On 5 November, as part of the VOICES BERLIN Festival, Maria Kalesnikava and Viktoriia Vitrenko will present a deeply personal concert performance exploring the possibility of human connection across time and distance.

With works by Haydn, Beethoven and Ethel Smyth, Holly Hyun Choe will begin her first season on the Côte d’Azur as the new Directrice musicale of the Orchestre national de Cannes on 25 October.

On 25 October, Jan Liebermann will make his debut in the organ concert series at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, performing works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Liszt and Karg-Elert.

Brad Lubman will conduct the opening concert of the 2026 Donaueschinger Musiktage with the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Experimental Studio – to be enjoyed live on 16 October via video stream or on the SWR Kultur radio programme.

To celebrate Steve Reich’s 90th birthday, Brad Lubman will conduct joint concerts with the Bang on a Can All Stars and the Ensemble Signal on 22 and 24 October at Carnegie Hall and at Cal Performances in Berkeley.

Ilya Gringolts and Anton Gerzenberg present works by Franz Schubert for violin and piano on the Arcana label, recorded on period instruments.

Sasha Stychkina is the winner of the prestigious Kissinger KlavierOlymp competition, which was held in Bad Kissingen in early October!

From 10 October to 4 November, Jenny Daviet will be performing the title role in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire in Nantes and Angers.

Until 24 November, Roland Kluttig will be conducting Pascal Dusapin’s Il Viaggio, Dante as the opera's German premiere at the Hanover State Opera, staged by Claus Guth.

On 4 October, Alejo Pérez will make his debut in Bizet’s Carmen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin – five performances of the production, directed by Ole Anders Tandberg, are scheduled until 25 October.

‘Authentic and evocative’: Carlotta Dalia and the Goldmund Quartet present their unique Paganini project, in which they perform the composer’s music on his historical instruments – their joint CD was released on 11 September on the Berlin Classics label.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.