Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians turned fifty in 2026. The work, premiered at Town Hall in New York on April 24, 1976, has aged into something between a concert…
Contemporary Minimalism: The Composers Carrying the Tradition Forward
Recording String Quartets at Home: A Working Approach
Recording string quartets at high quality has historically required dedicated classical recording venues — converted churches, purpose-built halls, the great recording rooms in London (Air Studios, Henry Wood Hall), Berlin…
Modular Synthesizer Basics: A Beginner’s Working Guide
The modular synthesizer is a peculiar musical instrument: it has no keyboard, no fixed signal flow, no factory presets, and no obvious user interface. The working musician has to build…
Contemporary Opera Houses: A Season Map of New Work in 2026
The contemporary opera economy is in an unusually interesting period. Several of the major houses have become genuinely committed to commissioning new work, several festivals have made world premieres a…