Vocal music

When it comes to New Year's traditions in Athens, a date with the Athens Concert Hall (megaron.gr) at the end of the year is a must. The Megaron has announced its New Year's Gala and it comes with Parisian flair.

The General Directorate of State Opera and Ballet (DOB) will present world-famous opera and ballet works at international festivals in the summer, starting in Istanbul on June 10 and ending in Antalya on Sept. 21.

Swedish choir Zero8 won the 17th Gallus international choral music competition that wrapped up in Maribor on 23 April. Basque's male ensemble Suhar finished second, and the third place went to the Slovenian chamber choir Megaron, which also received the award for best Slovenian ensemble.

Choral ensembles from different schools and universities in Greece, but also from Italy and Hungary, will be converging on the Thessaloniki Concert Hall (tch.gr) this week for the 10th Children's-Youth Choir Festival. Dedicated to a capella, the event will feature a mixed program of music.

Maribor – Opera lovers will be able to enjoy some of the most renowned arias from Italian, French and Slovenian operas at the recently renovated main square in the centre of Maribor on Thursday evening. The Night of the Opera, hosted by the SNG Maribor theatre, will also mark the closing of the opera season.

An Italian opera conductor settled in Turkey for over three decades says the Turkish audience is receptive.     

Saint Paul's Anglican Church inaugurates its Easter program of concerts with Gabriel Faure's masterpiece "Requiem," written between 1887 and 1890. The mass for the dead features soprano Marilena Striftobola and baritone Dimosthenis Stavrianos, the Musica Raeda chamber orchestra, under the baton of Dimitris Dimitriadis, and the Kallitechnimata and Panteion University choirs.

The Athens Concert Hall is screening Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York at 7.55 p.m. on Friday. The richly textured new production by Michael Mayer is conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin and stars soprano Diana Damrau as the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Florez returns as Alfredo, Violetta's hapless lover.

The Gölyazı neighborhood of Turkey’s northwestern province of Bursa has been covered in snow, presenting picturesque scenes for ones who fancy the winter season.

To misquote "A Star Is Born," awards shows were far from shallow in 2018. Many confronted sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry head on, but as a new year kicks off with the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6 one question lingers: Will it continue for another year?