The cancellation of performances at Seoul’s Sejong Center for the Performing Arts involving dancers from the Bolshoi Ballet comes after the concert hall turned down the organizer Ballet & Model’s proposal to alter the cast and program. As reported by The Korea Herald, Ballet & Model signed a deal with the Sejong Center in October 2023 to stage the show at the venue. In late March 2024, they made several changes to the show’s cast and program.  The number of ballet dancers was proposed to decrease from 20 to eight, with the number of Bolshoi Ballet’s principal dancers down f ..read more

  The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has appointed conductor Cristian Mӑcelaru as the 14th music director in its 129-year history. To succeed Louis Langrée, who will become music director laureate, Mӑcelaru will begin an initial five-year term in the 2024/25 season. He will serve as the music director designate in the first year. Co-chaired by Peter Landgren and Sheila Williams, the Music Director Search Committee comprised CSO musicians, CSO Board members, and volunteer leaders from the community. “Cristian Mӑcelaru is intense in terms of his work and passionate about music and its ..read more

  Following the last 15 years as Reno Philharmonic’s music director and conductor, Laura Jackson will continue her work in leading the orchestra through the 2028/29 season. “The musicians of the Reno Phil look forward to working with Laura in continuing to grow the orchestra’s contributions and relationships across the Northern Nevada community,” noted the Reno Phil Players’ Committee chair Jordan Pyle in the press release.Jackson’s career began at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where she was the first female assistant conductor from 2004 to 2007. She joined Reno Phil in her current role ..read more

Grammy Award-winning, Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Per Rostad is an active performer and professor of viola and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music. As a former member of the Pacifica Quartet for almost two decades, he also founded DoCha, a chamber music festival in Champaign, Illinois. Amidst his career, Masumi sits down with his friends and colleagues to discuss the ins and outs of their instruments in his Sound Post series. The third edition has returned, and its second episode features violinist Blake Pouliot, an international soloist with a 1729 Guar ..read more

  In this exclusive signing, VC Artist Daniel Lozakovich’s first album for Warner Classics is due for release in August 2024. It will feature pianist Mikhail Pletnev alongside Lozakovich playing Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3 and ‘Solveig’s Song’ from Peer Gynt, Shostakovich’s ‘Romance’ from The Gadfly and a Violin Sonata jointly composed by Alexi Shor and Pletnev himself. "While very much a young player of today, he is an artist whose poetry and integrity place him in the great tradition of the 20th-century violinists who set the benchmarks fo ..read more

VC Artist and Spanish Cellist Pablo Ferrández has released his newest album, Night Sessions Vol. 2, on Sony Classical. Each track on the album is closely related to a personal memory of Pablo's. Opening with Edward Elgar's Salut d'Amour, the melody connects Pablo to his infancy where he heard Salut d'Amour every evening with his mother. "I recorded this song for her," he shared. The album also includes Alexander Glazunov's Chant du ménestrel, Op. 71 which Pablo performed in the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow during his teenage years. Additional works include Saint-Saëns’ "The Swan," and an arrange ..read more

  The 2024 edition of the International Max Rostal Competition will be held from October 19 to 25 at the Universität der Künste Berlin. The competition caters to violinists and violists who are under the age of 30. Applications are now open and must be received by May 31, 2024. Applicants must upload an audition video containing two contrasting movements of solo Bach, the first movement of either Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major or Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, and a violin-piano duo by Schubert or Beethoven from an approved list. You can view more details abou ..read more

  Ukrainian-American Violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv has released her newest album, Ukrainian Masters. Released on Naxos, the album features violin sonatas in collaboration with Steinway Artist and pianist Steven Beck, spanning repertoire of the 20th century. The album includes a world-premiere recording of Ukrainian composer Viktor Kosenko's Violin Sonata Op. 18 in A minor (1927). In addition to Kosenko's Violin Sonata, Myroslav Skoryk's Violin Sonata No. 2 (1991) and Sergei Bortkiewicz's Violin Sonata Op. 26 in G minor (1922) are included as well, presenting a collection of sonatas that tran ..read more

  Published in December 2023, Mandy Hughes’ paper “Countering inequality: The role of music opportunities in promoting well-being and belonging for young Australian regional classical music students,” considers how programs made available through local regional conservatoriums can support rural music students in achieving their goals. Documenting the experiences of non-metropolitan classical music students in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, Hughes’ research centers on a case study of the Regional Youth Orchestra NSW (RYO), where advanced regional and rural classical music students devel ..read more

  Conductor Marlon Daniel has been named the new Artistic Director and Conductor of the orchestra at the Universität Münster Musikhochschule (MHS). The appointment comes as part of a revitalization of the MHS orchestra, which is now in its 100th year. Daniel will lead the ensemble in two concerts in June 2024, which will feature works by Beethoven, Dvořák, Smetana, and Strauss. Presently, he is the Artistic and Music Director of the Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges, Music Director of Ensemble du Monde (chamber orchestra), Founder and Music Director of ACYO (All-Caribbean Yo ..read more