Reprinted with permission from MusicalAmerica.com

NEW YORK -- George Manahan, who has been a fixture in the pit of New York City Opera for the past 12 seasons, will add a more visible podium in 2010-11, as music director of the American Composers Orchestra.

In recent years, entering the glass-enclosed atrium across from Lincoln Center could be a dismal experience, but now that bleak facility is a memory.

Our New Year's resolutions often never make it past that first January thaw. This year, consider a different action plan. Here are five ways you can become a better classical music fan--and participant.

The genesis of some holiday songs is pretty self-evident, but others don't reveal themselves so easily. Each weekday between now and Christmas Eve, we'll tell you the story of a classic song or carol. Today it's "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing."

With applications for the iPhone and iPod touch multiplying at a dizzying rate, there is a small but growing slate of products for the classical music fan. Here are five standouts.