Das Stadttheater Trier sucht zurzeit einen neuen Generalmusikdirektor, der ab  2018 die Nachfolge des Franzosen Victor Puhl antreten soll. Es wird eine märchenhafte Entscheidung: Vier Kandidaten werden in den kommenden Wochen je eine Vorstellung von Humperdincks Oper ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ dirigieren. Read More →

Petr Nekoranec

Czech tenor Petr Nekoranec, 24, won First Prize at the 54th edition of the International Singing Competition Francisco Vinas in Barcelona. Since September 2014, Nekoranec has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and it’s Opera Studio. Read More →

Kahchun Wong
(c) Michael Trippel

Kahchun Wong, 30, gebürtig aus Singapur, wird als Nachfolger von Howard Shelley neuer Chefdirigent der Nürnberger Symphoniker. Sein Kontrakt beginnt mit der Saison 2018/19 und läuft über vier Jahre. Wenn alles nach Planung geht, könnte er also den neuen Konzertsaal in Nürnberg eröffnen, der 2022 fertig sein soll. Read More →

The new Potus (President of the United States) is willing to close the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, considering arts in general as a waste. Red this shaking commentary of American arts insider Drew McManus which will lead you to several other articles on the same subject. Even though the federal funding of music projects is minimal, the Potus’s idea of changing the tax rules for donations is the real threat.

Frédéric Chopin
(c) Polish Institute Paris

A previously unpublished portrait of Fryderyk Chopin has been discovered, according to the Polish Radio. It was discovered by Chopin-enthusiast Swiss physicist Alain Kohler in the living room of another fan of the composer and is likely a reproduction of a daguerreotype taken around 1847. There exist only two other portraits of Chopin, reproductions of which the originals were lost in World War II. The newly discovered photo is now at the Polish Institute in Paris. Read More →

Tchaikovsky Museum Moscow

The Russian State will renovate the Tchaikovsky Museum in Moscow, which opened in 2007 in a mansion at Kudrinskaia Square, where the composer rented a small one-room apartment rented in 1872–1873. In 2007, the whole house was transformed into large museum devoted to Tchaikovsky. Read More →

American soprano Roberta Peters died yesterday, 18 Janaury, at the age of 86. Born in 1930 in the Bronx, New York City, the child of a shoe salesman and a hat maker, she was encouraged by tenor Jan Peerce to study singing. She started her when she stepped in to replace Nadine Conner as Zerlina at the Met, in November 1950. She was 20, had never performed on stage, nor had she sung with a full orchestra, but her performance was received with great enthusiasm. Read More →

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Photo: Toshiyuki Urano

Wegen gesundheitlicher Probleme hat der 93-jährige Ehrendirigent der Deutschen Radio Philharmonie Stanislaw Skrowaczewski seine Mitwirkung an der 4. SR-Soirée am 23. Juni in der Saarbrücker Congresshalle abgesagt, teilte das Orchester mit.  Für ihn springt der aus Costa Rica stammende Dirigent Giancarlo Guerrero ein.

While thousands of Americans will participate in anti-inauguration protests all over the United states and abroad, the National Sawdust Theatre in Brooklyn produces a special musical film project which airs online on the Inauguration Day (January 20) at noon, Eastern Time, in conjunction with the presidential inauguration ceremony. Read More →

Jonas Kaufmann
Photo: Mathias Bothor

Der deutsche Tenor Jonas Kaufmann (47) wurde nach mehrmonatiger Pause vom Publikum der Opéra Bastille in Paris stürmisch gefeiert. Er sang dort gestern Abend die Titelrolle in Wagners ‘Lohengrin’.