19 September marks the start of the 36th season of MUSICA - an international festival dedicated to contemporary music. Several Ricordi composers are presented on the programme, including national and local premieres.

Letter to H. Marx by Sergej Newski is a specially commissioned work to be played along with the winning pieces of an international call for scores by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

At the 17 August BBC Proms concert, iconic violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere of Philip Venables’ new violin concerto, Venables plays Bartók. 

On 4 August 2018, Olga Neuwirth celebrates her 50th birthday, and the international musical world is honouring this occasion with numerous highlights from her oeuvre during the coming concert season.

After its American debut last year at the Spoleto Festival USA, Luca Francesconi’s Quartett makes its return to the United States. This time on the West Coast and featuring an all-new production, the opera’s fifth.

 

Nikolaus Brass’ new opera Die Vorübergehenden (The Passers-By) was premiered by the Bavarian State Opera in July 2018.

In July 2018, Joseph Phibbs’s opera debut Juliana received its premiere at the Cheltenham Music Festival.

To mark the 150 years since the death of Gioachino Rossini, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro will be featuring Adina and Ricciardo e Zoraide, two operas whose histories hark back to 1818, two centuries ago. 

In July, as part of this year’s BBC Proms program, the London Sinfonietta, conducted by George Benjamin, will be presenting the world premieres of We Wept by Luca Francesconi and the last minutes of inhumanity by Georg Friedrich Haas. 

An extended version of An American Soldier by Huang Ruo has given its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Conductor Michael Christie talks about the work and the current situation of opera in the U.S.