Around the U.S.

By James Bash

The Pacific Northwest is well known as a scenic wonderland that attracts summer tourists, and it harbors a wealth of music festivals that complement the dramatic landscape. Here are several of the best in Oregon, Idaho and Washington:

By Nancy Malitz

Billed as the oldest outdoor music festival in North America, the Ravinia Festival since 1936 has been summer home to the Chicago Symphony. Music director James Conlon brings Aida and visits by Vengerov, Lang Lang. But jazz and pop figure in.

By John W. Lambert

The American sister of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Italian festival fills the beautiful and historic South Carolina city that rests just west of Fort Sumter (where the first shots of the Civil War were fired).

By John W. Lambert

The return of Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski turned out to be one of the happiest musical occasions of the season, thus far. Music by Bach and Schumann were here enriched by a great rarity, part of Janáček's magnificent set of character-pieces known as On an Overgrown Path.

By Geoffrey Simon

Having collectively held its breath throughout each of the Ninth Symphony's four movements, the audience at the University of North Carolina's sold-out Memorial Hall was on its feet with applause and cheers.

By Roy C. Dicks

Carolina Performing Arts presented the Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, in the second of two back-to-back concerts. The orchestra and the conductor again upheld their well-deserved stature in an all-Russian program.

By Nancy Malitz

Giselle, performed by the Paris Opéra Ballet and the Grant Park Orchestra in Harris Theater, simulcast at Pritzker Pavilion, points to a multi-media future for Millennium Park.

By Janelle Gelfand

Louis Langrée’s Mostly Mozart programs at the Lincoln Center might have been called Mostly not Mozart this season. But evidenced by the large, young audience that gravitated to Avery Fisher Hall last weekend, Langrée’s programming concept has been a success.

By Laura McDowell

To those who attend performances at the Brevard Music Center, he’s the guy in the white shirt fraternizing on the lawn of Whittington Pfohl Auditorium at intermission.

By John W. Lambert

UNCG’s Focus on Piano Literature has, since 1990, drawn pianists, piano teachers, and piano music enthusiasts to Greensboro for in-depth study. This year’s edition focused on the music of Gabriel Fauré.

By MCANA Critics

Comprehensive coverage of the 2011 production includes Jeff Dunn on Leitmotifs, John W. Barker on Cosima Wagner and reviews by Susan Brodie, Robert Markow and Jens R. Laurson.

By Paul Hertelendy

A tribute to the late New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

By John W. Barker

”Early music” – generally, music composed up to 1750 – is certainly a familiar commodity in south-central Wisconsin, thanks in part to the Madison Early Music Festival, which runs the second week of every July.