As medici.tv’s Chief Content Officer I spend a lot of time thinking about classical music—and a lot of time on the internet. Here’s my selection of the top five news items you need to see this week if you want to stay in the know.
A production of Swan Lake makes international headlines for its ballerinas’ bare legs (The New York Times)
A Toronto production of iconic ballet Swan Lake is making waves for its radical choice to forgo tights and feature bare-legged swans. The change stems from a broader conversation about inclusion and racial homogeneity within global ballet culture, as the pale pink tights generally used — and seen by many as “a tradition that has enforced whiteness as an industry norm” — could make dancers of color feel excluded. Dropping the tights required creativity from the costuming department to address new logistical challenges, and it also played into the overall aesthetic and perception of the ballet, foregrounding the strength, physicality, and individuality of the dancers.
Ravel and jazz, “a loop of reciprocal influence” (WRTI)
This week the classical world is celebrating the 150th anniversary of one of its most iconic composers: Maurice Ravel. Enjoy this fantastic deep dive into Ravel’s relationship with jazz that recounts a particularly noteworthy trip to New York in 1928, where, with George Gershwin as his guide, he attended multiple jazz concerts and Broadway performances. In an interview during that same trip, he said, “You Americans take jazz too lightly. You seem to feel that it is cheap, vulgar, momentary. In my opinion, it is bound to lead to the national music of the United States. Aside from it you have no veritable idiom as yet.”
Read the feature then listen to one of Ravel’s most jazz-infused works, the Concerto in G:
Classic FM’s 2025 “30 Under 30” Rising Stars (Classic FM)
For those who love to keep an eye on the next generation of classical music performers, Classic FM has just released their annual list of 30 rising stars under 30. The talented crop of laureates changing the face of the sector range in age from 14 to 29. Regular medici.tv users may recognize a few faces like pianist Junyan Chen, who took home multiple prizes at The Leeds last fall, or soprano Ava Dodd, who we broadcast as a Verbier Academy student a few summers back…
Christian Tetzlaff cancels US performance dates (San Francisco Chronicle)
German violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who typically performs around 20 concerts a year in the United States, announced that he was canceling all upcoming American concert dates, citing “growing discomfort with the political climate in the United States.” Tetzlaff, who was set to embark on an eight-city US tour later this month with his quartet, said: “I pay 32 percent taxes on every concert I play in the United States. That goes, at the moment, to a state that does partially horrible things with the money. And so to complain and then to say, ‘I take my money and go home’ — that’s also not good.”
Jean-Guihen Queyras to donate US concert proceeds to Ukraine (Radio Classique, in French)
Tetzlaff’s decision is already having a ripple effect in the classical world: Canadian cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras announced this week plans to donate proceeds from his five planned stateside performances to the Ukrainian government. Explaining his decision, Queyras cited Tetzlaff’s example, as well as the recent meeting between Ukrainian president Zelensky and American president Trump, describing the encounter as a “humiliation”. This is not the first time Queyras has taken a stand for Ukraine: last August, he traveled to Kyiv to perform alongside the Kyiv Camerata.
