THE MAGAZINE
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.
Bridging the World: The Balcony in Art and Literature
Whether framing a royal kiss, a political speech, or Shakespeare's most famous declaration of love, the balcony has long occupied a unique place in popular culture. Georgia Dougherty explores how this architectural feature became a symbol of romance, modernity, power, and performance across art and literature. Read on to find out more.
Inside the Art Collections of a Cultural Icon: Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent collected art with the same vision that transformed fashion. From Picasso and Matisse to Brancusi and Mondrian, his eclectic collection offered an intimate portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest creative minds - and culminated in one of the most significant auctions in art market history. Read on for more.
From London with Love: “Samson et Dalila”
What begins as a rain-soaked dash through London ends with one of the most memorable evenings of the season. In this City Letter, TWoA’s London reporter, Maya Stoilova, attends the Royal Opera House’s Samson et Dalila, reflecting on Saint-Saëns’ music, the cast’s magnetic performances, and the unique sense of connection that only the arts can create. Read on for more.
Before the Met Gala, Power-Dressing Was a Matter of State. Here’s Why.
AI fooled me into liking this year’s Met Gala outfits. So I went back through art history in search of fashion’s true power dressers. Read on to discover how clothing became a political language, and how you, too, can dress to rule.
Career Spotlight: Artist Liaison
What does an artist liaison actually do? In the first instalment of TWoA’s Career Spotlight series, Melis Seven takes us behind the scenes of gallery life, where artists’ ideas turn into deadlines, exhibitions, logistics—and more. Read on to discover who helps contemporary art move from studio to public view.
Everything Old is New Again: Bob Fosse, “All That Jazz,” and the Obliteration of the Movie Musical
What happens when a choreographer turns his own death into a musical? In All That Jazz, Bob Fosse made the movie musical darker, stranger, and more honest, transforming show business, self-destruction, and the fear of being forgotten into a spectacle. Read on for a portrait of an artist who danced on the edge.
From Riga with Love: On Singing, Soft Power, and the Very Best Food of My Life
In Riga, music once operated as a political weapon. But it was not alone: art, too, played a part. Writing from the Latvian capital, TWoA explores how the country's art and culture have long served as instruments of resistance, continuity, and national self-definition, from the Singing Revolution to the modernist painters and contemporary artists who challenged Soviet control. Read on for a portrait of a city shaped by occupation and a meditation on art’s power to preserve identity against political erasure.
From Paris with Love: The Annual Performance of the Paris Opera Ballet School at the Palais Garnier
Some opera house are so legendary, they have entered popular culture. The Palais Garnier in Paris is one of them. Find out some surprising facts about this iconic opera house and join our correspondent at the Paris Opera Ballet School’s triumphant annual school performance.
From London with Love: The Southbank Centre - Culture as a Democratic Social Good
Wondering around a jungle of concrete on a cold and drizzly spring day may not be everyone’s idea of fun. But London’s Southbank Centre is a place where you can experience art and culture as a democratic social good for everyone to access. Read on and plan your visit!
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.
The Remarkable Escape of Tracey Emin
From Margate’s washed-out shoreline to the centre of British contemporary art, Tracey Emin transformed autobiography into artistic defiance. Her work remains a refusal to apologise for experience, vulnerability, or survival. To explore her oeuvre, read the full article now.
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.
Morningmaxxing: The Case for Keeping Our Mornings to Ourselves
Morning routines promise clarity, discipline, and success, but what happens when they become another performance of productivity? Another less mainstream argument emerges for reclaiming the early hours as private time. Read on for more.
From New York with Love: From the New Museum to the Whitney Museum’s Biennial 2026
In a newly reopened New Museum and the Whitney Biennial 2026, artists reconsider the body as system, memory, and landscape. Moving across downtown Manhattan, one question lingers: what does it mean to be human today? Read on to find out.
A Brief Exploration of the Fun and Weird Medieval
From jousting snails to rebellious rabbits, medieval manuscripts and cathedral carvings reveal a humorous world that challenges the myth of the Middle Ages as solemn and austere. Read on for more.
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.
Fake or Genius? Inside the High-Stakes World of Art Forgery
Some forged paintings fooled experts for decades and sold for millions. What makes a fake convincing—and why do we believe in authenticity? Read on to find out.
From London with Love: “Mayerling” - When a Crown Prince Longs for Death
Amidst the rain, a coffin is lowered into the ground. What follows are dances, desires, and death wishes, unfolding against Nicholas Georgiadis’ sumptuous designs and John Lanchbery’s arrangement of Franz Liszt’s restless music. The Royal Opera House’s Mayerling emerges as a haunting portrait of Crown Prince Rudolf’s final days–and honours choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s genius, over three decades after his death. Read on for more.