DAMASCUS, Syria — The Damascus Opera House was practically full one recent weeknight as a gathering of medical professionals from around the Arab world came together to hear the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra. The lights dimmed, and conductor Missak Baghboudarian strolled on stage to mild applause. He launched the orchestra of about 60 musicians into a rendition of the overture from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”

Read more…

A supremely successful dialogue between the arts, this choreographic concert has triumphed all over Europe since its 2007 premiere at Radialsystem V in Berlin.

BEIJING — Grant Xia had the misfortune of trying to take up violin as an amateur during the collective madness of the Cultural Revolution. Chinese officials banned classical music and sent musicians to re-education camps. Mr. Xia’s family collection of more than 1,000 vinyl records was destroyed. Mr. Xia soon stopped playing the violin.

Read more…

DUJIANGYAN, China – Tang Zhongxuan remembers the night after the earthquake, when sleeping indoors was no longer safe but outside the rain had arrived.

Read more…

Make way for the Young Turks: the Borusan Philharmonic is riding a new wave of enthusiasm for classical music in Turkey. It is the place in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that the tenor dreads. The orchestra turns “Turkish” — signposted by bass drum, cymbal and triangle — and jangle along as the singer fields an exposed verse of the Ode to Joy.

Read more…

It’s a very assured – not to say very brave – young conductor who chooses to make his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius’ notoriously challenging Seventh Symphony. Mighty talents have fallen at this particular fence, defeated by the work’s circuitous evolution and elusive logic.

Read more…

Ye-Eun Choi, one of the artists mentioned in the “In Tune” article titled Another Folle Journée in Tokyo.

Part 1/3

Part 2/3

Part 3/3

Chopin’s Variations on ‘La Ci Darem la Mano’, for piano and orchestra, Op.2 performed by Vestard Shimkus, one of the pieces mentioned in the “In Tune” article titled Another Folle Journée in Tokyo.

The famous Venezuelan musicians are growing long in the tooth – and there’s a new generation waiting in the wings
The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra is youthful no longer – as I was saying last week in my review of their concert with Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Easter festival.

Read more…

The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the oldest and most venerated orchestras in the world, has permanently appointed its first woman concertmaster.

Read more…