Latest news – Page 297
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Violist and Juilliard Quartet founding member Raphael Hillyer dies at 96
The founding violist of the Juilliard Quartet, Raphael Hillyer, has died at the age of 96. Born in New York, he had already begun studying the violin when he visited Leningrad in 1924 and received ear-training from the 18-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich. Hillyer studied mathematics at Dartmouth and music at the ...
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Birmingham Contemporary Music Group to lose local council funding
One of Britain's leading new music ensembles, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), is one of the big-name casualties of local authority arts cuts that are hitting some parts of the country. From 2012 Birmingham City Council is withdrawing all the funding it provides to the ensemble, amounting to nearly £72,000 ...
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Viola pedagogue Karen Tuttle dies at 90
American violist and teacher Karen Tuttle has died at the age of 90. She famously developed the 'coordination' technique, which balances both the physical and the emotional approach to the instrument. Born in 1920, she was a successful young violinist before switching to viola in order to study with ...
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BBC open to orchestra funding talks
The BBC has indicated it would join talks about the future funding of British orchestras, reports the Guardian. The corporation, which funds five orchestras across the UK, is facing budget cuts of its own. But director general Mark Thompson told MPs on the House of Commons culture, media and sports ...
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Coull Quartet plans work for 2012 Cultural Olympiad
Twenty 12-minute works have been commissioned for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad as part of the PRS for Music Foundation's New Music 20x12 project. Each commission will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and will tour the UK as part of the celebrations of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. ...
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Honolulu Symphony Orchestra set for Chapter 7 bankruptcy
A US judge has given the go-ahead for the Honolulu Symphony's bankruptcy case to be moved from Chapter 11 reorganisation to Chapter 7 liquidation, reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser. The decision effectively silences the 110-year-old orchestra, the country's oldest symphonic ensemble west of the Rocky Mountains. The orchestra has been ...
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Romanian-born American violinist Sergiu Luca dies
Sergiu Luca, the Romanian-born American violinist, has died of cancer at the age of 67. Since 1983, he had been professor of violin at Rice University in Houston, the city in which he was also director of the Da Camera concert series, and the founder, in 1995, of period instrument ...
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Min-Jin Kym's 1696 Stradivarius violin is taken from a sandwich bar
A £15,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the recovery of a Stradivarius violin stolen in London. The 1696 instrument, valued at around £1.2m, was stolen along with two bows from a branch of Pret a Manger outside Euston Station on 29 November. The victim of the theft ...
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Bassist organises flashmob-style performances to protest against UK cuts to music education
Pop-up orchestras are expected to give simultaneous renditions of Lalo Schifrin's Mission Impossible theme in cities across the UK today (Friday 10 December). The orchestras are due to take to the streets and shopping centres of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool at 6pm for impromptu performances in protest ...
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BBC Radio 3 to broadcast all of Mozart's works in first 12 days of 2011
Following on from previous intensive celebrations of Beethoven and Bach, BBC Radio 3 is to devote its entire schedule to Mozart for the first twelve days of January. Alongside special Mozart editions of regular programmes such as Private Passions and In Tune, live music highlights include a performance by the ...
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Four-year-old violinist to perform in Arizona
A four-year-old violinist who has become something of a YouTube sensation is taking to the stage with a local symphony orchestra this weekend, reports the Arizona Republic. A video of Jonathan Okseniuk conducting along to a recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony when he was just three years old has been ...
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Violinist Julia Fischer up for a Grammy
Julia Fischer is one of the bigger string luminaries to feature in the nominations for the 53rd Grammy Awards, which will be presented in Los Angeles on 13 February. The violinist is nominated in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) category for her Decca recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices. ...
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Violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky takes first prize at Helsinki Sibelius competition
Nikita Boriso-Glebsky has won first prize at the Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki. The 25-year-old, who studies with Augustin Dumay at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels, received €20,000, plus €2,000 for the best interpretation of the Sibelius concerto. Second prize went to Finnish violinist Petteri Iivonen, 23. Sixteen-year-old ...
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National Symphony Orchestra cellistt Frederick Zenone dies
Cellist Frederick Zenone, who became an influential mediator in orchestral labour disputes, has died of cancer at the age of 74. Having learnt the trumpet in his youth, Zenone took up the cello very late, at 21. After joining the National Symphony in Washington DC in 1969, he became chairman ...
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Cellist barred from entering UK to play no-fee concerts
An American cellist was questioned by UK Border Agency officials at Heathrow airport for eight hours before being sent back on a plane to Chicago, according to a report in the Guardian. Kristin Ostling, a member of the Carpe Diem Quartet, which is resident at Ohio Wesleyan University, had been ...
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International Viola Society gathering set for Würzburg
The International Viola Society is set to hold its 2011 congress at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, Germany, next October. The 39th congress will run in combination with Bratschistentag, the annual German viola festival. Next year's Bratschistentag will include a pedagogic focus in tribute to Egon Sassmannshaus, the string-method ...
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Atlanta Symphony Orchestra launches own recording label
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will release the first recording on its new label ASO Media next February. The orchestra, which ended a 32-year association with Telarc in September, has chosen two new commissions for the 2011 release: QED: Engaging Richard Feynman, a choral work by Michael Gandolfi, and Jennifer ...
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UK orchestras compete for chance to record 209 national anthems for London 2012 Olympics
The organisers of the 2012 Olympics in London are looking for an orchestra to record 209 national anthems for the event. The anthems will be used at the Olympic medal ceremonies and also to welcome the teams to the Olympic village. The organising committee said that it wants 'an ...
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French violinist Solenne Païdassi wins Long–Thibaud contest
Solenne Païdassi has won the first grand prize at the Long–Thibaud International Competition in Paris. The 25-year-old, who lives in Hannover, is the first French winner of the top violin prize since Devy Erlih won in 1955. Païdassi received €30,500 and also won the audience prize. The second grand ...
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Polish composer Henryk Górecki dies aged 76
The composer Henryk Górecki has died at the age of 76 after suffering a long illness. Born in Silesia, south-west Poland, in 1933, Górecki studied violin before composition. He is most famous for his Third Symphony of 1976, also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, a 1991 recording of ...
