THE MAGAZINE
Margarita Balanas, cellist and conductor: “Live by Your Own Rules and Don’t Have Any Regrets!” (Part II)
In an exclusive interview with TWoA, Latvian conductor and cellist Margarita Balanas reflects on building new audiences, founding ANONIMI, and embracing social media. She also shares why the future of classical music depends not on defending tradition, but on inviting curiosity. Read on for more.
A Heady Kind of Music: Andy Akiho’s Bronze I and Bronze II
What happens when a six-foot bronze sculpture becomes a musical instrument? In Bronze I and Bronze II, composer Andy Akiho transforms Jun Kaneko’s monumental Heads into haunting, resonant soundscapes, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, performance, and experimental music. Read on for more.
Margarita Balanas, cellist and conductor: “Live by Your Own Rules and Don’t Have Any Regrets!”
From busking on the streets of Latvia to conducting major orchestras and performing as a soloist, Margarita Balanas reflects on ambition, resilience, and why saying yes before you feel ready can change the course of a musical career. Read more in Part I of our exclusive interview.
From Plantation Song to Concert Stage: The Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Birth of the Concert Spiritual
Born just years after the abolition of slavery, the Fisk Jubilee Singers carried the spirituals of their childhood from plantation communities to the world's great concert halls. Their remarkable journey reshaped choral music, preserved a cultural legacy, and gave rise to the Concert Spiritual. Read on for the full story.
Can and Should Contemporary Operas Engage With Controversial Topics?
With Innocence, Kaija Saariaho brings one of the most unsettling realities of contemporary life to the operatic stage. The result is a work that asks whether opera should comfort audiences, or confront them. Read on for more.
Cedar Tavern, NYC, 1950/60s: The Birth of an All-American Avant Garde
In 1950s downtown Manhattan, the Cedar Tavern became an unlikely laboratory for artistic revolution. Here, painters and composers reshaped modern art together, dissolving boundaries between sound, gesture, and chance. Read now to learn more about the birth of experimental, avant garde music in America.
The Political Power of Opera: Ideology and Fascist Control in Mussolini’s Italy
What happens when opera becomes a political instrument? In Mussolini’s Italy, opera was transformed into a tool for spreading the ultranationalist and ethnocentric ideals of Fascism, reshaping national identity, and aligning culture with Fascist ideology. Read on for more.
Interview: Dayner Tafur-Díaz, Conducting Fellow, Karajan-Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Dayner Tafur-Díaz did not grow up inside Europe’s conservatory system, nor follow the usual trajectory of a musical prodigy. Now a Siemens Conductors Scholar at the Karajan-Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker, assisting Kirill Petrenko, he reflects on moving from Peru to Berlin, learning to conduct by accident, and discovering how orchestral sound is shaped from within one of the world’s most distinctive musical traditions. Read on for more.
AI, Art, and Adorno
Can AI make music, or only imitate it? Drawing on Theodor Adorno’s critique of standardisation, this article suggests that algorithmic composition produces structure without development—and sound without artistic transformation. Read on for more.
We Still Care: A Case for Ballet and Opera
Timothée Chalamet’s offhand remark that “no one cares” about ballet and opera sparked outrage, but it also exposed a deeper anxiety about their survival. As funding cuts, rising ticket prices, and ageing repertoires reshape the landscape of live performance, this piece asks what is really at stake when we dismiss these art forms, and why they still matter today. Read on for more.
From Seattle Grunge to the Opera Stage: “Last Days”
Can opera sound like grunge? At the Royal Opera House, Last Days, inspired by Kurt Cobain, replaces hierarchy with collaboration, silence with tension, and tradition with experiment, asking what opera can become when new voices reshape the stage. Read on for more.
Bluegrass-Folk and Bach?
What happens when bluegrass meets Johann Sebastian Bach? In Bach: Sonatas and Partitas Vol. 2, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile reimagines Bach’s iconic solo violin works through the lens of folk tradition. Far from a simple crossover, his interpretations reveal the depth, polyphonic richness, and rhythmic vitality of Bach’s music on a new instrument. Read on for more.
What is Music?
Is music simply organised sound—or something more elusive? From John Cage to Christopher Small’s idea of “musicking,” we explore why the boundary between music and noise is less objective than we might hope. Read on for more.
Singing for Peace in Jerusalem?
What happens when singing meets dialogue? Inside a Jerusalem youth choir where Israeli and Palestinian teens rehearse together, share their stories, and learn to stay in the room—especially when it’s hardest. Read on for more.
The Orchestra Does A Mic Drop: Examining Classical Pop
What happens when pop opens its doors to the orchestra? From ROSALÍA’s baroque-inflected “Berghain” to the symphonic experiments of Laufey and Cody Fry, classical pop is dissolving genre boundaries—and inviting new listeners in.
Conflict Resolution, Greenland Style
As geopolitical tensions once again draw global attention to Greenland, its cultural history offers a revealing counterpoint. For over four millennia, Greenlandic Inuit communities have used drum song and dance not only for ritual and social life, but also as a structured, non-violent way to resolve disputes. In a drum duel, restraint—not aggression—determined the outcome, leaving judgment to the community rather than to force.
Maestro Dudamel: A Venezuelan Saga
From Venezuela’s El Sistema to the podiums of the world’s leading orchestras, Gustavo Dudamel’s career has unfolded alongside profound political change. As he prepares to take on the leadership of the New York Philharmonic, questions about art, power, and responsibility follow close behind. This article traces Dudamel’s rise while examining the uneasy space where music, state influence, and public expectation meet.
Piano Department Film Night
When orchestral projects took over music school, pianists were left with unexpected free time—and an unusual solution. Enter the Piano Department Film Night: documentaries, lectures, and YouTube deep dives watched on an ancient projector. From Cziffra to Glenn Gould to Juilliard practice rooms, this is a pianist’s guide to what’s worth watching.
Ode to Manipulation
Beethoven’s symphonies are often described as profound, moving, and universal—but history complicates that reverence. From Nazi Germany to Stalinist Russia to modern political institutions, his music has repeatedly been co-opted to serve conflicting ideologies. This article asks whether the feeling of being “moved” is as innocent as it seems, or whether its very emptiness makes it dangerously adaptable.
Stravinsky’s Score for “The Rite of Spring” Didn’t Cause a Riot
The myth insists that Stravinsky’s score ignited a riot in 1913—but the truth is far more layered. TWoA revisits the premiere of The Rite of Spring, tracing how Nijinsky’s “anti-ballet” choreography, shaky orchestral execution, and a restless Parisian audience collided to create one of modernism’s great origin stories. A deeper look at the night that changed music history, just not in the way we’re told.