- Johann Joachim Quantz
- video performance artist
- Ana María Iriarte
- Dave Griffiths
- Sadler's Wells
- Andreas N Tarkmann
- Natalie Windsor
- David McDuff
Appointments and Signings
Caroline Wettergreen, Bryan Ijames, Antonio Pappano, Juliette Tacchino and Sarah Fleiss
Classical music and opera agency Intermusica has announced the signing of Norwegian soprano Caroline Wettergreen (born 1986) for worldwide general management. Next season, Wettergreen returns to the Opera National de Paris to make her role debut as Mrs Mao in John Adams' Nixon in China conducted by Kent Nagano, and to the Bayerische Staatsoper to sing Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Daniele Rustioni. On the concert stage, she will join the Trondheim Symphoniorkester for a programme of Mozart arias, conducted by Magnus Fryklund.
Norwegian soprano Caroline Wettergreen. Photo © Gerard Collett
American conductor, teacher and tenor Bryan Ijames (pronounced eye-ems) has been appointed the next artistic director of the Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches (founded in 1979) in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. (Ken Taylor, who has been the choir's artistic director for fifteen years, concludes his appointment this month.) Ijames teaches at Florida Gulf Coast University's Bower School of Music, and has worked to revive British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's sacred cantata The Atonement.
Bryan Ijames (born 1990)
In the UK, English-Italian conductor Antonio Pappano has been appointed the first Conductor Laureate of The Royal Opera. This follows his twenty-two year tenure as Music Director - the longest serving director in Covent Garden history. As Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša (born 1981) becomes Music Director in September 2025, Pappano will continue to conduct regularly in future seasons.
Antonio Pappano rehearsing for Barrie Kosky's production of Wagner's Die Walküre at Covent Garden. Photo © 2025 Tristram Kenton
French soprano Juliette Tacchino and American soprano Sarah Fleiss, both recent graduates of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, are to join the roster of Curtis Artist Management for general management and worldwide representation, becoming the first vocal performers to join the Curtis Institute's artist management agency. Juliette Tacchino will perform on tour throughout the USA in chamber music concerts and recitals during the 2025–26 season, and Sarah Fleiss joins Les Arts Florissants' Baroque touring ensemble Le Jardin des Voix for its 2025–26 and 2026–27 season productions.
American soprano Sarah Fleiss (left) and French soprano Juliette Tacchino
As already reported here, in Autumn 2025, David Chan, the long-term concertmaster of the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra is to become a professor at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Texas, USA.
Posted 24 May 2025 by Keith Bramich
