Latest news – Page 293
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Wine magnate buys golden-period Stradivari violin
Bordeaux wine magnate Bernard Magrez, who owns more than 40 estates in France and overseas, has bought a Stradivari violin for the launch of his new cultural institute. The golden-period instrument was sourced in London and apparently cost between 2 and 3 million euros. The previously nickname-less violin will now ...
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Violinist Joshua Bell joins Brazil boycott
Joshua Bell is the latest high-profile soloist to boycott the Brazilian orchestra that sacked nearly half its musicians in a dispute over reauditions. The violinist was due to perform with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira (OSB) and its conductor Roberto Minczuk on 27 August, but has cancelled his appearance. Bell joins ...
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Kronos Quartet receives Avery Fisher Prize and Polar Music Prize
The Kronos Quartet has been named the recipient of two major music prizes – the Avery Fisher Prize in the US and the Polar Music Prize in Sweden. It is the first time any musician or ensemble has ever won both awards, let alone simultaneously. The American prize, for ...
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Lady Blunt' Stradivari violin to be sold at auction
The Nippon Music Foundation is selling the 'Lady Blunt' Stradivari to raise money for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief fund. The 1721 violin, one of the finest and best-preserved Stradivaris in existence, will be auctioned by online specialist Tarisio on 20 June, with all proceeds going to the disaster ...
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London Chamber Orchestra to play British string favourites at royal wedding
The music for tomorrow's royal wedding at Westminster Abbey has finally been unveiled. Christopher Warren-Green will conduct the London Chamber Orchestra in seven pieces before the service begins. The works include English orchestral favourites such as Elgar's Serenade for Strings in E minor op.20, Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Greensleeves and ...
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Van Baerle Trio trio wins in Lyon piano trio contest
The Van Baerle Trio from the Netherlands won first prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition, which this year was for piano trios. The ensemble, comprising violinist Maria Milstein, cellist Gideon den Herder and pianist Hannes Minnaar, received €10,000 as well as three other prizes. Trio Rafale, from Switzerland, ...
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London Mozart Players chamber orchestra launches emergency funding appeal
The London Mozart Players could be wound up before the end of this year if it fails to raise funds to cover core costs of £50,000, reports the London Evening Standard. The orchestra, which was founded in 1949 by Harry Blech as the UK's first chamber orchestra, applied unsucessfully for ...
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Exhibition at Kunsthistorisches Museum explores 19th-century violin tradition
A new exhibition at Vienna's Kunsthistoriches Museum explores the flourishing of violin playing, teaching and making in the Austrian capital during the 19th century. The exhibition, 'Heaven is Full of Violins: The Violin in the Biedermeier and Romantic Periods', runs at the Neue Burg in Heldenplatz until 25 September 2011. ...
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EU funds new youth orchestra
Norfolk County Council has won a €200,000 grant from the European Union Education, Audiovisual and Culture fund to set up a new international youth orchestra, according to BBC News. The ensemble will comprise musicians from Serbia and Germany as well as players from the existing Norfolk County Youth Orchestra. The ...
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ABRSM updates violin syllabus and sightreading tests
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) is launching a new violin syllabus from July, as well as revised scale and sightreading tests for all bowed stringed instruments. The changes will come into play for exams from January 2012. The new violin syllabus features jazz tunes ...
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Smithsonian's five Stradivari instruments played together for first time
The five Stradivari instruments in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution have been played together for the first time. The museum hosted a concert in Washington, DC, on 17 April marking the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The Smithsonian Chamber Players performed string quintets by Cherubini and Boccherini on the ...
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Violinist leads El Sistema-inspired programme in New Zealand
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO) has received government funding for a community music programme inspired by Venezuela's El Sistema. The new scheme, Sistema Aotearoa, will be based at Auckland's Otara Music Arts Centre. Musicians from the APO will teach children basic musicianship and instrumental skills after school and during school ...
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Tetzlaff, Ma, Mutter and Kavakos to play at BBC Proms
After last year's parade of young violinists, the BBC Proms this year turns to some long-established string stars for its 117th season (15 July–10 September), details of which were unveiled yesterday.Yo-Yo Ma and Nigel Kennedy are among the headline names, the former performing the world premiere of Graham Fitkin's Cello ...
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London Philharmonic Orchestra to record Olympic anthems
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has won the contract to record 205 national anthems for the 2012 Olympics. Thirty-six musicians from the orchestra will start recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios next month. The sessions are expected to take 50 hours over six days, with the last day in September. British ...
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Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura sticks up for pernambuco
Sepultura, one of Brazil's leading heavy metal bands, is adding its voice to the movement to safeguard the future of pernambuco (pau-brasil) wood. A special benefit concert this Saturday 16 April as part of São Paulo's Virada Cultural festival will see the band collaborating with the Orquestra Experimental de Repertório ...
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Britten Sinfonia launches crowdfunding campaign to fund new commission
The Britten Sinfonia is the latest UK classical music organisation to turn to the public to help finance a new commission. The Cambridge-based chamber orchestra's new 'A Tenner for a Tenor' campaign will offer contributors £10 'shares' in a new work by Jonathan Dove for the ensemble and tenor Mark ...
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Aronowitz Ensemble to perform Britten's Bagatelle for violin, viola and piano
One of Britten's early chamber works is set for its first performance in more than 80 years. The Aronowitz Ensemble will perform the Bagatelle for violin, viola and piano in their programme at The Forge in London on 17 April, alongside a selection of little-known miniatures including an Arabian Dance ...
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Man jailed for Stradivari violin theft
A man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for the theft of a Stradivari violin in London. The instrument, valued at £1.2m, was stolen from South Korean violinist Min-Jin Kym while she was eating at a branch of Pret A Manger at Euston Station in November 2010. John Michael Vaughan, ...
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Actor's double bass stolen before show
A Royal Shakespeare Company actor who was preparing to perform Patrick Süskind's one-man play The Double Bass in London had his vital prop stolen two days before opening night. The £500 bass was taken as actor Christopher Hunter unpacked his van outside Hampstead's New End Theatre, where his solo performance ...
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Man who helped recover Stradivari violin in Germany loses cash fight
A man who tipped off German investigators about the location of a stolen Stradivari violin has had his claim for a payment from police thrown out by a court in Hanover. The insurers of the 1721 'Sinsheimer', which was stolen from a manor house near Hanover in October 2008 and ...
