Latest news – Page 302
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Jennifer Higdon wins Pulitzer for violin concerto written for Hilary Hahn
Jennifer Higdon has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto. The work was written for Hilary Hahn, who gave the premiere with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in February 2009. The Brooklyn-born Higdon, who teaches composition at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, won a Grammy earlier this ...
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Dallas Symphony Orchestra concertmaster to step down
Dallas Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Emanuel Borok is to retire this August. Borok joined the orchestra as leader in 1985, having previously served eleven seasons as associate concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Latvian-born violinist said that he wanted to dedicate himself to teaching and to solo and chamber music ...
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Violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Alina Ibragimova up for UK music awards
Violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Alina Ibragimova feature on the shortlist for this year's Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, which are given for outstanding live classical music making in the UK. Kavakos and Ibragimova join pianist Stephen Hough in the instrumental category while the Schubert Ensemble and the Takács Quartet head ...
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Morton Feldman's six-hour String Quartet no.2 to get New York airing
Morton Feldman's marathon String Quartet no.2 will receive a rare performance this Sunday, 11 April. Four members from the new-music ensemble Ne(x)tworks will perform the piece at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, New York. Composed as one continous movement, the quartet lasts for around six hours. The performance will ...
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Violinist Ryu Goto launches initiative for New York public school students
Japanese-American violinist Ryu Goto has joined forces with New York City Council and the city's Department of Education to launch a music education scheme for public school students. The 21-year-old New Yorker's Excellence in Music initiative includes masterclasses and individual workshop opportunities, as well as a $1,000 scholarship for a ...
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Ex-Nash Ensemble violinist Marcia Crayford to lead Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra
British violinist Marcia Crayford is the leader of a new professional orchestra serving Mid Wales. Crayford led the Nash Ensemble for 25 years and later served as leader of the London Symphony Orchestra. The Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra will serve audiences, schools and communities across rural Powys and Dyfed. Its ...
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Norwegian violin legend Ole Bull stars in children's book
It's not only musicians and violin makers who can get excited by the Ole Bull 200th-anniversary celebrations this year. Children have a chance to discover the great Norwegian violinist in Oliver and the Magic Violin, a new fantasy adventure book published at Xlibris.com. The hero of the story, nine-year-old Oliver, ...
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Policy rethink on UK orchestra recruitment
Orchestral musician jobs in the UK that are not for leaders or principals of internationally recognised orchestras are likely to be removed from the country's shortage occupation list. The UK Border Agency's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is making the removal recommendation to government after publishing its third partial review of ...
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Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians accept pay cut
The players of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have agreed a new contract with management that entails a significant salary reduction as well as other concessions. In an effort to help the orchestra stave off the effects of the recession, the musicians accepted a pay freeze for the 2010-11 season, and ...
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Violinist Joshua Bell to give benefit concert in Bloomington, Indiana
Violinist Joshua Bell will give a benefit concert to help children's music education in the city where he grew up. Proceeds from his 13 April recital in Bloomington, Indiana, with British pianist Sam Haywood will support elementary-school string programmes, which are under threat amid a public school funding crisis in ...
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Violinist Ray Chen signs multi-year recording deal with Sony
Violinist Ray Chen has signed an exclusive multi-year recording contract with Sony Classical. The 21-year-old, who was born in Taiwan and grew up in Australia, is one of the most high-profile young soloists following his victories at the 2008 Menuhin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Chen's debut recital ...
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British violinist Simon Standage wins Telemann Prize
British Baroque violin specialist Simon Standage has been awarded the Telemann Prize by the city of Magdeburg in Germany. As soloist–director of Collegium Musicum 90, Standage made ten recordings of Telemann's music for Chandos in the 1990s. The award of the Telemann Prize, worth 2,500 euros, was announced at the ...
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Finzi Quartet receives £10,000 Royal Over-Seas League prize
The Finzi Quartet has won one of two £10,000 ensemble awards in the Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) Annual Music Competition in London. Two other string players won solo prizes: cellist Jun Sasaki, a student of Thomas Carroll at the Royal College of Music, was awarded the £5,000 strings prize; and ...
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Taejun Park wins J.&A. Beare Solo Bach Competition
Seoul-born Taejun Park has won the J.&A. Beare Solo Bach Competition for string players, held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. The 18-year-old violinist, a student of Albrecht Breuninger at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, was awarded £1,000. The second prize of £500 went to 20-year-old Latvian violinist Kristine Balanas. French cellist Claire-Lise ...
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Violinist Nigel Kennedy to score film of 1973 World Cup qualifier
Violinist Nigel Kennedy will bring together his love of football and his skills at improvisation at London's Southbank Centre in May. Together with other musicians, he will play and partly improvise his own background score at a screening of the 1973 World Cup qualifier between England and Poland. The event ...
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Australian cellist Richard Narroway wins Stulberg Competition
Australian Richard Narroway has won the gold medal in the Stulberg International Strings Competition in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The 18-year-old cellist studies at Northwestern University's Beinen School of Music with Hans Jorgen Jensen. As well as the $5,000 top prize, Narroway also won the Bach Award. The silver medal went to ...
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Metropolitan Museum of Art instrument galleries reopen
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has reopened its musical instrument galleries after an eight-month closure. The reconfigured display features around 230 instruments. More than a quarter of these are new acquisitions or instruments that have rarely been seen before, including a Giovanni Grancino viola d'amore of 1701. The installation retains ...
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US cellist David Soyer dies aged 87
David Soyer, longtime cellist of the Guarneri Quartet, has died at the age of 87. He founded the quartet in 1964 with violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley and violist Michael Tree. After 37 years with the group, he retired in 2001 and was succeeded by his former student Peter ...
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Poll shows public backs UK music education and instrument tuition
A poll commissioned by the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) has shown that the UK public overwhelmingly supports school music lessons. Ninety-one per cent of British adults think that children should be given the chance to learn an instrument at school, according to the new research. The poll also ...
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Tarisio to auction Philadelphia violin shop inventory online
Online auction house Tarisio is to sell the entire collection of William Moennig & Son, the Philadelphia violin shop that closed in December 2009 after 100 years in business. The sale from 22-24 June will comprise more than 800 lots of instruments, bows, photographs, books and seasoned tonewood. Some ...
