Michel Plasson has led some of the world's greatest orchestras, from Berlin to Paris to London, but he has come east to take on a new challenge as the first foreign principal conductor in China. Many international maestros have made guest appearances with the nation's top ensembles, but Plasson, 76, is now the leader of the China National ...

In Kinshasa, home of the swaying Congolese rumba, 200 people at a local church have succeeded in creating a concert hall orchestra to bring Handel, Beethoven and Mozart to the heart of Africa. They are a motley mix of dressmakers and shopkeepers, pupils and students, hairdressers and civil servants, all part of an orchestra which tackles great works from Western ...

In Kinshasa, home of the swaying Congolese rumba, 200 people at a local church have succeeded in creating a concert hall orchestra to bring Handel, Beethoven and Mozart to the heart of Africa. They are a motley mix of dressmakers and shopkeepers, pupils and students, hairdressers and civil servants, all part of an orchestra which tackles great works from Western ...