Rising stars: ten to watch in 2025–26

Rising stars: ten to watch in 2025-26

Fleur Barron

Hugh Cutting

Irène Duval

Mishka Rushdie Momen

Adam Hickox

Jaeden Izik-Dzurko

Oliver Leith

Cecilia Molinari

Ersan Mondtag

Opus13

By Mark Pullinger, 02 September 2025

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Eleanor Knight, 24th November

The British countertenor, who’s riding the crest of a wave this year, talks about his passion for good storytelling in opera, his favourite roles and the art of Zen Buddhism.

International Opera Awards 2025 announced

Bachtrack, 14th November

The legendary mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa received a standing ovation while collecting her Lifetime Achievement Award, while other awards went to artists and companies from around the globe.

Birgit Nilsson Prize awarded to Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

Bachtrack, 21st May

Classical music’s most lucrative award, of $1 million, has been given to the prestigious French summer opera festival, in particular recognition of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Innocence.

Looking for Thomas Adès in the Aquifer

Lawrence Dunn, 26th March

In residence in Manchester with the Hallé, Thomas Adès talks about recent pieces Aquifer and Wreath, and how bigness and smallness are never exactly quantifiable.

Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and beyond

Lawrence Dunn, 10th March

We profile one of the most advanced and best-sounding concert halls in the UK, and take a look further afield at arts and culture across Manchester.

The world over: Bachtrack’s Classical Music Statistics 2025

Bachtrack, 28th January

How is the classical music world changing? Looking back on a dizzying year, we pay particular attention to performers’ international connectedness. Documenting more than 30,000 events, Bachtrack’s statistics provide valuable insight into an unstable world.

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.