It may not attract headlines the way that its visual art and cinema siblings regularly do, but the International Festival of Contemporary Music has been part of the Venice Biennale family of cultural events since 1930. It now takes place every year across a fortnight in early autumn, and the …

norman lebrecht September 27, 2022 We have obtained a copy of the so-called ‘stage plot’ for a string quartet performance, created using CAD (computer-aided draughting). It shows stagehands at the recent Banff International String Quartet exactly the type, position, and adjustment of the stage furniture and accoutrements for one of …

Sound artist and composer Fay Victor’s powerful voice cut through the din of chatter at Joe’s Pub, marking the beginning of International Contemporary Ensemble’s September 20 concert. She and the ensemble were performing FLOW TO THE NEXT, a piece that asks artists to bring their own text and melodies to …

A weekend of concerts spotlighted the 118 new chorales commissioned by William Whitehead to fill Bach’s incomplete ‘Little Organ Book’. One event dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II was especially poignant. The Orgelbuchlein Completed project staged a weekend of concerts in late September juxtaposing Bach’s Orgelbuchlein with 118 newly commissioned pieces …

The conservatory’s Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program has named six new participants   Founded in 2013, the Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program of the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Canada, provides emerging musicians a platform for career development. The one-year postgraduate program …

There’s an enduring story that the premiere of Verdi’s Aida featured a dozen elephants in Act 2’s triumphal procession. Disappointingly that’s a myth, but there’s at least one of them still lurking in the room now whenever an opera company takes on the work, one that gets bigger and wrinklier …

norman lebrecht September 27, 2022 The march that accompanied Her Majesty on her last journey down the Mall sounded to all symphonic ears like the opening of Mahler’s Fifth. Listen here at 11:04. It was, in fact, Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, opus 62/3. It was intended for drawing room use …

Classical music has always had a dedicated and loyal following behind it, but it certainly lags behind mainstream pop music and many of the modern-day music makers that are being played by radio stations and headlining most major music festivals. From talented musicians to legendary composers and pianists such as Ludwig …

by Maggie Molloy Photo by Kylir Horton. Picture yourself under a canopy of changing leaves: golden orange and bold, beautiful red. The air is cool and crisp, you’re bundled up in a hat and scarf. On a cold autumn evening, there’s nothing like going for a long …

  When I was coming of age as a serious follower of things Classical I naturally found my way to Beethoven’s glorious symphonies, at first a fine old reading of his Eroica by Leonard Bernstein in the Music Appreciation Series that came out I guess in the late ’50s. From …