Tito Ceccherini will conduct the Ensemble Modern and the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in the opening concert of the Biennale Musica in Venice on 26 September with works by Rebecca Saunders and Unsuk Chin.

On 19 and 20 September, Shiyeon Sung will conduct the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla's season opener with Carmina Burana, which will be performed with the legendary Basque concert choir Orfeón Donostiarra.

Valentin Uryupin makes his debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which he conducts in concerts with cellist Julia Hagen at the opening of the season at deSingel Antwerp (18 September) and at the Flanders Festival Gent (19 September).

On 18 September, Bas Wiegers will conduct the Munich Chamber Orchestra at the Klangspuren Schwaz Festival with a world premiere by Johannes Maria Staud and an Austrian premiere by Chaya Czernowin, in which Ilya Gringolts will be the soloist.

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.

At the age of 75, conductor Marc Soustrot has now announced his retirement from the stage. He has just released his last CD with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra featuring orchestral works by Maurice Ravel.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The third and concluding part of Antje Weithaas' recording of all Beethoven violin sonatas with Dénes Várjon is just as enthusiastically received by critics as the two previous CDs.

On 3 June, 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

In May 2022, Ensemble Musikfabrik premiered Ming Tsao's Triode Variations in Cologne. We caught up with the composer during a visit to his Berlin flat in the run-up to the performance.

Congratulations to the Armida Quartet: the final CD of the complete Mozart recordings is currently receiving critical acclaim, and the previously released Volume 4 even receives an Opus Klassik award.

"Outstanding through and through": On 26 August, Miriam Batsashvili's second album was released on the Warner Classics label, centred on Liszt's piano transcriptions from the opera, lied, and organ repertoire.

The Armida Quartet has put together a comprehensive Mozart package in recent years: a concert series, a complete recording, and even an app - all with surprising perspectives on the composer.

The new CD by the Gringolts Quartet received outstanding reviews and was awarded a Diapason d'or.

The Armida Quartet becomes musical ambassador of the climate initiative Orchestras of Change.

In the November issue of the journal MusikTexte, Ming Tsao outlines ways towards a materialistic musical expression.

Premio Abbiati del Disco: The recording of Ondřej Adámek's compositions Where are you? and Follow me with Magdalena Kožená, Isabelle Faust and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Rundel and Sir Simon Rattle has received the prestigious Italian critics' award.

The Castalian String Quartet's debut CD, released at the end of April, has received rave reviews.

Originally recorded for a film, this masterful interpretation of Mahler's Wunderhorn Lieder with baritone Dietrich Henschel and the Bochumer Symphoniker under Steven Sloane has now been released on CD.

In the FAZ, Ilya Gringolts is portrayed as a musician with enormous stylistic range and unwavering integrity.

Maximilian Hornung becomes artistic director of the Traunstein Summer Concerts

Just before Bas Wiegers conducted his first concerts in front of a live audience in May, he sat down for an interview to reflect on the preceding Corona year.

As music director of the Folkoperan Stockholm, Henrik Schaefer started the season 2021/22 by bringing the house fresh ideas – and not just through the original romantic sound.

A Mozart with character, played to perfection: Rave reviews for the Armida Quartet's new CD.