Guardian Music — Argyle Works, BirminghamKarlheinz Stockhausen spent 27 years composing the seven operas, one for each day of the week, that make up his monumental Licht cycle.He finished the whole work in 2004, and while every individual scene of each opera had been... more info

Guardian Music — Four helicopters with one member of a string quartet in each will take to the Birmingham skies on Wednesday 22 August. The quartet is one of the six scenes of an ambitious and daring musical production – the first ever complete staging of Stockhaus... more info

Guardian Music — Reading/Leeds FestivalIt's more than 20 years now since the Reading/Leeds festival entered its modern era, but the event's image remains the same: a goth eating a baked potato sitting by a fire made of plastic cups. A hard rock festival with occasion... more info

Guardian Music — The strings play in helicopters, the trumpeter's on a trapeze, and a camel dances around while defecating planets. Alexis Petridis on Birmingham Opera Company's bid to stage a mind-boggling Stockhausen operaIt's a Thursday afternoon and, outside the... more info

Guardian Music — Lina Lalandi, who has died aged 91, founded the English Bach festival in 1962, and was its director from the first festival, in 1963, until her death. Its early performances of both modern and baroque music took place in Oxford before, in the 1970s, ... more info

Guardian Music — The musical 'genomes' generate melodies that have a superficial coherence, with all the dryness and greyness that suggestsIamus's Hello World! for piano, clarinet, and violin, ought to pose existential questions about the integrity of musical composi... more info

Guardian Music — Contemporary classical music is devoid of melody and appeal, all noise and no fun. At least, that's the cliche. But this is music that is very much at the heart of our modern world1. It all sounds like a squeaky gateThere are two sides to this. Fi... more info

Guardian Music — Birmingham Opera Company performance of Mittwoch aus Licht for London 2012 festival will have flying soloists and two choirsIt is not the headache of four separate helicopters carrying string quartet performers that is keeping Graham Vick awake at ni... more info

Guardian Music — The Olympics cultural programme is reaching the point of no return, with its brochure being finalised. Organiser Ruth Mackenzie is sure of successBorrowing marathon parlance, Ruth Mackenzie, in charge of the Cultural Olympiad and its showpiece London... more info

Guardian Music — Italian composer with a quiet approach to problems of creationAldo Clementi, who has died aged 85, was the last survivor of the great generation of Italian postwar musical avant-gardists. He was also its quietest and most self-effacing member, both p... more info