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23 December 2022 marks the Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Berlin’s performance of Christmas Eve by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This opera, also known as "Winter Solstice', consists of four acts highlighting traditional Kolyada songs, historically sung in Russia on the night before Christmas. With projections by video artist Benjamin Spencer Weiß, Vladimir Jurowski is conducting at the Philharmonie Berlin, featuring ensemble members from numerous major German opera houses and the George Enescu Philharmonic Choir.

Mstislav Rostropovitch once described Rodion Shchedrin as ‘the king of the modern orchestra’, an individual who upheld the legacy and high art of instrumentation of his early advocate Dmitri Shostakovitch to a greater degree than any other subsequent composer from his Russian homeland. On 16 December, he turns 90. 

Schott Music is delighted to announce the signing of Daniel Kidane to the Schott Music Group international roster of composers.

Daniel Kidane’s music has been commissioned, performed and broadcast around the globe, firmly establishing him as one of the most exciting new voices in classical music.  Kidane began his musical education at the age of eight when he started playing the violin. He first received composition lessons at the Royal College of Music Junior Department before studying privately in St. Petersburg with Sergey Slonimsky. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Gary Carpenter and David Horne.

On 18 December 2022, a new production of Ludger Vollmer's "Road Opera" Tschick will celebrate its opening at the Vienna State Opera whilst simultaneously marking the Austrian premiere.

Strike the right chord with these musical gifts!

The Christmas period can be incredibly stressful when you don’t know what to get your musical loved ones. Do you buy them sheet music? Or maybe a speaker? Perhaps something useful like a cloth to clean their instrument? For those of you who don’t know where to start looking, we’ve complied this list to help you out – here are our top 10 Christmas gifts for music lovers!

Schott Music is delighted to share that Julian Anderson is announced today as the recipient of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his work Litanies. Anderson is the first British recipient in over 20 years.

Inaccessible lands: No. 56 (Islands) by Richard Ayres is an ensemble work dedicated to the perpetual mystery that has drawn in explorers for centuries. The world premiere takes place on December 8th at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan't IJ with Clark Rundell conducting the Asko|Schoenberg ensemble, the commissioner of this intriguing composition. 

In his Intermezzo appassionato Christian Jost presents a unique perspective on the classical instrumental genre. The work, commissioned by the Kammerakademie Potsdam, will be premiered under the baton of Antonello Manacorda on December the 3rd at the Nikolaisaal.

The biography of a national hero: Turing by Anno Schreiner will make its debut in the Nuremburg Opera house on November the 21st, a production directed Jens-Daniel Herzog. Under the musical baton of Guido Johannes Rumstadt the immense score will be performed with the stage designed by Mathis Neinhardt and costumes created by Sibylle Gädeke.

In association with Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award), music critics and journalists from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have come together to award outstanding music and spoken word productions.

The best and most interesting new releases released in the last three months are awarded a place on the Quarterly Critic’s Choice. Evaluation criteria include artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation, and sound quality.

The jury chose Ludger Brümmer's double album, "Spheres of Resonance", published by WERGO for the Best Recording 4/2022 in the Electronic and Experiemental category.