Latest news – Page 291
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London Symphony Orchestra bassist lands conductor post
The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden has appointed British double bassist and conductor Michael Francis as its principal conductor and artistic adviser from July 2012. Francis, who is in his mid-thirties, has played double bass in the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) since 2003. He got his first big conducting break ...
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Mozart music for violin and keyboard withdrawn from auction
A booklet of Mozart sonatas was withdrawn from auction after a claim that it was donated to a charity shop 'in error'. The first edition of the Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin K10–15, dating from 1765, had been expected to fetch up to £3,000 in the sale at Sotheby's in ...
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Japanese violinist Mayumi Kanagawa wins Klein contest in San Francisco
Violinist Mayumi Kanagawa has won the $12,000 first prize at the Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco. The 16-year-old from Japan is an academy student of Robert Lipsett and Arnold Steinhardt at the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles. Second prize went to cellist Matthew ...
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Debut for jazz and classical double bass ensemble
A new ensemble of 12 double bassists has its debut concert on Friday 10 June at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The Bassment comprises six jazz bassists and six classically trained bassists. The jazz section is led by Lex Futshane, one of South Africa's leading jazz bassists, and the classical ...
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Charity to benefit from Mozart violin and keyboard sonatas
A booklet of rare Mozart sheet music that was discovered in a charity shop is to be sold at Sotheby's on Wednesday 8 June. The second printing of a first edition of the Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin K10–15 was found in a box of sheet music at the Oxfam ...
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Luthier Christoph Götting wins national craft award
Violin maker Christoph Götting was the overall winner in The Balvenie Masters of Craft awards, a new awards programme set up to celebrate craftspeople in the UK. Götting, who is based in Hampshire, trained in Mittenwald and worked as a restorer at J.&A. Beare in London for 21 years. He ...
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US clean sweep at Primrose Viola Competition
Ayane Kozasa has won first prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The 24-year-old American, who studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Misha Amory and Roberto Díaz, received $5,000 and other prizes including a viola by Spanish luthier Jardón Rico. Second prize went to ...
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Matteo Fedeli to play Piazzolla with four Stradivari violins in Cremona
Violinist Matteo Fedeli will use a different Stradivari for each movement of Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires at a charity concert in Cremona on 2 July. Fedeli will play the c.1730 'Vesuvius' and the 1715 'Cremonese', both of which are owned by the city of Cremona, and the 1695 'Sandars' ...
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Violinist Jun Iwasaki to join Nashville Symphony as concertmaster
Jun Iwasaki is leaving his concertmaster position at the Oregon Symphony to take the leader's chair at the Nashville Symphony. The Tokyo-born Iwasaki, who studied with William Preucil at the Cleveland Institute of Music, will start his new job in September.
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Violinists Frang and Repin win Edison awards
Violinists Vilde Frang and Vadim Repin have been named among the winners of this year's Edison Klassiek music awards. Frang won the Debut award for her recording of the Sibelius and Prokofiev First concertos on EMI with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under Thomas Søndergård. Repin won the Chamber Music ...
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Two biopics about Italian composer Vivaldi in the works
Shooting is set to start on one of two rival Vivaldi biopics. Director Boris Damast will begin filming Vivaldi this September in Venice, Hungary, Germany and Bruges. Young actors Max Irons and Claire Foy have been cast in the film, and Jacqueline Bisset, Alfred Molina, Tom Wilkinson and Sebastian Koch ...
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Australian Chamber Orchestra acquires £1.2m Stradivari violin
Satu Vänskä, the assistant leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), is to play on a Stradivari bought by the orchestra's own instrument fund. The violin, a composite of two instruments made by Stradivari between 1728 and 1729, was purchased from London dealer J.&A. Beare. It has been valued at ...
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Vancouver Symphony players to teach at music school
A new community music school in Vancouver opens for business on 2 August, with classes starting in September. The VSO School of Music is a project of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, 32 of whose players are on the new school's 49-strong faculty. Individual and group classes will be available, and ...
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Violinist Mary Rowell quits ETHEL after 13 years
ETHEL violinist Mary Rowell is leaving the ensemble she co-founded 13 years ago. She is retiring because of a heart condition, and will be replaced by Jennifer Choi, a former member of the Miró Quartet. Since its formation in 1998, ETHEL has performed more than 100 commissioned works in ...
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Cellist Andreas Fleck receives AZ Medien Culture Prize
Cellist Andreas Fleck has been awarded the CHF25,000 (£18,000) Culture Prize from Swiss media group AZ Medien. The 42-year-old Augsburg-born musician has lived in Zurich since 2001 and is artistic director of the Boswiler Sommer festival.
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Violinist Joshua Bell joins Academy of St Martin in the Fields
The American violinist Joshua Bell has been appointed music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, which began life in 1958. He is the only musician to have held the title apart from its founder, Neville Marriner, who stepped down five years ago and becomes the group’s ...
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Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment players give violin lesson to waiter
A touring British orchestral musician has given a waiter an impromptu violin lesson in a restaurant in Modena. Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment violist Annette Isserlis was dining with three fellow musicians when the waiter brought out his student violin. She then gave him his first ever violin lesson, ...
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Detroit Symphony Orchestra concertmaster off to Dallas
Emmanuelle Boisvert, concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 1988, is to join the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She will take up her new position of associate concertmaster this September. Boisvert is the latest of several Detroit Symphony musicians to announce their departure this year. A six-month strike by the orchestra's ...
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Violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley takes first prize at Vibrarte Competition
US violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley won first prize at the Vibrarte Competition for violinists in Paris. The 26-year-old, who was born in North Carolina, and whose teachers have included Mauricio Fuks and Christoph Poppen, received €16,000. Second prize went to Hyuk Joo Kwun, 25, from South Korea. Mari Poll, 23, from ...
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Jon Lord writes for Henley Festival Orchestra
Jon Lord, co-founder of the rock group Deep Purple, is to compose a new work for Henley Festival Orchestra. The piece, which will have its premiere in 2012, will be Lord's first classical composition for young musicians. The Henley Festival Orchestra is a youth ensemble that was founded in ...
