans and started building a chamber music hall for an audience of 100 people. The investment of € 2,5 million was apparently made by himself. Here is a photo of the inauguration. Read More →