Klaus Mäkelä has been hired to succeed Riccardo Muti as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and will become the youngest head since its start in 1891.

Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda has made a triumphant return to Teatro alla Scala in an informal role as cultural ambassador, leading the U.S. National Symphony Orchestra.

Berlin's city government says Christian Thielemann has been chosen as the new general music director of the city's Staatsoper, months after Daniel Barenboim ended his three-decade reign.

Riccardo Muti has ended 13 seasons as Chicago Symphony Orchestra's music director with praise and a series of honors.

Daniel Barenboim has been made a citizen of honor of Berlin, months after he ended his three-decade tenure as the general musical director of the Berlin State Opera for health reasons.

Prominent pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has canceled a piano recital at the Opera de Monte-Carlo due to the effects of a serious neurological condition.

British conductor Daniel Harding has been named music director of Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, starting in the fall of 2024.

Christian Thielemann is leading the Vienna Philharmonic’s six-concert U.S. tour as another symphony of his Bruckner cycle with the orchestra is released on CD.

At no time during his seven-decade career did renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim ever consider slowing down his frenetic pace.

Daniel Barenboim has announced his resignation as the general music director of Berlin’s Staatsoper, saying that his health has become too poor to carry on.

In the twilight of his music directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti candidly outlined his legacy and implored musicians to remember his instruction on Giuseppe Verdi’s operas: use the 19th century scores without altered notes.

Bernard Haitink, a Dutch conductor of refinement and grace who led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for 27 years and held leadership positions in London, Chicago and Boston, died at his home in London on Thursday.

Conductor Riccardo Muti has extended his contract as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by one year through the 2022-23 season.

Stone restoration specialist Stefan Geismeier dusted off the black head of the statue of the Puzur-Ishtar of Mari at the Museum of the Ancient East in Berlin, Germany, Monday, March 15, 2021. Under new regulations, some of the collections on Berlin's Museum Island, one of the city's cultural highlights and a UNESCO World Heritage site, are now allowed to re-open to visitors. Ad“Nobody knows exactly if and when the virus numbers will go up again, but for now we will open,” said Markus Farr, a spokesman for Berlin's state museums. Under the Berlin plan, after buying their tickets online, visitors must register their names as they enter the buildings. Other cultural venues are also moving ahead with plans to reopen — to the delight of many.

This March 10, 2020 photo shows Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare who has been hired as music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montral starting with the 2022-23 season. (Gerard Collett via AP)Conductor Rafael Payare was hired Thursday as music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal starting with the 2022-23 season. A Venezuelan who turns 41 on Feb. 23, Payare follows the lengthy tenures of Montreal music directors Kent Nagano (2006-20) and Charles Dutoit (1977–02). Payare has been music director of the San Diego Symphony since 2019-20 and has a contract there through 2025-26. Payare first conducted the Montreal orchestra in September 2018 in Schoenberg’s “Verklaerte Nacht,” Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music announced Tuesday that it had purchased Opus 3 Artists, which represents about 250 musicians and attractions, a group that include conductors Barenboim, Conlon, Eschenbach and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The San Francisco Conservatory of Music announced Tuesday that it had purchased Opus 3 Artists, which represents about 250 musicians and attractions, a group that includes conductors Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Christoph Eschenbach and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. David Stull, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, would not reveal the monetary details of purchasing the management agency. Foster said the agency would have an arms-length relationship with students at the San Francisco conservatory and will continue to recruit clients from Juilliard, Curtis, Eastman and elsewhere. The conservatory, which serves about 500 students, broke ground two years ago and is in the process of opening the Bowes Center building in San Francisco.

La Scala general manager Dominique Meyer poses at the end of a press conference to present the fall 2020 program of concerts and ballets, in Milan, Italy, Monday, July 27, 2020. The limited calendar runs through Dec. 5, when La Scalas former musical director, Daniel Barenboim, returns to the theater for a piano concert. Chailly will conduct 14 dates this fall, while Zubin Mehta takes on 12. The fall program is envisioned in two parts, with distancing rules in play both on and off stage through Oct. 21, followed by a full opening of the theater, with productions and seating both normalized. That will mean two operas, La Traviata and Aida, will be presented as concerts in the first half, while La Boheme will be fully staged in November.

The Vienna Philharmonic returned home, and its famous strings purred for the first time since March 10. Michael Bladerer, a contrabass, recalled talking with Daniel Froschauer, a first violinist. Long criticized for its refusal to admit women, the Vienna Philharmonic ended its ban in 1997 and has 18 women among its 145 current members. While many if not most U.S. orchestra members were furloughed by administrators desperate to trim payroll during the coronavirus crisis, the Vienna Philharmonic is a self-governing collective. Its members hold dual roles, selected from the pit orchestra of the Vienna State Opera -- where they are collecting 80% of their salaries under government programs.