Nearly four decades after becoming the first American symphony to tour Communist China, the Philadelphia Orchestra announced it will embark on a cultural exchange to find and nurt...

New York —

New York City Ballet’s fall season opened to a sellout crowd last night, with the world premiere of Ocean’s Kingdom. Former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, wrote the original orchestral score, his first for a ballet. His daughter, acclaimed clothing designer Stella McCartney created the costumes. New York City Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins choreographed the work on City Ballet principal dancers Sara Mearns and Robert Fairchild.

PHILADELPHIA —

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops have agreed to end their six-year business partnership, according to documents filed Monday in federal bankruptcy court.

The cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the choral music conductor Francisco Núñez and the WNYC host Jad Abumrad are among the 22 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius grant...

Kurt Sanderling, a conductor whose career path embodied the entwinement of politics and art in 20th-century Europe, died Saturday in Berlin, just two days shy of his 99th birthday. The cause of death was old age.

A new scientific model on humans' response to consonance and dissonance provides insights into why atonal music continues to be challenging for so many listeners.

North Korea says a prominent South Korean maestro has conducted two orchestras in the North in a sign of easing tensions between the countries.

Rome's Teatro dell'Opera says Fabio Luisi's last-minute bolting from his engagement to conduct Elektra so he could conduct at New York's Metropolitan Opera hurts the world of lyric opera.

Confession. I have worked hard to avoid most of the 9/11 tributes, reflections, reliving and agonies of the past weeks. I chose to watch the George Bush National Geographic interview, and was impressed with his honesty, humanity and frailty. I helped program an event for WQXR in The Greene Space. But I couldn’t watch the TV loops, the commentators, or look again at those pictures.

The BBC Proms, London's eight-week music festival which ended its 117th season Saturday night, has reported record audiences for the second year in a row. Watch a video of the pianist...

When the Montreal Symphony opened its new concert hall to the public on Wednesday night, the festivities included acrobats from the Cirque Éloize. Host Naomi Lewin reports on the thre...

In what seems like a long time coming, Yo-Yo Ma will get a Kennedy Center Honor. The 55-year-old said he feels too young to be receiving such an award for lifetime achievements.

Read Composer John Adams, looking back at On the Transmigration of Souls, his 2002 piece remembering Sept. 11, expresses satisfaction with the work's success, but also concerns about...

James Levine, the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, has cancelled his fall appearances at the Met, after falling and damaging his vertebrae on Thursday. Fabio Luisi will take ...

Salvatore Licitra, a tenor who rose to fame as a last-second substitute for Luciano Pavarotti at the Met, died on Monday after being severely injured in a motorbike accident.

In Verona, Italy, massive opera productions take place every summer in a Roman coliseum. In San Francisco and Washington, DC, operas will be simulcast on ballpark jumbotrons. Can stad...

Protesters disrupted a performance Thursday by the Israel Philharmonic and violinist Gil Shaham as part of the BBC Proms, one of Britain’s most venerable concert series.

After a decade-long construction process and a cost of $271 million, the Helsinki Music Center opened Wednesday evening. WQXR's Graham Parker writes that, while not perfect, it "raise...

How was it that Gershwin and Schoenberg came to enjoy a fiercely-fought tennis match each week? Why was Prokofiev so interested in the game? As the U.S. Open heats up, host Midge Woolsey considers the links.