More news – Page 302

  • 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 ...

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    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 ...

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    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 ...

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    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 ...

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    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 ...

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    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 ...

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    Jennifer Higdon wins Pulitzer for violin concerto written for Hilary Hahn

    2010-04-12T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-04-11T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-04-08T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-04-07T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-04-06T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-04-05T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-03-30T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-03-30T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-03-26T00:00:00Z

    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

    2010-03-25T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • Article

    Violinist Ray Chen signs multi-year recording deal with Sony

    2010-03-24T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • Article

    British violinist Simon Standage wins Telemann Prize

    2010-03-18T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • Article

    Finzi Quartet receives £10,000 Royal Over-Seas League prize

    2010-03-16T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • Article

    Taejun Park wins J.&A. Beare Solo Bach Competition

    2010-03-11T00:00:00Z

    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 ...