Opinion
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Will the piano industry survive the pandemic?
Some of Europe’s oldest companies are piano manufacturers. Steinway, Bechstein, Blüthner and Bösendorfer were all established around the mid-19th century.Read More -
Tuning in to audiences at Piano Cleveland
How can classical music engage new audiences and keep them coming back? Piano Cleveland president Yaron Kohlberg considers some solutionsRead More -
Getting political: opera as activism
Composer and Labour party member Keith Burstein’s latest opera The Prometheus Revolution explores a country in meltdown as the forcesRead More -
Ticket prices don’t foster elitism. Atmosphere does.
It pains me to bring up the ‘E’ word, when so much perceived ‘elitism’ is generated purely by clumsy discussionRead More -
Opera’s worst-kept secret?
Twenty women have now accused Plácido Domingo of sexual harassment. Josephine Miles reflects on the opera world’s reaction, arguing thatRead More -
Plácido Domingo accused of sexual harassment
Plácido Domingo has been accused of sexually harassing a number of women over the course of three decades. Eight singersRead More -
Are we entering a new age of musical nationalism?
My invitation to the premiere of György Kurtág’s first opera Fin de partie must have got lost in the postRead More -
London Music Masters responds to model music curriculum story
On 22 March, we reported on further details regarding the new model music curriculum that is currently being developed byRead More -
In the long term, evolution will serve stifled talent better than revolution will
A one-sex shortlist of candidates in any field is enough to prompt a groan – or something altogether angrier. WhatRead More -
We shouldn’t be too surprised that folk are fighting in our concert halls
1600 Swedes settled down for an evening of ferocious, unbridled passions at Malmö Live Concert Hall on 11 October. AndRead More -
Lists of the ‘most powerful’ are the last things culture and the fight against prejudice need
Woman’s Hour’s list of the most powerful women in music was designed to provoke conversation, though not the one thatRead More -
Academics who dismiss musical literacy have confused recreation with study
A year after Charlotte C Gill questioned the pedagogical significance of western musical notation in the Guardian, the debate hasRead More -
Whatever happened to classical music as the product of artistic and intellectual endeavour?
Like me, you may have wondered where in the world the laboratory actually lies. You know the one I’m talkingRead More -
2018: a good year to consign the label ‘maestro’ to history?
With the Metropolitan Opera’s sacking of James Levine came the surest sign yet that sexual and mental abuse exists atRead More -
Spoiler alert: social media is cleansing live performance of any sense of surprise
I remember sitting in the London Coliseum one wet Friday night back in 2009, waiting for the curtain to riseRead More -
Wellbeing is as important in the office as on the stage
It is good to read that the ABO’s Healthy Orchestra Charter extends to management as well as musicians, but itRead More -
Could equality be the key to enlivening our ossified programming?
There I was, leafing through the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra’s season brochure, aghast at all the wondrous oddities contained therein: aRead More -
The slow marginalisation of music education will be a disaster for the diversity politicians demand
We learned some weeks ago that a state school in Yorkshire is to start charging students for the privilege ofRead More -
Illuminate: shining a light on the work of women composers and performers
The classical music industry is notoriously unbalanced in its representation of women musicians. There are many unfortunate figures and statisticsRead More -
The potential of music competitions is endless – for audiences even more than for artists
We’re all familiar with the post-music-competition cliché: ‘the real winner was music itself.’ Sometimes, the phrase is deployed as aRead More
