Alejo Pérez returns to the Tokyo Nikikai Opera with the new production of Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, directed by Peter Konwitschny, with which will premiere on 24 October as part of the Tokyo Opera Days.

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.

As part of the final concert of the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Neue Vocalsolisten and the SWR Symphonieorchester under Vimbayi Kaziboni will premiere Chaya Czernowin's work Unforeseen dusk: bones into wings on 20 October.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard will perform Mark Andre's new work ...selig ist... for piano and electronics twice on 19 October in Donaueschingen.

On 10 October, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Raiskin will premiere the chamber orchestra version of Jacob Mühlrad's new work RESIL I in Örebro. An entire programme of his works will be performed a week later in Malmö with the Malmo Symphony Orchestra under Lin Liao.

From 5 October, Caroline Melzer can be seen at the Stuttgart State Opera in the title role of Paul Hindemith's short opera Sancta Susanna, which will be staged there as a performance directed by Florentina Holzinger under the title Sancta.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.