Conductor Marin Alsop spoke to the members of the Music Critics Association this afternoon informally, over turkey sandwiches and brownies. Some of what she said was of the “This shouldn’t leave this room” variety; some of it deserves a wider…

HOUSTON – The 2008 version of the Ima Hogg Young Artist Competition ended Saturday night with a long, four-concerto program – and some surprises for the judges.

On Thursday, we’d chosen four finalists out of a field of nine semifinalists.…

HOUSTON- How often do I get to be a judge?

“How about ‘Week in, week out’?” retorted Aurelie Desmarais, the senior director for artistic planning at the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

Okay, fair enough. I’m a professional critic, after all. But…

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has a new resident conductor and Youth Symphony music director.

He’s Ward Stare, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s League of American Orchestra’s Conducting Fellow. The former principal trombone of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Stare, a Juilliard…

IF YOU GO: Marin Alsop and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Powell Symphony Hall, 718 N. Grand

3 p.m. Sunday, April 28

$15.50 to $105; 314-534-1700 or www.slso.org

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has made an art of well-constructed programs…

No, tenor Juan Diego Florez didn’t do an encore to “Ah, mes amis,” despite a long and lusty accolade from the beyond-appreciative crowd. But he did just about everything else in a manner calculated to please the far-flung audiences of…

Concertgoers and others heading to Grand Center now have another worry: traffic for St. Louis University’s Chaifetz Arena.

A steady stream of cars heading for the Arena on Friday night clogged the highway and Compton Avenue, and made some ticket…

The Wagnerites turned out in force at the Art Museum on Saturday for “Tristan und Isolde,” live from the Met in HD broadcast. It starred soprano Deborah Voigt and tenor Robert Dean Smith – her fourth Tristan in as many…

Tonight I attended my third (and probably last, since my Junior Child is now an eighth grader, and will move on to high school in the fall) “Fine Arts Festival” at a middle school in West County.

These are get-there-early…

It’s a big night for conductor Leonard Slatkin, composer Joan Tower and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, whose “Tower: Made in America” won three Grammy awards, including “Best Classical Album.” It’s a big night for Naxos, their label, as well.

This…