Review: Actors Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan give warm, deeply sympathetic performances as wide-ranging musician Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn, in ‘Maestro,’ a biopic directed by Cooper.


Bradley Cooper's 'Maestro' chronicles the brilliant Leonard Bernstein — and his disorderly conduct

An opera about civil rights leader Malcolm X opens Friday — nearly 40 years after X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X premiered. The creative team says its message feels more relevant than ever.


Malcolm X arrives — finally — at New York's Metropolitan Opera

A new live stage show features actor John Malkovich transformed into some of the meanest music critics ever — in real reviews skewering the work of great composers like Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin.


Even Beethoven got bad reviews, as John Malkovich points out in 'The Music Critic'

WCPE says that six contemporary operas being presented this season by the Metropolitan Opera — including ones dealing with violence, race and LGBTQ issues — are "unsuitable" for broadcast.



Update: On Thursday afternoon, a listener-supported station in North Carolina, WCPE, reversed its decision to withhold the broadcast of six contemporary operas this season from the Metropolitan Opera. The reversal came after public outcry from notable figures including Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens and author and journalist Celeste Headlee.


N.C. radio station reverses decision to withhold broadcast of contemporary Met operas

Octavia Butler's novel ‘Parable of the Sower’ — depicting a dystopian U.S. in 2024 — was published 30 years ago. Toshi Reagon's new musical retelling explores the web of past, present and future.


Octavia Butler wrote a 'Parable' that became a prophecy — now it's also an opera

Composer Robert Beaser has been fired from the renowned performing arts conservatory after an independent investigation found that he had broken Juilliard policies and "misrepresented facts."


Juilliard fires former chair after sexual misconduct investigation

In 2022, composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels brought a true story to the opera stage: the life of Omar Ibn Said, a Senegalese Muslim scholar who was enslaved and brought to the Carolinas. This week, it won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music.


Thoroughly American opera 'Omar' wins Pulitzer Prize

Influential Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto died March 28 at 71 from cancer. A wide-ranging musician, the Yellow Magic Orchestra co-founder was a synth-pop idol and the writer of sweeping movie scores.


Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, a godfather of electronic pop, dies at 71

Charismatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel, 42, will be taking on the music director-designate post of the New York Philharmonic at the start of the 2025-26 concert season after an acclaimed tenure at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.


Gustavo Dudamel's new musical home is the New York Philharmonic

Three people have accused two teachers at the world-renowned music school — composers Robert Beaser and the late Christopher Rouse — of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s and 2000s.


Anastasia Tsioulcas

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