The fate of the Archer review into Arts Council England (ACE) has been unclear for some time. After a government review of ACE was announced in March—led by Mary Archer, a former chair of the Science Museum Group—the public review was paused before the general election in July. After an email from a Labour government […]

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“Fortune is like a bird in a wood. If we know how to whistle to her she will come to us.” —from pianist Ashley Wass’s biography on X, unattributed  I: The Amateur   About two years ago, a renowned European musician received a call from his agency with an offer for an unusual gig. A Dubai […]

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On July 11, a public inquiry in the UK heard that the funeral of Cornelius Cardew, and a memorial event held in his memory, were both attended by an undercover police officer deployed by a specialist police unit to infiltrate revolutionary communist groups. Though it was conveyed to him through a manager at the Special […]

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The junior department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama closed for the end of term on Saturday. It looks like it will not re-open. 340 children will be affected across the Young Music and Young Drama programs, as well as five salaried staff and a further 112 hourly staff on zero-hours contracts […]

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Collaborative pianists power the machinery of our musical institutions. Every weekly voice lesson, many instrumental lessons, and most music theater, opera and choral rehearsals need a pianist. We’re everywhere: from the very first steps of learning music to its crowning performances. No music department could function for a single day without a small army of […]

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Recently, Russian media reported on plans by the state-owned VTB Bank to build a new concert hall and performing arts complex for conductor Teodor Currentzis and his musicAeterna ensembles at the Novo-Admiralteysky shipyard in St. Petersburg.  On June 7, VTB President and Chairman Andrey Kostin and Governor Alexander Beglov signed a statement of intent formalizing […]

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For weeks, Kharkiv and the surrounding region has been under regular bombardment, but May 23, the day I arrived in the city, was an especially tragic occasion for our festival, KharkivMusicFest.  My train ride to Kharkiv from Chełm, southeast Poland, took almost 24 hours. The cars were crowded with passengers. In my compartment was a […]

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A Freedom of Information request from VAN Magazine has revealed that Sir Nicholas Serota, the chair of Arts Council England, threatened to review a £3.2 million grant given to Welsh National Opera after the company’s music director wrote an open letter about the impact of Arts Council cuts on the organization. The letter, written by […]

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When the French conductor François-Xavier Roth woke up the week before last in his apartment in Paris, his career was in excellent shape. He had just given two concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic. He had a tour to look forward to with Les Siècles, the period instrument ensemble he founded. He was the Music Director […]

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Funding cuts have left Welsh National Opera (WNO) in a financial hole, with its musicians facing the prospect of pay cuts and redundancies. The story of the organization’s plight is long and complicated, but a key moment occurred in November 2022, when WNO’s Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organization funding was cut by 35 […]

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