In an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper, Karsten Witt talks about the aftermath of the corona pandemic in the classical music business, the unbroken enthusiasm for making music and our new concert series hiddenCLSX (in German).
From 13 to 20 September, the Le Pont International Music Festival in the Japanese prefecture of Hyogo will once again feature renowned musical guests and a varied chamber music programme under the artistic direction of Daishin Kashimoto.
As part of the Musikfest Berlin, Titus Engel will open the symphony concert series of the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra on 8 September with works by Stockhausen, Cage and Wagner.
Following acclaimed performances in Berlin, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan will be appearing at the Dance House Helsinki (27 to 30 August), in Hellerau (3 to 5 September) and at the Torino Danza Festival (9 and 10 September).
On 6 September, the Armida Quartet will be performing in Wittenburg alongside pianist Kit Armstrong to mark the conclusion of their residency at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
On 5 September, the tenor Simon Bode appears at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, where Handel’s Messiah will be staged as a ‘community oratorio’ as part of the Weimar Arts Festival.
For their unique Paganini project, Carlotta Dalia and the Goldmund Quartet perform the composer’s music on his historical instruments. A first single from the recording, due for release on11 September, offers a taste of what’s to come.
"A wild, untamed and deeply honest musical journey’" Together with Nicolas Altstaedt and Ian Bostridge, Olli Mustonen has released his work Taivaanvalot ("Heavenly Lights") on the Alpha Classics label, which appears alongside his Sonata for Cello and Piano and works by Kodály.
Friedrich Praetorius will make his debut as General Music Director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig on 22 August with a special production: Der Freischütz will be performed open-air on the historic Burgplatz, the heart of the city of Braunschweig in 18 performances until 9 September.
The album featuring Friedrich Cerha’s complete works for organ, recorded by Wolfgang Kogert and released by the Kairos label to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth, has been awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize.
Sasha Stychkina’s debut CD has now been released on the Alpha Classics label and is winning rave reviews.
A warm welcome to Hèctor Parra! Born in Barcelona in 1976, the composer is tirelessly exploring new artistic concepts and collaborates on multidisciplinary projects with partners from the arts and sciences.
Following a significant country premiere at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Mark Andre will be featured as Composer-in-Residence at the Lucerne Festival in August and September with world premieres and first performances.
On 1 July 2026, Hans Werner Henze would have turned 100. A new documentary featuring previously unseen archive footage traces his career.
We are delighted to be working with Stefano Gervasoni with immediate effect; his compositions are characterised by a sophisticated and highly personal soundscape.
With every work he creates, Michael Jarrell adds to his musical self-portrait: it reflects his constant striving for clarity and precision in his compositional work. We are delighted to be working with the Swiss composer from now on!
Asya Fateyeva’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performed with cellist Eckart Runge and accordionist Andreas Borregaard, has now been released on the Berlin Classics label.
"An outstanding debut album": Jan Liebermann's recording, featuring works by Marcel Dupré and Maurice Duruflé, among others, was selected as an Editor's Choice by Gramophone magazine.
"A recording for the ages": Daishin Kashimoto’s interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with the Berlin Baroque Soloists has received rave reviews and was named Editor's Choice by the Gramophone magazine.
"Verve, energy, and charm": To kick off of their complete recording of Mozart’s string quintets, supplemented by contemporary musical ‘postcards’ to the composer, the Kuss Quartet has now released the first of three planned albums, in collaboration with violist Muriel Razavi.
Welcome, Jan Liebermann! We are thrilled to begin our collaboration with one of the most promising artists on the international organ scene.
For the German magazine Fono Forum, Arnt Cobbers spoke to Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher about cosmic music, their collaboration with composers such as Stockhausen and Kurtág, and interpretative freedom in both older and contemporary music.
In 2026, the music world will celebrate the 100th birthday of Friedrich Cerha and honour the composer, who died in 2023, with publications, concerts and even a world premiere; a special stamp will also be issued to mark the occasion.
To mark the release of his new album Notebook, Lukas Ligeti spoke in April 2026 in an in-depth interview with Samuel Andreyev about formative musical experiences and his artistic development.
For the Business of Classical Music podcast, Karsten Witt spoke with Leon Dreher in early 2026 about young artists' expectations for their careers, the day-to-day business of artist management, and the future of the international classical music industry.
Anton Gerzenberg's debut CD, Ravel Reflections, was launched on 5 December 2025 on the Prospero label.
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.
Following the performance of all six Mozart string quintets at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Ilya Gringolts explained to us what attracts him to historical instruments and why the Gringolts Quartet will continue to play on gut strings more frequently in the future.
In an interview between her spring engagements in Lyon and Montreal, Jenny Daviet surprises us with her unexpected approach to roles and works and reveals her dreams for the future.
Variations on a theme: On the occasion of kwmm's 20th anniversary, filmmaker Uli Aumüller listened in on us with his camera and created a portrait of the company from 18 conversations about our work.
Recorded by the Ensemble Ascolta, the album Sounds, Archaeologies, now released on the KAIROS label, brings together compositions by Isabel Mundry that understand listening as an active, participatory process.
Simone Menezes and her Ensemble K have recorded a chamber version of Gustav Holst's Planets Suite, which has now been released on CD under the title Cosmos.
Under the baton of Titus Engel, the WDR Symphony Orchestra recorded Betsy Jolas' Musique d'hiver – the album has now been awarded the German Record Critics' Prize.
‘He sings beyond competition’: The press pays tribute to the great tenor Christoph Prégardien on the occasion of his 70th birthday, which he celebrated on 18 January 2026 at the Konzerthaus Dortmund.
Friedrich Praetorius is appointed Permanent Guest Conductor at Oper Leipzig.
Now available as a podcast: For the series Menschen und ihre Musik (People and Their Music), Karsten Witt spoke with hr2 radio presenter Niels Kaiser in autumn 2025 about his unusual career as a music manager and about the music that has particularly moved and accompanied him along the way.
Johannes Klumpp and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker are awarded the OPUS KLASSIK for their complete recording of all Haydn symphonies, completed in autumn 2024. Our congratulations!
Ilya Gringolts' recording of Bach's sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Francesco Corti has now been released by Arcana as his label debut and was promptly awarded the Diapason d'or.
"Stylistic confidence and gripping expressiveness": The Kuss Quartet receives one of the coveted International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) for its first recording of two works by Ernst Gernot Klussmann.
Toshio Hosokawa has received the prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for the "extraordinary reach of his music, which tends a bridge between the Japanese tradition and contemporary Western aesthetics", according to the jury.
Anssi Karttunen has recorded Betsy Jolas' complete works for cello and piano together with Nicolas Hodges – the double album has now been released on the bastille musique label.
In June 2025, Philippe Manoury's 'Thinkspiel' Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, based on Karl Kraus' monumental drama The Last Days of Mankind, premiered at the Cologne Opera under the direction of Peter Rundel and received enthusiastic reviews.
Now available to stream in full length: Toshio Howokawa's new opera Natasha premiered in August 2025 at the New National Theatre in Tokyo under the baton of Kazushi Ono and was enthusiastically received.
Carlotta Dalia's album Segovia pays tribute to the pioneer of classical guitar playing and recorded on his own historical guitar.
In April and May 2025, the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar presented Mieczysław Weinberg's opera The Passenger in a new production staged by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito under the musical direction of Roland Kluttig. We spoke to the conductor about his special relationship with Soviet music and the significance of Weinberg's opera for the memory of Nazi atrocities.
We congratulate Titus Engel on winning the Swiss Music Prize 2025.
Congratulations to Samir Odeh-Tamimi and the JACK Quartet: they each receive one of the coveted Italian Premio Abbiati critics' prizes 2025.
Five questions for the JACK Quartet: For the Musikkollegium Winterthur magazine, the musicians gave humorous and revealing insights into their musical and literary passions.
Toshio Hosokawa's one-act opera Futari Shizuka with Ryoko Aoki in the title role and his acclaimed flute concerto Ceremony have been released on CD, recorded by the Residentie Orkest under Jun Märkl for the Naxos label.
Congratulations to Peter Rundel: the recording of Hèctor Parra's opera Les Bienveillantes, premiered under his direction at Opera Vlaanderen in 2019 and released on three CDs in 2024, has been awarded the prestigious Grand Prix international du disque by the Académie Charles Cros.
The 2025 Grawemeyer Music Composition Award goes to Christian Mason for his ensemble work Invisible Threads.
There are good reasons to celebrate in Porto: the Remix Ensemble is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2025. The ensemble's artistic director Peter Rundel looks back at its beginnings.
The sea of sound: Before Toshio Hosokawa's new opera Natasha premieres at the New National Theatre in Tokyo on 11 August 2025 under the direction of Kazushi Ono, we are publishing an excerpt from the composer's work notes.
In February, two very different albums with orchestra and big band were released, both recorded under the musical direction of Titus Engel: The orchestra and big band of the Deutsche Oper Berlin celebrate Duke Ellington, and the Basel Sinfonietta and the NDR Bigband present a new work by Michael Wertmüller.
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.
In an extensive interview for the World Federation of International Music Competitions, Hyung-ki Joo spoke about the humorous side of classical composers, about his collaborations with personalities such as Gidon Kremer, Asmik Grigorian and, early in his career, Yehudi Menuhin, and about his plans as the new Artistic Director of the Menuhin Competition.
Olli Mustonen talks about an early musical key experience, composers who have influenced him and the interplay between analytical thinking and intuition.
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.
"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.
‘Emotionally simply stunning": Two new CDs with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane were released at the end of the year - George Antheil's opera Venus in Africa and Vol. 2 of Franz Schreker's complete orchestral works, which inspired the online magazine Klassik Heute to a rave review.
