All Article articles – Page 114
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Article
Future of Music Coalition presents case studies of performers' earnings
The US-based Future of Music Coalition (FMC) has released the first financial case studies in its Artist Revenue Streams project, which aims to examine how musicians' income streams are changing, and why. The FMC, a national non-profit advocacy organisation for musicians, profiled a symphony orchestra string player and a contemporary ...
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Article
Nine German quartets launch association to press for more ensemble residencies
A new association of German string quartets is campaigning for more ensemble residencies at the country's Musikhochschules and universities. The Verband Deutscher Streichquartette (German String Quartets Association), which officially launched yesterday, has nine founder members: the Auryn, Diogenes, Henschel, Klenke, Kuss, Leipzig, Mandelring, Minguet and Vogler quartets. The organisation, ...
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Article
UK's Musicians' Union backs 'Art of Teaching' site for music teaching videos
Cello and double bass lessons have been filmed and posted on YouTube as part of a new project that aims to share good practice among instrumental teachers. The Art of Teaching has been launched by the UK's Musicians' Union and musicteachers.co.uk, and the lesson videos can be seen at musicteachers.co.uk/youtube. ...
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Article
First complete performance of Stockhausen's helicopter quartet to take place in Birmingham
Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet is to be heard in its intended context for the very first time when Birmingham Opera Company mounts a production of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light) this summer. The flying quartet is only one part of the opera, a five-hour epic that also ...
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Article
Minnesota Orchestra violinist Sarah Kwak joins Oregon Symphony as concertmaster
The Oregon Symphony has appointed Sarah Kwak as its new concertmaster. The Boston-born violinist has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1988. She was acting concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011 and is currently first associate concertmaster. She will begin her new position in Portland at the ...
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Article
Pacifica Quartet to be resident at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
The Pacifica Quartet has been appointed quartet in residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The ensemble is the first quartet to hold a residency at the school in more than 50 years. The quartet's members – violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and ...
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Kansas City Symphony.names Philadelphia Orchestra violinist as concertmaster
Noah Geller has been named concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony. The 28-year-old succeeds Kanako Ito, who left the post in August 2010. Geller is currently first assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he joined in 2008. He has previously been concertmaster of orchestras at Tanglewood Music Center ...
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Article
Pinchas Zukerman to leave Ottawa orchestra after 17 years as music director
Pinchas Zukerman, the violinist, violist and conductor, has announced plans to step down as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) in Ottawa after 17 years at the helm. The 63-year-old will depart at the end of the 2014–15 season.Zukerman joined the NACO in 1988, assuming the dual ...
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ArticleJapanese scientist creates violin strings from spider silk
A researcher in Japan has succeeded in using silk from hundreds of spiders to make a set of violin strings. Shigeyoshi Osaki, a professor at Nara Medical University in southern Honshu, used between 3,000 and 5,000 strands of silk for each string, which produced ‘a soft and profound ...
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Article
Burglar posing as violinist steals Joshua Bell's watch in Spain
Joshua Bell's hotel room in Zaragoza, Spain, was burgled as the violinist was giving a concert, reports the Los Angeles Times. A thief posing as Bell apparently convinced hotel staff not only to give him a key to Bell's room, but also to open the room's safe. The thief then ...
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Dealer and repairer steps in to help schoolgirl whose violin was destroyed
A violin dealer and repairer in Wichita, Kansas, donated a complete violin outfit to a middle-school student whose instrument had been smashed to pieces, reports the Wichita Eagle. The 14-year-old girl had accidentally left her violin on the ground outside her school, on the day before she was due ...
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Article
1500-year-old wooden fragment could be bridge from Europe's oldest stringed instrument
Archaeologists working on the Scottish island of Skye have discovered the remains of what could be Europe’s oldest stringed instrument. A fragment of burnt wood was unearthed in late 2011 in southern Skye’s High Pasture Cave. Experts who are now studying the object in the Historic Scotland laboratory believe it ...
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Article
UK quartet player's stolen £25k violin is handed in
A stolen violin worth £25k was handed in at a West London rail station on Wednesday 29 February before being reunited with its owner, Brodowsky Quartet violinist Catrin Win Morgan. The instrument, made by Montpellier maker Frédéric Chaudière, was taken from the overhead luggage rack of a London train ...
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Article
Violin made of driftwood from Japan tsunami to tour world
A violin made partly from driftwood from areas devastated in the 11 March 2011 tsunami in Japan is to be played in a musical relay of concerts around the world, reports the Mainichi Daily News. The violin is being made by Muneyuki Nakazawa, a 71-year-old Japanese maker, restorer ...
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ArticleBowen: Viola Sonatas no.1 in C minor op.18 & no.2 in F major op.22, Phantasy op.54
The Strad Issue: January 2012Description: Discerning accounts of viola sonatas that can be overdoneMusicians: Bridge Duo: Matthew Jones (viola) Michael Hampton (piano)Composer: BowenThese are heady days for York Bowen’s music, which is being championed by a growing number of musicians on several different labels. As far as ...
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ArticleBrahms: Piano Trio no.1 in B major op.8. Smetana: Piano Trio in G minor op.15
The Strad Issue: January 2012Description: A largely successful coupling of two great Romantic piano triosMusicians: Weiss–Kaplan–Newman TrioComposer: Brahms & SmetanaThe Weiss–Kaplan–Newman Trio presents a powerful account of Brahms’s First Piano Trio, one where the choice of tempos in the outer movements gives an ideal sense of creative ...
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ArticleErnst: Complete Music for Violin and piano vol.2: Fantaisie brillante sur la Marche et la Romance d’Otello de Rossini, Boléro, Deux romances, Souvenir du Pré aux Clercs, Pensées fugitives pt 1, Variat
The Strad Issue: January 2012Description: A dazzling tribute to one of the 19th century’s real virtuoso fiddlersMusicians: Sherban Lupu (violin) Ian Hobson (piano)Composer: ErnstEven in an age noted for its dazzling pyrotechnicians, Heinrich Ernst (1812–65) was virtually in a class of his own, as anyone who has ...
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ArticleFauré: Cello Sonatas no.1 in D minor op.109 & no.2 in G minor op.117, Élégie op.24, Romance op.69, Papillon op.77, Sérénade op.98, Sicilienne op.78, Allegro commodo from Sonata no.1
THE STRAD RECOMMENDSThe Strad Issue: January 2012Description: An ideal survey of Fauré’s music for cello and pianoMusicians: Alban Gerhardt (cello) Cecile Licad (piano)Composer: FauréBar a few frequently performed masterpieces such as the Requiem, Fauré’s larger-scale works, not least the cello sonatas, seem to elude concert planners. The ...
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ArticleBeethoven: Cello Sonata no.1 in F major op.5 no.1. Mendelssohn: Cello Sonata no.2 in D major op.58. Webern: Cello Sonata, Langsam from Zwei kleine Stücke. Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G minor op.19.
The Strad Issue: January 2012Description: A promising debut from a young Swiss cellistMusicians: Lionel Cottet (cello) Louis Schwizgebel-Wang (piano)Composer: Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Webern, Rachmaninoff, ShostakovichHere, two 21-year-old Swiss musicians present a wide-ranging programme at a concert recorded last December in the Great Hall of the Geneva Conservatoire. As ...
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ArticleHill: String Quartets nos.10 & 11, ‘Life’ Quintet*
The Strad Issue: January 2012Description: Antipodean chamber music that needs more stimulating advocates than hereMusicians: Dominion Quartet, Richard Mapp* (piano) singers/Mark Dorrell* (conductor)Composer: HillThis is the fourth instalment in Naxos’s survey of the 17 string quartets by Australian composer Alfred Hill (1869–1960). They’re an odd bunch. The ...
