The 55-year-old Dutch conductor and violinist Jaap van Zweden has been announced as the incoming conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He is currently Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and succeeds Alan Gilbert, whose appointment began in 2009 and ends with the 2016–17 season.
Opera Australia (OA) today announced that the accessibility programme that offers first time opera-goers tickets for just $20 each has been extended into the 2020 Sydney and Melbourne seasons. This Susan and Isaac Wakil Foundation Access Program has given more than 8,700 people the opportunity to experience an opera production for the affordable price of…
Guitarists Andrew Blanch and Ariel Nurhadi are two of the hottest young performers in Sydney’s classical guitar scene. Today their debut album Alchemy is released on and digital on the ABC Classic label Alchemy, takes us on a journey through the ages and around the world, with classics by Debussy, Rameau, Piazzolla, Albéniz, Falla and…
Elliott Carter, the composer whom Aaron Copland described as “One of America’s most distinguished creative artists in any field” died on November 5th, aged 103. His creativity showed no signs of abating in his final years. One of his most recent compositions, Dialogues II received its premiere just last month with pianist Daniel Barenboim and Gustavo Dudamel…
“A great opera experience — intimate or grand, traditional or unconventional — can have a powerful effect…….. But my gut (and the global decline in opera subscriptions) tells me that when opera tries to sex itself up and compete with mega-spectacles, it loses its power to connect with audiences.” A ‘must-read’ from Lindy Hume, past…
For a number of years in the recent past, Sydneysiders were treated to performances by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra during the first week of August. This annual tour was inaugurated by its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing, under whose leadership, the TSO also amassed an impressive discography which included the complete Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies. After…
The Music Trust’s Freedman Classical Fellowship finalists have been announced for 2021 after a competitive search for Australia’s most creative classical musician under 30, NSW double bassist Will Hansen (24) has been named along with three Victorian artists, violist Molly Collier-O’Boyle (27), violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller (28) and flautist Eliza Shephard (28) as the 2021 Freedman…