In the spirit of Beethoven Awareness Month, dare to check out our list of the worst crimes against album cover design when it comes to history's greatest composer.

Olga Bloom, a violinist and violist who founded Bargemusic – which turned a sinister spot on the Brooklyn waterfront into one of New York’s most intimate venues -- died on Thanksgiving. She was 92.

The Catalan soprano Montserrat Figueras, who brought a soulful voice to a broad swath of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque vocal music, died on Wednesday in Barcelona.

The forthcoming Broadway production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess has dropped plans for a new happy ending, following public criticism from composer Stephen Sondheim.

How do you prefer Beethoven symphonies: with the massive string sections and beefed-up choruses of the modern orchestra or the gutsy, lean sound of period-instrument groups? Weigh in here.

Owned by conductor Lorin Maazel for 66 years, the violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini has been featured in a number of his recordings and in concerts.

Feminists and black radicals, filmmakers, architects and rappers all grasped something in the emotional power of Beethoven’s music. Michael Broyles explores this in the new book Beethoven in America.

Signaling the end of an era, the two remaining Japanese members of the Tokyo String Quartet – including its founding violist – will retire in June 2013, the ensemble announced.

Doctors who listen to Mozart while performing colonoscopy may increase their detection rates of precancerous polyps, a small study has found.

Stafford Hartman, a soprano and artist in residence at Memphis Opera, performed from a wheelchair during Saturday night's performance of Tosca at the company.

Despite reports of government funding cuts, Saturday night's concert at Carnegie Hall with pianist Andras Schiff should find the orchestra in excellent artistic shape, if recent reviews are any guide.

Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater reopens today after a six-year, $800 million renovation. Placido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu and Natalie Dessay are among the performers.

The New York City Ballet has announced that its principal dancer is retiring after 16 years.

New York's eccentric Shriner's hall turned performing arts venue has undergone a major renovation. On Tuesday audiences can see the results.

The Russian soprano Anna Netrebko has cancelled her debut recital at Carnegie Hall. At WQXR, she hinted that time was short.

The Metropolitan Opera has announced a big casting change for its new production of Richard Wagner's Siegfried.

About 125 protesters led by an anti-war group called the Granny Peace Brigade, some supporting themselves with canes or walkers, held a vigil on the plaza at Lincoln Center on Tuesday night.

Two unrelated headlines formed a curious intersection this week.

On Thursday, Tarisio auction house announced that a 1783 Guadagnini violin that Lorin Maazel owned and used for his career will be put up for auction on November 10. Proceeds will go to his Castleton Festival in a fund to help young artists.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and its musicians reached a tentative agreement late last week, but their venue is having labor issues of its own: members of stagehands union have gone on strike.

When conductor Valery Gergiev became chairman of the International Tchaikovsky Competition last year he promised to clean house, ridding it of its historic corruption and favoritism.