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Toronto Children's Chorus (TCC), Photo: Justin Friesen

Newswire | Toronto Children’s Chorus Tours Asia

By Newswire on 3 March 2026 Choral, Classical Music, Newswire

Toronto, March 2, 2026 – The Toronto Children’s Chorus embarks on its 34th international tour with travel to Hong Kong and Singapore in July 2026 where the Choir, under the leadership of Artistic Director Zimfira Poloz, has been invited to perform at two prestigious choral festivals. 38 TCC choristers (aged 12-17) and TCC artistic leaders will represent Canada through performances, musical and cultural exchange, and collaboration with top youth choirs from around the world. TCC Chamber Choir (TCC’s senior choir) was invited to be a Resident Choral Artist at the World Choir Festival-Hong Kong taking place from July 13-16, 2026.…

A scene from Opéra national de Paris's Carmen. Photo: Benoite Fanton

Review | How to Bludgeon Carmen: Bieito’s Lesson in Four Acts

By Denise Wendel-Poray on 27 February 2026 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

Calixto Bieito’s Carmen at the Opéra Bastille—a production created in 1999 at the Festival de Peralada (Spain) and revived in Paris since 2017—arrives with the reputation of a once-scandalous staging. Yet what unfolds on stage today feels less provocative than crude. The production (seen Feb. 22) is built on a succession of aggressively literal gestures—sexual exhibitionism, staged violence, crudely stylized mob behavior—presented with little variation or psychological progression. Rather than revealing new facets of the characters, these devices reduce them to caricature: Carmen becomes a bundle of mannerisms, Don José a schematic figure of brutality, Escamillo a hollow emblem of…

Newswire | Azrieli Music Prizes: New Jewish Music, Vol. 5, Out February 27

By Newswire on 27 February 2026 Choral, Classical Music, Music Competition, Newswire, Orchestral, Vocal

The Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP), the top music composition competition in Canada, returns with its fifth album for Analekta. Available February 27, 2026, New Jewish Music, Vol. 5 features the world‑premiere recordings of the 2024 Azrieli Music Prize–winning works by Jordan Nobles (Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music), Josef Bardanashvili (Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music), Yair Klartag (Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music), and Juan Trigos (Azrieli Commission for International Music). All four works are performed by members of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the OSM Chorus, conducted by Andrew Megill. The album will also be available in stereo and Dolby Atmos formats. Opening the album is kanata, an a cappella choral work in which Jordan Nobles uses…

Sean Panikkar (Sergei) & Ambur Braid (Katerina) in Komische Oper Berlin's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Photo: Monika Rittershaus

Review | Ambur Braid Kills It in Komische Oper Berlin’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

By Gianmarco Segato on 25 February 2026 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

Like its material, Komische Oper Berlin’s new production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by director Barrie Kosky is unrelentingly grim. The action takes place in an undefined space with a white rectangle superimposed upon a distressed gray wall. Props are minimal, the principal one being the title character’s bed where all manner of lust, violence and murder takes place. Visual excitement is ignited by the strategic movements of the chorus, and the unrelenting acrobatic demands placed on the principals. The story is told in a remarkably straightforward manner, but it’s the coalescence of all these artistic elements that pushes…

Photo: Bruce Zinger

Newswire | Opera Atelier Announces 2026/27 Season

By Newswire on 25 February 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Toronto

Toronto, ON — Opera Atelier founding Co-Artistic Directors Marshall Pynkoski, C.M. and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, C.M., today announce the company’s 2026/27 Season, A Season of Heroes. The season kicks off in the glorious acoustic of Toronto’s Koerner Hall with the company’s fully staged Canadian premiere of Marc Antoine Charpentier’s extraordinary masterpiece, The Descent of Orpheus on October 22-25, 2026. The opera is based on Ovid’s myth of Orpheus, who uses his gift of music to gain entry to the underworld and to return his lover Eurydice to the land of the living. Unlike other performance versions of this myth, Charpentier’s…

Newswire | Soundstreams Announces 2026/27 Season

By Newswire on 25 February 2026 Choral, Classical Music, Contemporary, Newswire, Toronto

February 23, 2026 (TORONTO, ON)—Lawrence Cherney, Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams, has announced the company’s 44th season, kicking off this October with a major celebration of Steve Reich, performed by some of the world’s greatest interpreters of his music. Sir James MacMillan returns to Soundstreams with his new oratorio Angels Unawares, next February. Praise Song for Oceania will feature artists and works connected by the Pacific Ocean, curated by Soundstreams New Voices Mentorship Program winner Jesse Plessis, and next June’s CELLO X 8, presented in collaboration with Luminato and VEMU Estonian Museum Canada, will invite eight virtuoso cellists from Canada…

Newswire | Festival Classica Unveils a Banner 16th Edition

By Newswire on 25 February 2026 Chamber Music, Newswire, Piano, Quebec Music, Strings, Vocal

Montérégie, (February 25, 2026) – Festival Classica invites the public to experience classical music in all its variety during its 16th edition, which will run from May 22 to June 14, 2026. The 2026 program once again showcases exceptional artists and a compelling repertoire, with the majority of events taking place on Montreal’s South Shore. Classical works, operatic performances, symphonic rock productions, and concerts for young audiences form a wide-ranging program designed to open the doors of classical music to seasoned concertgoers and newcomers alike. “Since its inception, Festival Classica has positioned itself as a space for sharing and discovery,…

Tabea Zimmermann with Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Photo: Simon Pauly

Review | Konzerthausorchester’s “Unfinished” Evening with Tabea Zimmermann in Berlin

By Gianmarco Segato on 23 February 2026 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Opera, Orchestral

The second concert in Konzerthausorchester Berlin’s “Vom Anfangen” (“On Beginnings”) festival featured works that could be described as unfinished in different ways. This superbly-curated evening brought together Schubert, Bartók, Kurtág and Puccini—strange bedfellows perhaps—in a program of stimulating connections (seen Feb. 20). As detailed in the program notes, György Kurtág (currently celebrating his 100th birthday) cites Schubert as his inspiration to compose, and for his ideal of musical beauty. In that light, the orchestra, under their chief conductor Joana Mallwitz, began with Schubert’s two-movement “Unfinished” symphony of 1822. There is much debate as to whether this work was truly unfinished,…

Music and Film: Battle of the Conductors

By Justin Bernard on 23 February 2026 Choral, Classical Music, Film, Romantic

The year 2026 offers a feast for lovers of music and film. In our last column I mentioned the new TV show about Mozart, based on the play Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. The five-episode series began airing Jan. 5 on STACKTV. A few days later, the highly-anticipated film The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes as choirmaster, was released in some cinemas, including the Cinéplex Forum. We’ll talk a little about these two major releases—without giving too much away! Amadeus revisited You don’t need to have seen the 1984 film by Miloš Forman to enjoy the new version by Joe Barton. However,…

A scene from Massenet's "Manon." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

Newswire | The Metropolitan Opera Announces 2026-27 Season Including Five New Productions

By Newswire on 19 February 2026 Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Theatre

New York, NY (February 19, 2026)—The Metropolitan Opera announced its 2026–27 season, featuring five new and 12 repertory productions, a special 60th-anniversary gala, and performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. This season also marks the 20th anniversary at the helm for Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager, and the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD transmissions—the Peabody Award–winning series that Gelb initiated—to cinemas worldwide. “Ever since I was a part-time teenage usher, I dreamed of a long-term association with the Met,” said Gelb. “Although…