More news – Page 301
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Violinist Alexandre Da Costa wins $25,000 Virginia Parker Prize
Violinist Alexandre Da Costa has been awarded this year's Virginia Parker Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts. The $25,000 prize is given to Canadian classical performers under the age of 32. Da Costa, 31, studied with Zakhar Bron in Madrid and plays the 1727 'Di Barbaro' Stradivari.
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Del Sol and JACK quartets win grants for new work
The Del Sol and JACK quartets are among the recipients of Chamber Music America's $170,700 classical commissioning programme for 2010. The Del Sol Quartet from San Francisco will use its award to commission a new work for string quartet and electronica by Mason Bates. New York composer Jason Eckhardt is ...
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Borusan Quartet scoops top prize in New York chamber competition
The Borusan Quartet from Turkey won the gold medal at the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in New York. The Borusan players performed the String Quartet op.29 by their compatriot Fazil Say in the final round at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. The quartet, all of whose members play in ...
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Mirecourt to hold contest for young violinists
A new violin contest will take place later this year in Mirecourt, one of the main historical centres of French violin making. The Mirecourt International Violin Competition runs from 9 to 14 November and is open to violinists aged 25 and under. Jean-Jacques Kantorow is the president of the jury, ...
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Titanic violinist gets entry in biographical dictionary
Wallace Hartley, the violinist who led the Titanic's eight-man orchestra, is one of the latest entrants in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Hartley, who was born in Colne, Lancashire, in 1878, famously played as the Titanic sank in April 1912. He and his fellow musicians were reported to have ...
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American violinist Benjamin Beilman wins Montreal competition
Benjamin Beilman has won the Montreal International Music Competition, which this year was for violinists. The 20-year-old American, who studies with Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music, was awarded CAD30,000 (£20,000) for his first prize. He played the Sibelius Violin Concerto in the final. Second prize went to ...
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European violin makers dominate prize board at Mittenwald competition
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 ...
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RPS and BBC Radio 3 launch hunt for unjustly neglected British music
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 ...
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Cellist Martin Lovett to receive lifetime achievement award from London Cello Society
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 ...
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Violinist and pedagogue Eric Rosenblith dies
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 ...
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Violin artwork pushes boundaries of taste and smell
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 ...
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Violinist Jack Liebeck named young British classical performer of the year
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.
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Volans and Saariaho string works win RPS Music Awards
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. ...
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Dudamel pulls muscle during performance of Dvorák Cello Concerto
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 ...
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Luthiers from Germany and Italy win at Beijing violin making competition
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 ...
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Schermerhorn Symphony Center out of action after basement floods
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 ...
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King Henry IV' Brothers Amati to join violins at National Music Museum
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 ...
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Afiara Quartet receives Young Canadian Musicians Award
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 ...
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Christie's claims record for Gasparo da Salò viola
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 ...
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Violinists Xiang Yu and Kerson Leong triumph at Menuhin Competition
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 ...
