High-profile awards ceremonies are often only as interesting as the controversies they create. The 2016 ARIA Awards has started strongly in this area. Although the main ceremony is still a month away…
Trump’s use of a Puccini aria has caused some raised eyebrows.
Michael Reynolds/EPA // Wikimedia Commons
The rate of female composers working in Australia hasn’t risen in seven years. At one leading ensemble, 41 of 47 composers commissioned have been men. What’s going wrong, and how can it be fixed?
In his 150th anniversary year it seems appropriate that Sibelius and his reception receive a critical re-evaluation.
French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand presents Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (centre) with the highest decoration in France, Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour, in 2011.
Wikimedia Commons
The classical music world is marking the 150th anniversary of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius with concerts across Finland and in Australia too. But who was the man behind the music?
Music and astronomy have been intimately linked since antiquity.
AAP Image/ NASA
From Twinkle Twinkle to Space Odyssey and beyond, humans have always turned to music to help deal with the profoundly confronting enormity of the cosmos. Is that a match made in the heavens?
The master at work: Daniel Barenboim plays his new piano at London’s Festival Hall.
Lauren Hurley / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Like the medical profession, classical music is being forced publicly to confront an endemic culture of sexual harassment. Self-regulation has failed young musicians and action is long overdue.
The composer’s irregular heartbeat may have influenced his music.
Jim Pruitt/Shutterstock
After a very drawn out and fraught construction, the Philharmonie de Paris is finally open. The 2,400 seat concert hall was conceived with ambitious plans to democratise classical music, and is situated…
Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride is a milestone in opera history – and Pinchgut’s production is marvellous. Photo: Keith Saunders.
Pinchgut Opera
In any Opera History 101 course, Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) is cited as one of the most influential figures in the development of opera. And, of course, this is true. Gluck’s operas, and his…
ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM.
Ryan Egan/Flickr
Today, in a statement to his staff, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said: ABC Radio plans to cut back on the number of concerts recorded on Classic FM. This is a prudent efficiency measure that still…
The urge to make new music is alive and well among young people in the UK, but not always using conventional instruments in the classroom or school orchestra. A new survey of music education has found…
Maxime Pascal conducts the Argonaut Ensemble at BIFEM.
Jason Tavener
What, one might wonder, is the value of an international festival of exploratory music? And why is it in Bendigo, in north-west Victoria? In Australia, we have so many festivals featuring music, film…