As an appropriate response to the behaving of an utterly autocratic Potus, the musical 1984 after George Orwell’s novel will come to New York’s Broadway in June 2017. The piece was originally produced in the U.K. by Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and the Almeida Theater. Read More →

Ensemble Esperanza
(c) Christine Kocher

Am 10. Februar geht das Musikfestival ‘Next Generation’ bereits in die siebte Runde. Für spezielle Musikerlebnisse im ‘Grand Resort Bad Ragaz’ sorgen das ‘Ensemble Esperanzea’ unter der Leitung der Violinistin Chouchane Siranossian, sowie die aufstrebenden Künstler und diesjährigen ‘Artists in Residence’. Read More →

Oksana Lyniv
(c) Oleg Pavlyuchkiy

Die aus der Ukraine stammende Dirigentin Oksana Lyniv wird ab der Spielzeit 2017/18 Chefdirigentin des Grazer Philharmonischen Orchesters und der Oper Graz. Sie ist die Nachfolgerin von Dirk Kaftan nach, der als Generalmusikdirektor des Beethoven-Orchesters nach Bonn geht. Read More →

Christian Thielemann
(c) Deutsche Grammophon

Der Dirigent Christian Thielemann, 57, ist gewillt, seinen Vertrag als Chefdirigent der Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden zu verlängern. Das sagte er in einem Interview der ‘Dresdner Morgenpost’. Thielemann steht noch bis Mitte 2019 in Dresden unter Vertrag und im Interview widersprach er Pressemeldungen, wonach die Vertragsverhandlungen ins Stocken geraten seien.

Finnish conductor Mikko Franck (*1979) has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. His contract is signed for three years. It is the first time that the Academy hires a Principal Guest Conductor. Read More →

A removable sailcloth will cover the Arena

The visitors of the Arena di Verona might soon be protected from rain. The city has announced the winners of a contest for the creating of a huge coverage to be built. A group of German companies has won the competition with a project that will cost €13.5 million. Read More →

Jamie Barton

American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, 35, has won the Beverly Sills Artist Award 2017 from the Metropolitan Opera. Barton who receives $50,000 with the award made her Met debut in 2009 and is in rehearsals for the company’s new production of Dvorak’s Rusalka, which premieres tomorrow. Jamie Barton also won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition (both Main and Song Prizes) in June 2013 as well as the Richard Tucker Award. The Pizzicato review of her newest CD is available here.

Benjamin Britten

At the Red House in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears lived for almost 40 years, a new exhibition, Queer Talk: Homosexuality In Britten’s Britain, is inaugurated today. It will outline the life and work of Benjamin Britten during the period of social change that led to the 1967 decriminalisation of homosexuality. Read More →

Ben Gernon

The 27-year-old British conductor Ben Gernon has been announced as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. He will take up the position in autumn 2017 and conduct the orchestra in a number of concerts each year, at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and elsewhere. In 2013 Gernon won the  Salzburg Festival Young Conductor’s Award and became a Dudamel Fellow with the LA Philharmonic the same year.

The St. Louis Symphony and the American Federation of Musicians, Local 2-197, announced an agreement on a new five-year labour contract reached more than seven months prior to the expiration of the previous contract. Read More →