The New York Philharmonic on Wednesday announced a 2013-14 season that seems to aim for maximum variety.

The Colorado Quartet, which is based in New York City, said on Tuesday that it will disband in May, quietly ending a 30-year history of tours, recordings and teaching residences.

"Quartet," a new film directed by Dustin Hoffman, "is a bit too pat and contrived in its conflation of opera and the rigors of old age," writes Fred Plotkin. But he commends it despite its limitations.

Restauranteur Danny Meyer is reportedly eyeing a shuttered space at 1991 Broadway for a potential branch of his Shake Shack burger chain.

A three-year, multimillion-dollar deal between the Sydney Opera House and Etihad Airways has raised concerns that the World Heritage-listed arts complex will be renamed.

Along with New York politicos and influence peddlers, a string quartet from Rochester is heading to the nation's capital for President Barack Obama's second inauguration on Monday.

"Friends, New Yorkers, Opera Lovers Everywhere," writes Fred Plotkin. "Do I really need to explain why people should not engage in extended conversations at the opera?"

Russian police say Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre, is being treated in a Moscow hospital for severe burns after a masked man threw acid in his face.

When the Metropolitan Opera opens a new Rigoletto production inspired by Rat Pack–era Las Vegas, it will be one in of a spate of new contexts for this warhorse.

The Afghan Youth Orchestra is to begin a 12-day U.S. tour that includes concerts at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and the New England Conservatory in Boston.

Houston becomes the latest opera company to put a ring on it next season. The announcement comes as the Houston Symphony gets a new conductor.

Four cities in Italy have created what is known as the Circuito Lirico Lombardo, a consortium that works collaboratively to create four opera productions every season. Fred Plotkin reports from Italy.

The violinist Itzhak Perlman will give a concert with Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, the cantor from the Park East Synagogue in the Barclay's Center next month.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has a new conductor this season: the 37-year-old Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The Canadian composer Mychael Danna won the Golden Globe award for best original score Sunday for his work on the fantasy-adventure film "Life of Pi."

Richard Dare has quit his new post at the New Jersey Symphony after questions about his personal and professional past emerged in a lengthy New York Times investigation.

A new museum dedicated to Richard Wagner opens this weekend near Dresden. Located in a former hunting lodge, it opens as the world gets ready to mark his 200th anniversary, reports Fred Plotkin.

A man who found a violin among some trash by the side of the road in San Antonio, TX, has learned that the instrument is a 1922 Giuseppe Pedrazzini violin.

Simon Rattle will leave his post as chief conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic when his contract ends in 2018, he said Thursday.

The nominees for the 85th Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning with John Williams once again up for a Best Score statuette.