Q & A: China Now Music Festival Artistic Director Jindong Cai on Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary Through Chinese-American Experience

Two chapters of American history, separated by more than a century, sit at the center of this year’s China Now Music Festival in New York. One belongs to the thousands of Chinese laborers who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. The other belongs to Maya Lin, the American artist born to Chinese immigrant parents who designed the Vietnam {…}

Sep 29, 2026

Q & A: Victoria Frances Young on Her Fixed-Media Operatic Work ‘Breaking News’

(Photo: © Victoria Frances Young) Pianist, composer, and electroacoustic and multimedia artist Victoria Frances Young’s contemporary operatic work, “Breaking News,” won the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) Search for New Music Competition’s Leah Reid Electroacoustic and Music in Technology Prize and will receive its wider streaming release on October 6, ahead of the world premiere of its fixed-media {…}

Sep 28, 2026

Q & A: Composer Huang Ruo & Librettist David Henry Hwang on ‘The Rift’ for China Now Music Festival’s ‘Chasing Dreams’

(Photo © Courtesy of the artists & the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music) Two black granite stones, each 246.75 feet long, carve a V-shape into the earth with the names of 58,000-plus dead soldiers in chronological order. Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial is more than meets the eye. In 1981, the 21-year-old Yale student who {…}

Sep 28, 2026

Q & A: Azrieli Commission for International Music Laureate Adrian Mocanu on ‘de l’encra escafada’

(Photo credit: Fotografia Giu) Of the troubadours who sang in medieval Provence, most of the surviving legacy belongs to men. The trobairitz, the female troubadours, have largely faded from cultural memory, and Beatriz de Dia left behind a single song preserved with musical notation. That lone canso is the starting point for “de l’encra escafada” (“from faded ink”), a work {…}

Sep 18, 2026

Q & A: Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music Laureate Nicholas Denton Protsack on Creating Ecologically-Minded Music

(Credit: Hagen Hopkins) The 2026 Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music laureate is New Zealand-based Canadian composer and cellist Nicholas Denton Protsack. Described by the Canadian Music Centre as a “composer to keep a close eye on,” Protsack’s work explores the connections between sound, ecology, and improvisation, and has been performed across North America, Europe, and New Zealand. Recently, the composer {…}

Sep 17, 2026

Q & A: Sharon Carty on her Position as Artistic Director of the Sligo Baroque Festival & her Role as Mary in Irish National Opera’s Production of “Testament”

(Photo: Frank McGrath/Irish Independent) Mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty is a name familiar to anyone with an interest in classical music in Ireland. Known mainly for her many performances in operas and concerts across the country, she also active in other areas associated with the classical musical scene, not least in her role as the recently appointed artistic director of Sligo Baroque {…}

Sep 14, 2026

Q & A: Composer Hana Ajiashvili on Her Azrieli Award-Winning ‘Riddle,’ Finding Inspiration in Color & Music’s Omnipresence in Her Life

(Photo Credit: Michael-Pavia) “Color is one of the strongest impulses in my creative process. I often think about orchestration and instrumental techniques almost visually — as layers, densities, contrasts, surfaces, and transformations of color,” says composer Hana Ajiashvili, 2026 Laureate of the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music (give for an existing but undiscovered work of Jewish music), regarding what inspires {…}

Sep 13, 2026

In Less Than Five Minutes, Get To Know Stage Director MariaLuisa Bafunno

(Photo: Mariapia Ballarino) Recently OperaWire attended a performance of “Farinelli: The Voice That Remains,” a one-man show by soprano Nicolò Balducci. It was quite a splendid piece of music theater, which wove a path between opera, spoken theater, and recital. Behind the scenes was Marialuisa Bafunno, who was responsible for the concept, stage direction, and spoken text. Such was the {…}

Sep 12, 2026

Q & A: Music Worcester’s Chris Shepard & Friends on THE COMPLETE BACH

(Photo credit: Wright & Mazzucco) As the third year of BACHtoberfest approaches, Artistic Director of The Worcester Chorus and THE COMPLETE BACH Chris Shepard, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and BACHtoberfest Choir member, Dana Lauducci spoke with OperaWire about this audacious project. THE COMPLETE BACH, Music Worcester’s 11-year project to present all of the known works of J. S. Bach live features the annual {…}

Aug 30, 2026

Q & A: Suzanne Nance on Becoming Wexford Festival Opera’s New CEO

(Photo: AJ Coots) When I was asked to interview Wexford Festival Opera’s new CEO, Suzanne Nance, my thoughts immediately turned to balance sheets, profit forecasts, marketing campaigns, contracts, fundraising and staffing issues. I must admit that it did little to set the pulse racing. However, it turned out be a very different experience than expected. While such issues were touched {…}

Aug 13, 2026

Q & A: Jarvus Ricardo Hester on Founding & Managing Harlem Collective Opera, WHRL Mood Radio Harlem, Mood Magazine NYC

Jarvus Ricardo Hester is thinking about opera beyond the traditional theater. As the founder of Harlem Collective Opera, he is exploring how classical music can become more intimate, accessible, and connected to the communities it serves. At the heart of that work is the Black Composer Project, an exploration of Black art song that has grown into something larger than {…}

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