LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Deborah Borda will retire as president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic at the end of the 2022-23 season.

Actor Richard Gere hosted a benefit concert for Ukraine at Carnegie Hall that raised $360,000 for Direct Relief, a humanitarian organization providing medical aid.

“Music for String Quartet” spent decades hiding in a cabinet; on May 7, it makes a rare appearance in Maryland.

The poet, activist and educator Sonia Sanchez is this year’s winner of the Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement honor started in 1960 and previously given to Robert Frost, Toni Morrison and Stephen Sondheim among others.

Carnegie Hall is launching an on-demand video network that features recorded performances of artists known for performing at the famed venue.

In 2010, the year he turned 80, Stephen Sondheim had to endure a public fuss when a Broadway theater was being renamed in his honor.

This time, Barry Manilow didn’t make it through the rain.

The 20th annual festival is not limited to NYC audiences, with many world premiere features and documentaries available to stream at home.

Carla Fracci, an Italian cultural icon and former La Scala prima ballerina renowned for romantic roles alongside such greats as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, died Thursday at her home in Milan.

Christa Ludwig, a renowned interpreter of Wagner, Mozart and Strauss who starred on the world’s great stages for four decades, had died at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria.

The event was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)If you're a fan of classical music, this is music to your ears: One of the nation's premier summer festivals is coming back after the coronavirus pandemic silenced it for the first time since World War II. Until last year, the live music had flowed virtually uninterrupted, canceled outright only in 1943 at the height of WWII. Ad“I am sure we will all experience music’s incredible power on a whole new level,” Andris Nelsons, the BSO's music director, said in a statement. This summer's festival will mark the orchestra's return to live performances for the first time since the pandemic forced what will be a 16-month hiatus.

FILE - This May 12, 2020 file photo shows David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, closed during COVID-19 lockdown, in New York. The New York Philharmonic has launched an on-demand video and audio streaming service Monday called NYPhil+ that is available for $50 annually or $4.99 monthly. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)NEW YORK – The New York Philharmonic launched an on-demand video and audio streaming service Monday called NYPhil+ that is available for $50 annually or $4.99 monthly. There are no initial selections involving Leonard Bernstein, the Philharmonic’s music director from 1958-69. The Philharmonic stopped large-scale live concerts last March because of the new coronavirus pandemic.

NEW YORK – Filmmaker Ava DuVernay will be honored next month by MacDowell, which is presenting its inaugural Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award to her media company and arts collective ARRAY. The award is named for the co-founder of MacDowell, the century-old artist residency in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein and many others have been visiting fellows. DuVernay, known for such acclaimed movies as “Selma” and “13th," founded ARRAY in 2012 as a way of amplifying the work of women and people of color. “I am touched that our narrative change collective ARRAY, which is built upon a mission to articulate and amplify stories from the widest range of art makers, is being honored in Ms. MacDowell’s name,” DuVernay said in a statement Sunday. Actress and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander, will present the award.

In particular, Kauffman grieved for several special events that were to have occurred this summer, including Marin Alsops first appearance as Ravinias chief conductor and curator, a position created for her. Also lost: commemorations of violinist Isaac Sterns 100th birthday; a third season celebrating the legacy of Leonard Bernstein, including a rare performance of his White House Cantata; and several events marking the centennial of the Constitutions 19th Amendment, which secured womens right to vote.

"West Side Story" returns to Broadway this week in a drastic new incarnation of the classic musical by Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim. Sixty-two years ago, "West Side Story" performed for 732 Broadway audiences and introduced the world to Stephen Sondheim. But Sondheim said he's actually embarrassed by the lyrics he wrote for the musical. "I've always been somewhat critical of my work on 'West Side Story,'" Sondheim told 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, "There are moments in it that embarrass me-- I'll give you a poetic one. Sondheim is again involved in the Broadway production, collaborating with a pair of Tony Award winners in director Ivo van Hove and producer Scott Rudin.