Maestro Arts

06/10/2026

Images from Mireille at Opéra de Lausanne, with sets designed by Barbara de Limburg.

06/10/2026

François-Xavier Roth is rehearsing with SWR Symphonieorchester for a programme of world premieres by Mauro Lanza, Noriko Baba, Fabien Lévy and Clara Iannotta at Donaueschinger Musiktage next week.

05/10/2026

NEW INTERVIEW 🎤🔥 As he begins his Artist in Residence season with Residentie Orkest this week, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto on Friday and Sunday, Stefan Jackiw reflects on embracing vulnerability in his playing, stripping away interpretive traditions and navigating social media:

‘When I was young, my teachers in Boston, where I grew up, taught the Russian school, with a strong focus on body and beauty of sound, and a healthy, thick tone. When I was around 17 or 18, I began studying with Donald Weilerstein, who had quite a different concept. He was looking for vulnerability in the sound, not just power, fullness and richness. He talked a lot about fragility of sound.’

‘With a piece like the Tchaikovsky, there are so many decades, even centuries, of tradition and interpretive varnish. This great violinist played it this way, that one played it another way. A lot of the work is stripping away the layers of shellac that have been applied in your ear and trying to separate the way you grew up hearing it from what Tchaikovsky actually asks for.’

‘I can’t imagine Jascha Heifetz posting, “Here’s my pre-concert routine!” People appreciated that mystery, but now they are curious about what Beyoncé does when she’s not on stage. That reflects the zeitgeist of our times and how audience tastes have changed. Social media has been a nice way to communicate with my listeners about what I’m thinking about and doing. However, I’m not someone who naturally enjoys sharing my everyday professional life, let alone my personal life. It takes me out of the moment. I also think there’s a trade-off between my inner and outer lives.’

Stefan Jackiw’s Artist in Residence season with Residentie Orkest includes three visits during the 2026–27 season, starting on 9 & 11 October with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Jun Märkl.

To read the full interview, follow the link in the comments.

05/10/2026

Steven Osborne talks to the Pianist podcast about his new, and most personal album, Okay by Me.

Link in comments.

What happens when a pianist lets emotion and improvisation take the lead?✨

In our latest podcast, Pianist editor Erica Worth talks to one of Britain's most treasured musicians about his new album OK By Me, his experiences with improvisation and jazz influences, and his collaborations with other musicians.

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform!📣
https://pianistpiano.com/StevenOsborne
Hyperion Records

01/10/2026

Some October highlights...

Laurent Pelly's production of Il Turco in Italia opens at New National Theatre, Tokyo, directed by Christian Räth, with costumes designed in association with Jean-Jacques Delmotte (2 to 12 Oct) and he directs The Love of Three Oranges at Opéra de Lyon (4 to 20 Oct)

Chloé Dufresne conducts Werther at Opéra de Rennes (3 to 11 Oct)

Steven Osborne performs Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and Schubert's Allegretto in C with BBC National Orchestra of Wales (3 Oct)

Kazushi Ono conducts Brussels Philharmonic in Shostakovich and Prokofiev (3 Oct)

Grégoire Pont live-animates Moonlight on the Eiffel Tower at Rungis Piano-Piano Festival (3 Oct) and two performances of Peter and the Wolf with Orchestre National Capitole Toulouse (18 Oct)

James Bonas directs L'enfant et les sortilèges at Opéra de Toulon, with video design by Grégoire Pont (3 Oct) and Company at Grand Théâtre de Genève, with sets by Barbara de Limburg (9 to 16 Oct). His UnRavelled goes to Philadelphia (8 to 11 Oct) and New York (23 & 24 Oct)

Pablo González conducts Orquesta Nacional de España in Esplá and Mahler (3 Oct) and Le nozze di Figaro at Auditorio de Tenerife (11 to 17 Oct)

Barbara de Limburg designs sets for Mireille at Opéra de Lausanne (4 to 11 Oct)

Adrian Brendel and Till Fellner play Liszt, Bach, Haydn and Schubert with Viviane Hagner at Schubertiade (4 Oct)

Paul Lewis takes his complete Mozart Plus programme across Australia with Musica Viva (4 to 15 Oct) and then to Kumho Art Hall in Seoul (21 & 22 Oct)

Bassem Akiki conducts Shostakovich's Cherry Town at Dutch National Opera (8 to 20 Oct) and joins Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Shostakovich, Copland and Auerbach (30 & 31 Oct, 1 Nov)

Elena Urioste performs Korngold's Violin Concerto with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (10 Oct) and gives a recital of Brahms, Dvořák and Pejačević at Wigmore Hall with Tom Poster (12 Oct)

Elena Schwarz conducts Saariaho's Innocence at Royal Danish Opera (11 Oct to 6 Nov) and conducts Radio Filharmonisch Orkest in the world premiere of Aftab Darvishi's In Absence, as well as Lutosławski and Rimsky-Korsakov (31 Oct and 1 Nov)

Robert Houssart conducts Ein Sommernachtstraum at Zurich Opera House (11 Oct to 3 July 2027)

Pablo Rus Broseta conducts Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in Debussy, de Falla and Bonis (15 & 16 Oct)

Barbara Wysocka directs the world premiere of The Mothers of Kherson at Polish National Opera, in co-production with The Metropolitan Opera (16 to 27 Oct)

Takács Quartet gives a recital of Mendelssohn, Carlos Simon and Franck's Piano Quintet, with Jeremy Denk, at Carnegie Hall (16 Oct)

Ilan Volkov conducts Brussels Philharmonic in a Lab Series concert of music by Raven Chacon, Tyshawn Sorey, Annea Lockwood and George Lewis (16 & 17 Oct)

Jonathan Stockhammer conducts Belgian National Orchestra in A Radioactive Reminder (17 Oct)

François-Xavier Roth conducts SWR Symphonieorchester in world premieres by Mauro Lanza, Noriko Baba, Fabien Lévy and Clara Iannotta at Donaueschinger Musiktage, streaming live on SWR Kultur (18 Oct)

Aaron Azunda Akugbo opens Barbican Centre's Always, Already There festival, performing music by Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Regina Harris Baiocchi (23 Oct)

Mihhail Gerts conducts BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Pärt, Chapela and Tubin in Glasgow (29 Oct) and Pärt, Tchaikovsky and Tubin in Aberdeen (30 Oct)

Laurent Pelly brings his production of Così fan tutte to National Taichung Theater (29 Oct to 1 Nov)

Patrick Kinmonth designs sets and costumes for Cathy Marston's Jane Eyre at Royal Danish Ballet (30 Oct to 18 Nov)

29/09/2026

Allan Clayton has been nominated for the 2026 Opera Awards Readers’ Award, which is decided by public vote.

You can vote for Allan in the link in the comments. Voting closes on 21 October. 🗳

28/09/2026

NEWS 🔥 📰 Mihhail Gerts returns as Artistic Director of the TubIN Festival from 28 September to 4 October, leading the sixth edition of the event dedicated to the music of the Estonian composer Eduard Tubin. Taking place in Alatskivi, Tartu and Tallinn, this year’s programme explores the theme ‘Who am I?’

Gerts conducts the opening concert, featuring Sibelius and Grieg alongside the premiere of Tubin’s Estonian Instrumental Tales, originally written as a string quartet and arranged for string orchestra. He also conducts the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Tubin’s Sinfonietta on Estonian Motifs, Violin Concerto no.2 and Symphony no.5.

The festival also includes a presentation of Tubin’s collected works, a long-running project to produce a multi-volume scholarly edition of his music, involving Gerts, musicologist Kerri Kotta and members of the International Eduard Tubin Society. It closes with a multidisciplinary performance involving 400 young dancers to music from Tubin’s ballet Kratt (‘goblin’), with Gerts conducting Estonian National Theatre Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra and special guest Erika Tubin, the composer’s great-granddaughter.

Tubin (1905–1982) fled Estonia for Sweden in 1944 and spent the rest of his life in exile. Gerts founded the festival in 2021 to bring his music to a wider international audience. In June 2026 he released the recording of The Early Years of Eduard Tubin with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

Gerts's book, Eduard Tubin’s Formative Years, published in Estonian last year, will appear in German later this year. In October, he conducts Tubin’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow.

28/09/2026

François-Xavier Roth and SWR Symphonieorchester gave a special concert for hundreds of school children.

Das SWR-Symphonieorchester hat rund 500 Grundschulkindern in Sinsheim (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis) klassische Musik spielerisch nähergebracht. Es wurde mitgeklatscht, mitgetanzt und mitgesungen.

25/09/2026

A peek into rehearsals with Eivind Aadland for his concerts with the students of Guildhall School of Music & Drama.