The Telegraph

Franciscan Friar becomes first to sign major record deal

A Franciscan tenor has become the first ever friar to sign a major recording contract, after music executives heard him sing in his native Italy.

Interview: composer Jonathan Dove talks about his new opera, The Walk From the Garden

Jonathan Dove tells how Adam and Eve meets Paradise Lost in his new opera, The Walk From the Garden, premiering at Salisbury Festival.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: touchstone of perfection

Ivan Hewett pays tribute to the masterful German classical singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has died aged 86.

The Guardian

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a revolutionary performer

Fischer-Dieskau reorientated our listening experience, writes Daniel Barenboim in a personal tribute to the great baritone.

A guide to John Zorn’s music

Anything and everything goes in Zorn’s constantly evolving musical world: his pieces are a vision of what happens when postmodern practices become something much more meaningful.

World’s youngest conductor? Boy, 14, to direct Venezuelan orchestra

José Ángel Salazar, part of the country’s successful El Sistema music programme, is not old enough to earn a wage.

NY Times

Latest Met Aria: Bad Opera News Is No News

Opera News, 76 years old and one of the leading classical music magazines in the country, said on Monday that it would stop reviewing the Metropolitan Opera, a policy prompted by the Met’s dissatisfaction over negative critiques.

LA Times

Carl Davis joins L.A. Chamber Orchestra for a silent film special

Composer Carl Davis and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra take on the music of silent films at a Royce Hall event on Sunday night.

Gramophone

Dublin International Piano Competition winner announced

Nikolay Khozyainov has been named the ninth winner of the Dublin International Piano Competition. The 19-year-old Russian receives €15,000.

(Written on May 22, 2012 )

The Independent

Kermit the frog joins the chorus – in ‘Caligula’

New opera dresses characters as kid’s favourites to portray citizens living in terror.

Glyndebourne – Singing for their supper

Tickets for Glyndebourne aren’t cheap but the festival is continuing to attract visitors with a seductive, world-class programme that plays it safe.

The LA Times

Los Angeles Philharmonic’s ‘Don Giovanni’ stars the music

The opera, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and with design by Frank Gehry and Laura and Kate Mulleavy, is a semi-stage production.

The NY Times

The Corner of Falstaff and Zerbinetta

The Metropolitan Opera has 1,024 identically framed images on its Wall of Fame.

The Financial Times

World class

Formed via YouTube, the Aldeburgh World Orchestra is comprised of instrumentalists from more than 30 countries.

ArtsJournal – Slipped disc

Laura van Heijden, 15, wins BBC Young Musician

A Sussex cellist – half-Dutch, half-Swiss – ran away tonight with the career-making BBC Young Musician of the Year, cresting to triumph on the Walton concerto.

Leipzig opens 5km composer walk

As of this weekend, you can follow the trail of all the great composers who were born, studied, lived and worked in Leipzig.

Gramophone

Jonathan Dove to write work based on Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi

Nobel Peace prize-winner and Burmese political activist Aung San Suu Kyi is to be the subject of a new work by British composer Jonathan Dove, commissioned as part of BBC Radio 3’s Portraits Day.

(Written on May 14, 2012 )