News

As we return to live performances, explore uplifting orchestral works that help us celebrate the occasion, by Christopher Rouse, Anna Clyne, HK Gruber, and more.

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music premieres Sean Shepherd's Sprout on a virtual program alongside the composer's 2018 orchestral work Melt.

La Arqueología del Neón, Oscar Bettison’s striking new work for ensemble, receives its live world premiere with the Talea Ensemble at the TIME:SPANS Festival on August 23 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.

Composer Steven Mackey and librettist Rinde Eckert’s new chamber opera Moon Tea premiered to critical acclaim at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in June. The live performance will be available for streaming September 3-30.

This fall we celebrate the triumphant return to the concert hall. We've pulled together a list of important performance highlights this fall, including several premieres across the country.

Louis Andriessen, the leading Dutch composer and one of the most influential figures in the world of contemporary music, has died aged 82.

When Soft Voices Die, the new work for voices and orchestra by James MacMillan, is premiered at the First Night of the Proms on 30 July. Setting texts by Shelley, the score is both a serenade to music and a reflection on the transient nature of life.

Upload, the new film opera by Michel van der Aa exploring how life could become eternal in the digital sphere, receives its stage premiere at the Bregenz Festival on 29 July. A film version will be screened by Medici TV and streamed by Dutch National Opera from 16 July.

Boosey & Hawkes won first prizes for notesetting for two of its publications at the 2021 Music Publishers Association’s Paul Revere Awards: John Adams’ Opera Choruses Vol. 1 and Steven Mackey’s Physical Property.

Edward Gardner conducts first performances in July of Robin Holloway’s new orchestration of Britten’s Winter Words, with tenor Nicky Spence and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

At long last, the music community in the US eagerly returns to live performance this summer. We’ve compiled a list of summer festival highlights, including orchestra, chamber music, and opera performances across the country.

Part of our “Performer Picks” series of interviews with world-renowned artists about their favourite works in the B&H catalogue. Read other “Performer Picks” interviews with Marin Alsop, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Colin Currie, Bridget Kibbey, Johannes Moser and Patrick Summers.

Works by Mieczyslaw Weinberg have joined our classical catalogue following Sikorski’s publishing union with Boosey & Hawkes. Music by the Polish-born émigré composer, who spent most of his creative live in Moscow, has seen a growing wave of international recognition over the last ten years.

Boosey & Hawkes announces the winners of its Score Video Contest, whose recording will feature in an upcoming score video of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne. The new score video will be revealed in a Live Score Reading event on June 17, Stravinsky’s birthday.

A major festival of Unsuk Chin’s music in Copenhagen leads up to the presentation of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize at a concert with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra on 5 June. Five Danish premieres appear on the week-long programme, including the Piano Concerto, Graffiti and her recent concert-opener subito con forza.

The first performance of Mark Simpson’s new Violin Concerto appeared in April as a streamed premiere with Nicola Benedetti and the London Symphony Orchestra, prompting a host of reviews acclaiming its passion and charged lyricism.

Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, a new film version of the dance phenomenon that has toured the world, is released on Sky Cinema and streaming service NOW on 28 May 2021

Composer and writer Russell Platt guides us through the rich musical output of Ned Rorem—from his lively orchestral works to his iconic songs—in anticipation of Rorem’s centennial on October 22, 2023.

The letters of composer Gerald Finzi are collected together for the first time in a new book by Diana McVeagh, published this month by Boydell Press. The collection positions the composer in the British musical world between the 1920s and 1950s, revealing new aspects of his personality and compositional life.

The latest opera by Detlev Glanert, Oceane, unveiled at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2019, has been awarded the prestigious 2021 International Opera Award for Best World Premiere.