After remaining largely silent to protests, the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev issued a statement on Wednesday seeking to clarify his views on his country's controversial anti-gay laws.

Philip Smith, who has led the New York Philharmonic's trumpet section for 35 years, announced on Tuesday that he will retire in June 2014.

Audra McDonald has been named musician of the year by Musical America, the industry publication. Pablo Heras-Casado and the International Contemporary Ensemble are among the other recipients.

Since June, Cynthia Turner, a conductor and music professor at Cornell, has been sporting the $1500 glasses as both a teaching tool and increasingly, as an enhancement to the concert experience.

Some classical musicians have a special knack for getting in the spirit of creepy characters and spooky alter-egos. On this Halloween, here are ten standouts.

Johann Sebastian Bach may have been quite a brawler as a teenager. So writes John Eliot Gardiner, conductor and noted Bach interpreter, in a new book about the German baroque composer.

Nothing caps a day of betting on the ponies like a night of chamber music. That's what the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is gambling as it establishes a new summer home in Saratoga Springs, NY.

China's superstar pianist Lang Lang became a United Nations Messenger of Peace on Monday, the highest honor bestowed by a U.N. chief on accomplished individuals in any field.

The rock 'n' roll iconoclast was more than punk's most important ancestor. But his career with the Velvet Underground and as a solo artist inspired many classical musicians who yearned to walk on the wild side.

Uptown performing arts organizations are getting their own version of the TKTS Booth.

The pianist Christian Zacharias halted a performance Wednesday night with the Gothenburg Symphony after an audience member's phone began to ring. See what happens next.

Amadeus Leopold, the violinist/performance artist formerly known as Hahn-Bin, has released a video featuring his own flamboyant take on Paganini's Caprice No. 24.

The brass sections of the Boston Symphony and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras are sounding off for their respective hometown teams in the World Series.

The high auction price of the "Titanic Violin" mirrors the price rises in the rare string instrument trade over the past decade. Here are the top ten.

A violin believed to have been played on the Titanic before the doomed vessel sank was auctioned for more than $1.6 million Saturday, a fantastic figure which one collector said may never be beaten.

The 60-year-old Philharmonic faces an uncertain future: the website has been offline for months and its music director is no longer with the orchestra. Can Brooklyn be a home to classical music?

The violin believed to have been played by the bandleader as the Titanic sank is expected to fetch between $300,000 and $400,000 when it goes up for auction this weekend in Wiltshire, England.

Twenty-five years after Tom Hanks played "Heart and Soul" and "Chopsticks" on that giant toy piano in the movie "Big," he delivered an encore on Monday night.

Gary Graffman jokes that the most-famous, best-selling album of his career barely acknowledges his participation on its cover.