Latest news – Page 301

  • Article

    European violin makers dominate prize board at Mittenwald competition

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    The winners of the sixth Mittenwald International Violin Making Competition have been announced. The leading maker in the violin category was Haiko Seifert from Germany, although no first prize was awarded, so he took second place. The viola first place went to French maker Philippe Mahu. Peter Goodfellow from the ...

  • Article

    RPS and BBC Radio 3 launch hunt for unjustly neglected British music

    2010-05-25T00:00:00Z

    The UK's Royal Philharmonic Society is searching for British chamber music pieces that deserve a second hearing. Its new Encore project will select twelve works to be performed and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2011 and 2012. The pieces must have been written by a living British composer, have ...

  • Article

    Cellist Martin Lovett to receive lifetime achievement award from London Cello Society

    2010-05-23T00:00:00Z

    Cellist Martin Lovett will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Royal Academy of Music on 10 October. The presentation is part of a day of concerts and workshops organised by the London Cello Society. The evening concert honouring Lovett features Guy Johnston and the Sacconi Quartet in a programme ...

  • Article

    Violinist and pedagogue Eric Rosenblith dies

    2010-05-22T00:00:00Z

    Violinist and teacher Eric Rosenblith has died at the age of 90. Formerly the head of strings at Boston's New England Conservatory, he had most recently taught at the Longy School. Born in Vienna, Rosenblith studied with Jacques Thibaud in Paris and Carl Flesch in London. After fleeing Paris ...

  • Article

    Violin artwork pushes boundaries of taste and smell

    2010-05-20T00:00:00Z

    An Ethiopian artist whose works explore themes of death and decay has put a violin at the centre of his latest installation. Mack Eshete's The Shepherd with the Violin is being exhibited at the Goethe-Institut in Addis Ababa, and features a figure with a violin surrounded by skinned sheep. According ...

  • Article

    Violinist Jack Liebeck named young British classical performer of the year

    2010-05-18T00:00:00Z

    London-born violinist Jack Liebeck won the award for best young British classical performer at the Classical BRITs. Liebeck's first CD for Sony Classical - a recording of Dvorak's Violin Concerto, Violin Sonata and Sonatina - was released last year.

  • Article

    Volans and Saariaho string works win RPS Music Awards

    2010-05-12T00:00:00Z

    Composers Kevin Volans and Kaija Saariaho were among the winners of the UK's Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. Volans, who was born in South Africa, won the chamber-scale composition award for his piece viola:piano. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's Notes on Light, for cello and orchestra, won the large-scale composition category. ...

  • Article

    Dudamel pulls muscle during performance of Dvorák Cello Concerto

    2010-05-10T00:00:00Z

    Los Angeles Philharmonic maestro Gustavo Dudamel pulled a muscle in his neck while conducting the orchestra and Alisa Weilerstein in a performance of Dvo?ák's Cello Concerto. The orchestra's associate conductor Lionel Bringuier had to step in for the second half of the concert last Thursday, but Dudamel was back on ...

  • Article

    Luthiers from Germany and Italy win at Beijing violin making competition

    2010-05-10T00:00:00Z

    Two of the three top awards at the first China International Violin Making Competition have gone to makers based in Europe. Ulrich Hinsberger from Biberach, Germany, won first prize in the violin category. South Korean-born Min-Sung Kim, who works in Cremona, took the top award in the cello category. The ...

  • Article

    Schermerhorn Symphony Center out of action after basement floods

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    The Schermerhorn Symphony Center was one of the Nashville landmarks affected by heavy floods that hit the city and surrounding areas last weekend. The building, which is home to the Nashville Symphony, has been closed for repairs after its basement level was completely flooded. The orchestra is working to find ...

  • Article

    King Henry IV' Brothers Amati to join violins at National Music Museum

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    A Brothers Amati violin made in 1595 for the king of France is to go on display at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. The violin is decorated with the coat of arms of King Henry IV, ruler of France and Navarre, who was assassinated 400 years ago ...

  • Article

    Afiara Quartet receives Young Canadian Musicians Award

    2010-05-04T00:00:00Z

    The Afiara Quartet has won this year's Young Canadian Musicians Award, worth $25,000. The all-Canadian group, which was formed in 2006, is the graduate resident string quartet at the Juilliard School. In 2008 the Afiara won second prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and first prize in ...

  • Article

    Christie's claims record for Gasparo da Salò viola

    2010-04-28T00:00:00Z

    A c.1585 viola by Brescian maker Gasparo da Salò sold at Christie's on Wednesday for $542,500, which the auction house claims is a new world record for the maker. The sale in New York made a total of $2,522,625, with 91 per cent of lots sold. Other highlights included a ...

  • Article

    Violinists Xiang Yu and Kerson Leong triumph at Menuhin Competition

    2010-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Chinese violinist Xiang Yu, 21, and Canadian Kerson Leong, 13, won the senior and junior divisions respectively at the Menuhin Competition for young violinists. The start of the contest in Oslo was delayed because of the volcano-triggered flight bans in Europe, and several north American competitors were unable to make ...

  • Article

    Juilliard Quartet's original cellist Arthur Winograd dies aged 90

    2010-04-26T00:00:00Z

    Arthur Winograd, one of the founding members of the Juilliard Quartet, has died in New Jersey at the age of 90. He studied cello at the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute before founding the Juilliard Quartet in 1946 with violinists Robert Koff and Robert Mann, and violist Raphael ...

  • Article

    Stringed instruments go on display at Arizona museum

    2010-04-21T00:00:00Z

    Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum opens this weekend. Claiming to be the first global museum of its kind, it will initially display 3,000 instruments and objects, with every country in the world represented. Instruments will be exhibited in five Geo-Galleries, each focusing on a different region. The museum's European stringed instrument ...

  • Article

    Young stars lead violin-heavy string programme at BBC Proms

    2010-04-21T00:00:00Z

    The BBC has unveiled the programme for its summer Proms festival, which runs from 16 July to 11 September. String interest is dominated by staples of the violin repertoire, including concertos by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bruch, Barber, Korngold, Shostakovich and Berg. Young women violinists are particularly  well represented, with Nicola ...

  • Article

    Ben Lee breaks record for world's fastest violinist

    2010-04-21T00:00:00Z

    Ben Lee was confirmed by Guinness World Records as the 'world's fastest violinist' after playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee in 64.21 seconds. The rock violinist used an acoustic violin to beat the previous record of 65.26 seconds held by David Garrett. Lee had made a previous attempt on the ...

  • Article

    Mariinsky violinist is reunited with $400,000 Rogeri violin

    2010-04-19T00:00:00Z

    A 1697 Rogeri violin, which was reported stolen from a hotel lobby in Austria, has turned up in the hotel's lost-and-found office. The $400,000 instrument belongs to a violinist in the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, which was in Vienna to play at the city's spring festival. She left it ...

  • Article

    Menuhin Violin Competition delayed by Icelandic volcano

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The schedule of the international Menuhin Competition for young violinists has been hit by the effects of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. With many northern European countries forced to close their airspace because of the danger that the cloud of volcanic ash poses to jet engines, the travel plans of ...