New music
Alan Pierson on rhythm, the gay aesthetic, and his late colleague Matt Marks.
The formative sounds and experiences of composer Pauline Oliveros.
Jessica Ekomane believes in mistakes.
Yuval Sharon takes on opera’s future.
A profile of Cenk Ergün.
The Grossman Ensemble encourages productive failure.
Philip Thomas configures the moment.
Political art
The renewed relevance of Beethoven’s “Egmont”
Beethoven at the Brink
Can political music survive in a Biden normalcy?
Remembering Maria Yudina 50 years after her death.
The US election’s deceptive cadence.
What’s a classical musician to do in Trump’s America?
Was an Aspen Music Festival musical production racist?
Music the profession
What’s behind Orpheus Classical?
Nicholas Daniel’s plan to reform UK classical music.
Was an Aspen Music Festival musical production racist?
Fear, anger, and harassment at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe.
A century apart, symmetrical cases of sexual harassment in opera.
In Taiwan, an orchestra plays by COVID rules.
James Levine is suing the Met. No matter what, both parties lose.
Weird and wonderful
Oh, what fun.
The classical leanings of one of LSD’s biggest advocates.
…in Case You Need to Scream
Does marijuana have a future in classical music?
Bang on a Can, “Arthur,” and the avant-garde music meme factory.
Yes, every single one.
A satire, a lawsuit, and a thin-skinned violinist.
Opera
Alex Ross on Richard Wagner.
On Alex Ross’s Wagnerism: Art and Politics In the Shadow of Music.
What would singers do without them?
A century apart, symmetrical cases of sexual harassment in opera.
Yuval Sharon takes on opera’s future.
Christian Gerhaher doesn’t want to entertain.
Exploring bisexuality through opera.
Soloists and conductors
How Schubert accompanies Graham Johnson.
The Coda of Leon Fleisher’s Life is to Search for Truth within Juxtaposition.
James Levine is suing the Met. No matter what, both parties lose.
Cameron Carpenter and the feedback loop of notoriety.
A Longtime Assistant Remembers Mariss Jansons.
Alan Gilbert starts fresh.
Paul Lewis makes his Berlin Philharmonic debut.
Women and non-binary composers
The formative sounds and experiences of composer Pauline Oliveros.
Jessica Ekomane believes in mistakes.
Unsuk Chin suffers for her art.
An interview with the composer Betsy Jolas.
An interview with the composer Ashley Fure.
Meredith Monk translates biological process into a new language.
On Borealis, an experimental festival for music.
Strings
An interview with Julia Fischer
Daniela Huber’s orchestral transition.
Where did classical music’s most famous label go wrong?
Roberto González-Monjas and his painstaking preparation.
Alina Ibragimova wants it darker.
An interview with the cellist Steven Isserlis.
Why studies questioning the Stradivarius myth are so persuasive.
Personal essay
What’s a classical musician to do in Trump’s America?
On listening to music while airborne.
Exploring bisexuality through opera.
A music critic listens with depression.
When the concert stage becomes a trigger for trauma, and what to do about it.
Is the prevalence of suicide in opera harmful or healing?
There is no absolution in art or life. A dispatch from Bayreuth.
Early music
The niche appeal of a historical diminution competition.
Yes, every single one.
Early music is Gwendolyn Toth’s religion.
Christian Gerhaher doesn’t want to entertain.
Vicente Lusitano and classical music’s selective memory.
Alina Rotaru wants to change the notes.
Pierre Hantaï teaches himself.
Literature and film
Alex Ross on Richard Wagner.
Books on the human relationships complicating the soloist’s life.
The Coda of Leon Fleisher’s Life is to Search for Truth within Juxtaposition.
Alan Hollinghurst on music.
Four new books bring music back to the world.
Teju Cole’s musical obsessions.
What opera should be learning from the movies.
The voice
The formative sounds and experiences of composer Pauline Oliveros.
Mark Padmore wants attention and intention.
Christian Gerhaher doesn’t want to entertain.
Censorship, political correctness, and the legacy of “America’s Troubadour.”
On politics and solace in Schubert’s “Winterreise.”
Saul Williams’s words to music.
An interview with an opera casting director.
Queer
The formative sounds and experiences of composer Pauline Oliveros.
Exploring bisexuality through opera.
The novelist Garth Greenwell on singing, literature, and the physicality of language.
On the sexual politics of musical metaphors.
“The Gender Agenda,” a musical gameshow by Philip Venables.
Alex Temple’s polystylistic exuberance.
Ione completes an opera by her late partner Pauline Oliveros.
Illness
Can opera techniques help COVID-19 patients?
What it’s like playing for a stream in an empty Miller Theatre.
A music critic listens with depression.
When the concert stage becomes a trigger for trauma, and what to do about it.
Is the prevalence of suicide in opera harmful or healing?
Small concert promoters salvage the future.
What one octogenarian performer’s experience reveals about getting old in the music business.
Music under Putin
How Teodor Currentzis became a Russian sex symbol.
Russian classical music’s money machine.
On the impact of Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Behind the hype of Teodor Currentzis.
The liberation of the Syrian city of Palmyra from ISIS by Russian forces called for a celebration. But this was no ordinary open air concert.
Faced with a hostile government, new, improvised music in Russia is flourishing on the fringe.
Perfect Pitch
Is a popular perfect pitch course a revelation or a scam?
Is a popular perfect pitch course a revelation or a scam?
Is a popular perfect pitch course a revelation or a scam?
Is a popular perfect pitch course a revelation or a scam?
Is a popular perfect pitch course a revelation or a scam?
Is a popular perfect pitch course a revelation or a scam?
Musicology
Remembering Maria Yudina 50 years after her death.
Remembering Linda Shaver-Gleason.
Susan McClary wants to debate the music.
An interview with the journalist and musicologist William Robin on “a scene without a name.”
Outernational
An interview with Wendy M.K. Shaw