More news – Page 289
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British teacher receives suspended sentence for abuse of pupil
A 24-year-old violin teacher from Gloucestershire, UK, has avoided jail after being found guilty of abusing a young female pupil. Henry Stayt-Mackey, who was 16 and 17 when the abuse of the girl took place, was convicted in June of seven charges of indecent assault and five charges of ...
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TV show challenges cellists to cross Europe with only their talent to rely on
Two cellists star in a new UK TV series that challenges artists to travel across Europe, surviving only on the money they make from busking. Sky Arts' Art of Survival follows the 40-day adventure of cellists Li Lu and Janie Price, who were paired up with soprano Lindsay Crow ...
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Signum Quartet selected for BBC New Generation Artists
The Signum Quartet from Germany has been selected to join the BBC's New Generation Artists scheme for 2011–13. The artist development programme includes concert opportunities in London and around the UK, appearances and recordings with the BBC Orchestras, studio recordings for Radio 3, and appearances at the BBC Proms. ...
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Former IMF chief hears Nikolaj Znaider and Lynn Harrell at Tanglewood
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the embattled former head of the International Monetary Fund, attended two concerts at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Strauss-Kahn and his wife took in a recital by violinist Nikolaj Znaider and then returned the next evening to hear cellist Lynn Harrell play the Dvo?ák Concerto with the Boston Symphony ...
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Noah Bendix-Balgley joins Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has appointed American violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley as its new concertmaster. The 27-year-old joins the orchestra on a three-year contract and will make his debut in his position on 17 September. He replaces Andres Cardenes, who left the orchestra last year after 21 years as concertmaster. ...
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Rostropovich statue set to be unveiled in Moscow for cellist's 85th anniversary
A statue of Rostropovich will be placed in central Moscow as a memorial to the cellist and conductor. The monument is set to stand near a 17th-century church not far from the Moscow Conservatoire where Rostropovich studied and taught. The statue is being financed by the Rostropovich Foundation and is ...
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California violin maker puts faith in burnt sugar
A California luthier's two-year quest to perfect his varnish formula coincided with a spiritual self-examination. David Morse, who has made instruments for players in the San Francisco Symphony, and a violin for the orchestra's conductor laureate Herbert Blomstedt, hit upon a new formula involving burnt sugar after two years of ...
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Violinists Catherine Cho and Joseph Lin join Juilliard faculty
The Juilliard School has appointed Catherine Cho and Joseph Lin to its violin and chamber music faculty for the start of the 2011–12 academic year. Cho has been an assistant faculty member to Itzhak Perlman since 1999 and has taught in the school's pre-college division since 1996. Joseph Lin joined ...
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Bluegrass fiddler Kenny Baker dies
Bluegrass fiddler Kenny Baker has died at the age of 85. The son of an old-time fiddle player, Baker was born in Burdine, Kentucky. He took up guitar before becoming interested in the fiddle after listening to Western swing fiddler and bandleader Bob Wills and jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. After ...
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Amaryllis Quartet and Trio Rafale win at Melbourne Chamber Music Competition
The Amaryllis Quartet won first prize in the quartets division of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. The Swiss–German quartet also took the overall grand prize. The Kelemen Quartet from Hungary took second prize and received the Musica Viva Australia Prize and the audience prize. Third prize went to the ...
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Minnesota Orchestra hosts Fantasy Camp for amateur musicians
The Minnesota Orchestra is taking a page out of the Baltimore Symphony's book by launching an immersive programme for adult amateur musicians. The orchestra's two-day Fantasy Camp this September will offer up to 50 people the chance to rehearse and perform with the orchestra in Minneapolis's Orchestra Hall. Participants will ...
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Double bassist wins RPS scholarship
Toby Hughes has become the first double bassist to receive the Royal Philharmonic Society's Julius Isserlis Scholarship for study abroad. The scholarship will enable the 18-year-old to study with Božo Paradžik in Lucerne. Cellist Victoria Harrild, 23, also won funding through an RPS award to study for her master's at ...
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Competition offers UK kids the chance to try a Stradivari violin
Children in the UK are being given the chance to swap their student violin for a Stradivari in a new competition from the ABRSM and PureSolo. The music exam board and the online recording platform have teamed up with Cremona-based restorer and maker Eric Blot to offer one lucky student ...
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Anthony Hopkins pens waltz for violinist André Rieu
Anthony Hopkins has composed a waltz for violinist André Rieu and his orchestra. The star of The Silence of the Lambs was in the audience when Rieu gave the new piece, And The Waltz Goes On, its premiere in Vienna recently. The Oscar-winning British actor has previously composed music for films ...
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Appeal saves London Mozart Players chamber orchestra
The London Mozart Players, one of the UK's oldest chamber orchestras, has staved off the possibility of closure after a drive to raise urgent funds was a success. Two months after news emerged that the chamber orchestra was on the brink, its funding appeal is on track to reach its ...
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Czech violinist Josef Suk dies aged 81
Josef Suk, the Czech violinist whose lineage stretched back to Dvo?ák, has died at the age of 81. Suk was Dvo?ák's great grandson, and the grandson of Josef Suk, the violinist and composer.Born in Prague in 1929, Suk studied violin with Jaroslav Kocian and made his public debut in 1940. ...
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Violinist Paul Kantor to join Rice University's Shepherd School of Music
Violin pedagogue Paul Kantor is to join the faculty of Rice University in Houston next July. He is currently professor of violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his students have included Caroline Goulding, the winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant earlier this year. Kantor will teach at ...
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Christopher Nupen's documentary on violinist Paganini set for DVD release
Paganini's Daemon, a documentary on the violinist–composer by Christopher Nupen, will be released on DVD on 26 September. The film, which was shown on BBC Four in the UK in February 2010, looks at the legends surrounding Paganini, explores his personality and technical prowess, and features extracts of his music. ...
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Violinist Gidon Kremer blasts Russian leadership
Violinist Gidon Kremer has issued a spirited attack via CNN against Russian authorities over the treatment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, and Lebedev, his close associate, have been in prison since 2003 on charges of fraud and tax evasion respectively. They were recently convicted ...
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Arts Council England unveils £40m philanthropy fund to help organisations raise private donations
A new £40m fund has been launched with the intention of increasing private giving to the arts. The Catalyst Arts scheme from Arts Council England will give £30m to organisations who already have some experience of fundraising but who need practical help to raise more money. Arts organisations with little ...
