On 18 December, the new production of Richard Strauss' opera Salome, directed by Ersan Mondtag, premieres at the Vlaamse Opera - it can be seen in Antwerp in December and in Ghent in January under the musical direction of Alejo Pérez.

From 12 to 18 December, Simon Bode will be performing Bach cantatas on an Advent tour with the RIAS Chamber Choir and the Akademie für Alte Musik in Brussels, Augsburg, Zurich and Bielefeld.

The album LAUTER! with the Ensemble Reflektor under the direction of its Principal Conductor Holly Hyun Choe, released at the end of November, presents works by Ethel Smyth, inti figgis-vizueta and Ying Wang.

On 9 and 10 December, Daishin Kashimoto will perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Paavo Järvi in Tokyo, before also appearing in recital with pianist Rafał Blechacz at Suntory Hall on 19 December.

Valentin Uryupin makes his debut with Carmen at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden: From 7 December to 5 January, he will be conducting Bizet's masterpiece in Berlin.

From 4 to 8 December, Ilya Gringolts will perform Schönberg's Verklärte Nacht ('Transfigured Night') as part of a star cast at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Bremen Glocke, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Elbphilharmonie.

On tour in the Netherlands with Mozart, Dvořák and Widmann: Antje Weithaas will be performing six concerts with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta as soloist and leader from 30 November to 11 December.

From 29 November to 25 January, Toshio Hosokawa's opera Hanjo will be shown in Schwerin, staged by Judith Lebiez - the 20th new production of the work since its premiere in 2004.

Exhibition at Karsten Witt's: Paintings by Samir Odeh-Tamimi and ceramics by Marie-Annick Le Blanc can be seen from 30 November to 8 December in Berlin-Weißensee.

Shiyeon Sung becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla.

Subtle sound metamorphoses, dreamlike atmospheres, finely crafted textures: We invite you to get to know the music of Christian Mason.

Role debut in Bonn: From 10 November to 31 January, Marie Heeschen can be seen in the title role of Handel's opera Alcina, which is being staged in a new production by Jens Daniel Herzog.

We are delighted to be working for the composer Milica Djordjević, and even more so to begin our collaboration with congratulations: Her portrait CD of orchestral works, released by BR-KLASSIK/musica viva, has received the prestigious Italian critics‘ prize Premio Abbiati del Disco and is included in the list of the best of the German Record Critics’ Award.

Antje Weithaas' recording of the Violin Concerto No. 2 by Pēteris Vasks, which she recorded together with the Camerata Bern, was released at the end of September.

On the occasion of the world premiere of Samir Odeh-Tamimi's composition Roaïkron at the Biennale Musica in Venice in autumn 2024, Italian musicologist Gianluigi Mattietti spoke to the composer about his new piece and about his life stages in Israel, Greece and Germany, which are reflected in his music.

Congratulations to Antje Weithaas: The complete recording of the ten Beethoven violin sonatas with Dénes Várjon is honoured with the German Record Critics' Award 2024.

Daishin Kashimoto's CD with Chausson's Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet, recorded together with Éric Le Sage and the Schumann Quartet, was released by Sony Classical in October and was promptly voted Album of the Week by BR Klassik radio.

‘Crazy masterpiece": Following the great success of the world premiere at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, Tito Ceccherini conducts Lucia Ronchetti's opera Der Doppelgänger ("The Double") at the Lucerne Festival and in further performances until January.

For a recording now released on the Signum Classics label, the Castalian String Quartet has recorded the string quartet by the British composer Brian Elias.

A new CD with chamber music by Johannes Maria Staud, performed by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche and the Boulanger Trio, among others, was released in the NEOS label on 27 September.

Toshio Hosokawa's complete works for guitar have now been released as a CD on the BIS records label, recorded by Jacob Kellermann with soprano Ilse Eerens and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra under Christian Karlsen.

Olli Mustonen talks about an early musical key experience, composers who have influenced him and the interplay between analytical thinking and intuition.

On the occasion of the new recording of Stockhausen's epochal piano work Mantra, Götz Schumacher talks in an interview about the intensive relationship that has connected the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo with the work since its beginnings.

A new recording of Brahms' Symphony No. 1 and Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its Conductor Laureate Eliahu Inbal was released at the end of July.

Passionate, intense, balanced, multi-faceted, intimate: the Brahms CD by the Gringolts Quartet, released in June, was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month.

In 2026, the music world will celebrate Friedrich Cerha's 100th birthday. In view of this occasion, we would like to draw your attention to a selection of the most important works by the composer, who died in February 2023 - and to the new website friedrich-cerha.com.

In June 2024, Mariam Batsashvili was once again a guest at the Klavier Festival Ruhr. In a very personal interview with festival director Katrin Zagrosek in the run-up to the festival, she spoke about what composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt mean to her.

As a Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Holly Hyun Choe works with the orchestra, its chief conductor Gustavo Dudamel and prominent guest artists in the 2024/25 season.

Role debut as Sieglinde: Sarah Wegener performed Wagner's Walküre under the baton of Kent Nagano in six major European concert halls in 2024. In the run-up, she talked about her path to the new role and other vocal milestones of recent years.

"Don't touch" was what Carlotta Dalia heard as a child when it came to guitars. Luckily, she revolted against this order and now delights audiences with her playing on historical and modern guitars, even outside of sworn guitar circles.

For his new opera Don Juan's Inferno, which premiered at the Royal Danish Opera in April, Simon Steen-Andersen has been awarded both the Danish National Theatre Prize and the composition prize Carl Prisen.

In June, the fourth CD with orchestral works by Toshio Hosokawa was released on the Naxos label, including his trumpet concerto Im Nebel, which Jeroen Berwaerts recorded together with the Residentie Orkest under Jun Märkl.

Anton Gerzenberg is the first awardee of the new Martha Argerich Steinway Prize.

Ming Tsao becomes Birge-Cary Professor of Music at the University at Buffalo, taking over the professorship once created for Morton Feldman.

With a record release concert on 15 February at the Roulette in New York, the JACK Quartet presented the first album with compositions by its violinist Austin Wulliman.

Together with the Mozarteum Orchestra, Lin Liao has recorded three works by Hans Werner Henze that are closely related to Mozart and Salzburg.

Light and Darkness is the title of a new album of works for saxophone by Toshio Hosokawa released by the Kairos label.

For a new recording with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and flautist Alberto Navarra, Holly Hyun Choe conducted works by Mozart, Reinecke and Nielsen.

Outstanding reviews for the Armida Quartet's recording of works by Max Reger and Johanna Senfter.

Olli Mustonen's recording of the two 3rd piano concertos by Rautavaara and Martinů with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Dalia Stasevska was honoured with the German Record Critics' Award.

Lukas Ligeti is the artistic director of the World New Music Days, which took place in Africa for the first time in its centenary year 2023 - a unique opportunity for creative exchange: both the African audience and the guests from all over the world heard music they had never come into contact with before.

World premiere of the year: Vito Žuraj's first full-length opera Blühen came to the stage in Frankfurt in early 2023 under the musical direction of Michael Wendeberg and has now been named premiere of the year by Opernwelt magazine. In our interview, Vito Žuraj talks about his collaboration with librettist Händl Klaus, director Brigitte Fassbaender and the Ensemble Modern.

In 1975, Les Percussions de Strasbourg premiered Karlheinz Stockhausen's scenic composition Musik im Bauch. At the Berlin festival Maerz Musik, the ensemble presented the work in a visually and musically impressive new production by Simon Steen-Andersen.

Newborns as music critics: With Liszt's Liebestraum No. 2, Mariam Batsashvili starts a series of recordings of "baby-friendly" works from the piano repertoire.

Numerous obituaries, some of them very personal, pay tribute to the life and work of Friedrich Cerha, who died in February 2023.

On François-Frédéric Guy's first Chopin album Secret Garden, the pianist lets a cross-section of Chopin's works blossom on two CDs.

The GrauSchumacher Piano Duo inspires with their recording of Brigitta Muntendorf's Trilogy for two pianos and as performers in her Theater des Nachhalls (Theatre of Echo) included on Blue-ray.

The PluralEnsemble has recorded important works by Fabián Panisello for a recently released portrait CD.

In addition to having recorded all of György Ligeti's works for choir a cappella, the SWR Vokalensemble is offering workshops on the composer's work as part of a major school project and is also touring his music in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, France and Italy in May and June.

Composers of various generations talk about their personal encounters with Friedrich Cerha’s monumental Spiegel cycle.

Congratulations to Daishin Kashimoto: his CD with chamber music by Nino Rota received a Diapason d'or award of the year!

On 2 February 2023, Samir Odeh-Tamimi's music theatre work Philoktet, based on the dramas by Sophocles, Heiner Müller and André Gide, was premiered at the Eclat Festival Stuttgart with the Neue Vocalsolisten and the Zafraan Ensemble.

In the first edition of our new kwmm podcast series "Encore," violinist Johanna Staemmler chats about the Armida Quartet's complete Mozart recordings while we listen to the interpretations together (in German).

Ming Tsao's Triode Variations, premiered in May by Ensemble Musikfabrik under Emilio Pomàrico, have now been released on CD; the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin have also recorded works by the composer for the album.

Composer and painter: Friedrich Cerha (1926-2023) was both. Karsten Witt on his encounters with the artist since the 1980s.