Latest news – Page 261
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ArticleJoshua Bell Carnegie Hall concert cancelled
Tonight's Carnegie Hall concert, to have featured violinist Joshua Bell and double bassist Esperanza Spalding, has been cancelled due to strike action by the hall's stagehands. The New York venue's season-opening performance tonight, 2 October, was scheduled to begin at 7pm in the Stern Auditorium Perelman Stage with ...
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ArticleGerman orchestras stage one-day strike
More than 100 orchestras in Germany staged a 24-hour strike on Monday 30 September. The largest such action in Germany since the 1950s, it was organised by the German Orchestra Union on the eve of salary negotiations with the German Stage Association (GSA), the body responsible for the payment of ...
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Osmo Vänskä resigns as Minnesota Orchestra's music director
Osmo Vänskä has resigned from the Minnesota Orchestra, bringing to an end his ten-year role as music director. In a statement, the 60-year-old conductor (pictured) said it was ‘a very sad day’ for him personally, although he had originally warned of his intentions in a letter to the management on ...
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ArticleBudapest Festival Orchestra offers apprenticeships to European Union Youth Orchestra players
The musicians of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) will get the chance to play as part of the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) in 2014–15, under a newly announced apprenticeship scheme. The partnership between the two orchestras will mean that EUYO players can work on BFO projects for up to ...
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ArticleViolin Society of America journal goes online
Members of the Violin Society of America (VSA) can now search and view pages from the archives of the VSA Journal, the society's 39-year-old magazine. Each of the journal's 74 issues has been scanned in and made available to members only, going back to the first edition in October 1974 ...
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ArticleAustralian Chamber Orchestra debuts digital installation
A new music installation has been launched in Australia, designed to give listeners a concert experience without any musicians present. Devised by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), the project consists of 13 screens, each featuring an ensemble member in performance, surrounding the audience. The sound of each individual musician comes ...
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ArticleCould Mittenwald be sitting on a fortune in Nazi treasure?
Mittenwald, the violin making hub in southern Germany, could be the last resting place of a cache of gold and diamonds belonging to Adolf Hitler, according to a Dutch film-maker. Leon Giesen, 51, has carried out three excavations in the Bavarian town and is seeking funding for a fourth, using ...
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ArticlePhiladelphia Orchestra recruits associate concertmaster
Shanghai-born violinist Ying Fu has joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as associate concertmaster. A first-prize winner at the 2011 Schmidbauer and 2012 Rodolfo Lipizer competitions, he has been a first violinist in the Cleveland Orchestra for the past two seasons.Ying Fu studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music before moving to ...
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Article23 Spanish orchestras perform simultaneous protest concert
More than a thousand professional orchestral musicians from across Spain took part in a simultaneous concert on 23 September, in protest against arts budget cuts and a sharp rise in VAT on concert tickets. Twenty-three out of the 26 orchestras that are members of AMPOS, the country's professional symphony orchestra ...
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ArticleTwo beloved pedagogues to be remembered in the US
Memorials for cellist János Starker and violinist Masuko Ushioda will take place over the next two weekends at the respective US institutions where they were longtime teachers. On Sunday 22 September the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, will honour János Starker at a free, public memorial. ...
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ArticleChina's international lutherie competition announces results
The results are in from the second China International Violin Making and Bow Making Competition, held in Beijing. In the violin division, the gold medal and 120,000 yuan (€14,500) prize went to Xiangwei Chen from China. Chen also won the silver medal. Bronze went to Min Sung Kim from Italy. ...
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ArticleJetstar to allow violins and violas on flights
Australian budget airline Jetstar is set to amend its cabin baggage policy regarding musical instruments. The new policy will allow instruments up to 81cm long as carry-on baggage, which will include violin and viola cases. Jetstar, a low-cost subsidiary of Qantas Airways, currently allows baggage of up to 56cm in ...
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Article2014 Primrose Competition postponed until June
The American Viola Society (AVS) has put back the 2014 Primrose International Viola Competition by five months. The competition was scheduled to be held in Las Vegas from 12 to 18 January, but will now take place from 1 to 7 June, although the location is still to be confirmed.Since ...
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ArticleYura Lee wins solitary first prize at ARD Music Competition
The ARD Music Competition in Munich, Germany, finished yesterday with only one first prize being awarded across the four categories of violin, viola, piano trio and bassoon.The lone first prize of €10,000 went to South Korean Yura Lee in the viola division. Lee, a 28-year-old violinist and violist, studied at ...
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ArticleFedor Roudine wins Rodolfo Lipizer violin competition
Fedor Roudine, from Russia, won first prize at the Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition in Gorizia, Italy. The 21-year-old, who has studied since 2005 with Zakhar Bron at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, received 12,000 euros.Second prize went to Amalia Hall, 24, from New Zealand. French violinist David ...
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ArticleA quarter of orchestral musicians in constant pain, finds study
A new study of symphony orchestra musicians in Australia found that a significant minority experience chronic performance-related pain. Half of the 377 players from Australia's eight professional state orchestras questioned for the study reported that they currently have pain when performing. One quarter said that they experience performance-related pain constantly, ...
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ArticleRomanian violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea wins Brahms Competition in Pörtschach, Austria
Ioana Cristina Goicea took first prize in the violin division of the Johannes Brahms International Competition in Pörtschach, Austria. The 20-year-old from Romania (pictured), who studies with Mariana Sirbu at the 'Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy' Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, received 2,500 euros. Second prize in the violin division ...
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ArticlePioneering jazz cellist Fred Katz dies aged 94
American cellist and composer Fred Katz has died at the age of 94. Classically trained, Katz was credited as the first musician to explore the cello's potential for jazz improvisation.Born in New York in 1919, Katz studied piano and cello as a child, and took lessons with Leif Rosanoff, who ...
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ArticleRussian violinist Elena Tarosyan wins Kloster Schöntal competition
Elena Tarosyan won first prize in the senior division of the Kloster Schöntal International Violin Competition in Germany. The 20-year-old Russian (pictured), who studies at the Moscow Conservatoire with Edward Grach, received 3,000 euros. Second prize went to Olga Sroubkova from the Czech Republic. Japanese violinist Reina ...
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ArticleFuturistic cello projects videos and lighting displays
High-tech polymer manufacturer Bayer MaterialScience has developed a prototype interactive cello. The instrument's polyurethane body can display videos or graphics, tell you when you’re out of tune, and keep you in time using a flashing metronome beat.The idea for Cello 2.0 emerged when Bayer MaterialScience asked its design partner, Teams ...

























