From the Top announced today that 20 high school and early college musicians from Greater Boston have completed a Year-Long Intensive Arts Leadership Program. The Year-Long Intensive Arts Leadership Program is a pilot project of From the Top’s Center for the Development of Arts Leaders (CDAL), which prepares young musicians across the country to be instruments of change in their communities through multiple pathways. From the Top believes kids and music are key ingredients in affecting positive change.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman today announced that the agency will award 863 grants to organizations and individual writers across the country. The Handel and Haydn Society (H&H) is one of the grantees and will receive an Art Works grant of $10,000 to further audience education and enrichment for its performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The 863 grant awards total $22.543 million, encompass 15 artistic disciplines and fields, and support projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

The Free for All Concert Fund, a newly created philanthropic initiative that ensures the sustainability of Boston arts performances at no cost, is announcing its first slate of grants. The board of the foundation is making awards to: A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Opera Collaborative, Firebird Ensemble, New World Chorale, Radius Ensemble, and Vento Chiaro Woodwind Ensemble. In addition to concerts at the immensely popular Landmarks Festival at the Shell and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s summer season, these groups will present a wide-range of performances in local neighborhoods.  Appearances include: opera excerpts at farmers’ markets, ensembles at the Strand Theater and Faneuil Hall, and chamber music at the Harvard Square T station.

The BBC Concert Orchestra is delighted to announce the signing of Keith Lockhart as Principal Conductor, signaling the beginning of a new era for the BBC's most versatile performing group, renowned for their dynamism in classical, jazz and light music.