Latest news – Page 241
-
Article
UK's Musicians' Union backs 'Art of Teaching' site for music teaching videos
Cello and double bass lessons have been filmed and posted on YouTube as part of a new project that aims to share good practice among instrumental teachers. The Art of Teaching has been launched by the UK's Musicians' Union and musicteachers.co.uk, and the lesson videos can be seen at musicteachers.co.uk/youtube. ...
-
Article
First complete performance of Stockhausen's helicopter quartet to take place in Birmingham
Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet is to be heard in its intended context for the very first time when Birmingham Opera Company mounts a production of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light) this summer. The flying quartet is only one part of the opera, a five-hour epic that also ...
-
Article
Minnesota Orchestra violinist Sarah Kwak joins Oregon Symphony as concertmaster
The Oregon Symphony has appointed Sarah Kwak as its new concertmaster. The Boston-born violinist has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1988. She was acting concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011 and is currently first associate concertmaster. She will begin her new position in Portland at the ...
-
Article
Pacifica Quartet to be resident at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
The Pacifica Quartet has been appointed quartet in residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The ensemble is the first quartet to hold a residency at the school in more than 50 years. The quartet's members – violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and ...
-
Article
Kansas City Symphony.names Philadelphia Orchestra violinist as concertmaster
Noah Geller has been named concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony. The 28-year-old succeeds Kanako Ito, who left the post in August 2010. Geller is currently first assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he joined in 2008. He has previously been concertmaster of orchestras at Tanglewood Music Center ...
-
ArticleJapanese scientist creates violin strings from spider silk
A researcher in Japan has succeeded in using silk from hundreds of spiders to make a set of violin strings. Shigeyoshi Osaki, a professor at Nara Medical University in southern Honshu, used between 3,000 and 5,000 strands of silk for each string, which produced ‘a soft and profound ...
-
Article
Pinchas Zukerman to leave Ottawa orchestra after 17 years as music director
Pinchas Zukerman, the violinist, violist and conductor, has announced plans to step down as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) in Ottawa after 17 years at the helm. The 63-year-old will depart at the end of the 2014–15 season.Zukerman joined the NACO in 1988, assuming the dual ...
-
Article
Burglar posing as violinist steals Joshua Bell's watch in Spain
Joshua Bell's hotel room in Zaragoza, Spain, was burgled as the violinist was giving a concert, reports the Los Angeles Times. A thief posing as Bell apparently convinced hotel staff not only to give him a key to Bell's room, but also to open the room's safe. The thief then ...
-
Article
Dealer and repairer steps in to help schoolgirl whose violin was destroyed
A violin dealer and repairer in Wichita, Kansas, donated a complete violin outfit to a middle-school student whose instrument had been smashed to pieces, reports the Wichita Eagle. The 14-year-old girl had accidentally left her violin on the ground outside her school, on the day before she was due ...
-
Article
1500-year-old wooden fragment could be bridge from Europe's oldest stringed instrument
Archaeologists working on the Scottish island of Skye have discovered the remains of what could be Europe’s oldest stringed instrument. A fragment of burnt wood was unearthed in late 2011 in southern Skye’s High Pasture Cave. Experts who are now studying the object in the Historic Scotland laboratory believe it ...
-
Article
UK quartet player's stolen £25k violin is handed in
A stolen violin worth £25k was handed in at a West London rail station on Wednesday 29 February before being reunited with its owner, Brodowsky Quartet violinist Catrin Win Morgan. The instrument, made by Montpellier maker Frédéric Chaudière, was taken from the overhead luggage rack of a London train ...
-
Article
Violin made of driftwood from Japan tsunami to tour world
A violin made partly from driftwood from areas devastated in the 11 March 2011 tsunami in Japan is to be played in a musical relay of concerts around the world, reports the Mainichi Daily News. The violin is being made by Muneyuki Nakazawa, a 71-year-old Japanese maker, restorer ...
-
Article
Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet to take off in Birmingham
A multimedia performance of Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet has been commissioned from Birmingham Opera Company as part of a new £3.5m digital arts platform in the UK. Arts Council England and the BBC have commissioned 53 projects for The Space, which will run between May and October and be ...
-
Article
Man is caught on CCTV taking quartet player's £25k violin
British Transport Police have released CCTV images of a man who took a violin from the luggage rack of a London train at around 8am on 8 February. The instrument, which belongs to Brodowski Quartet violinist Catrin Win Morgan, is a Stradivari copy by Montpellier maker Frédéric Chaudière. Worth ...
-
Article
Violinist Maxim Vengerov takes Royal Academy of Music teaching post
London's Royal Academy of Music (RAM) has appointed Maxim Vengerov to the new position of Menuhin Professor of Music. In his new role, the violinist will visit the RAM every term to work with students in masterclasses and one-to-one lessons. Vengerov will kick off his new professorship on Monday 27 ...
-
Article
Royal Academy of Music appoints violinist Margaret Faultless as head of historical performance
Margaret Faultless will become the new head of historical performance at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London in September 2012. The violinist and director will succeed Laurence Cummings in the role. Faultless has been a co-leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment since 1989. For ...
-
Article
Myung-Whun Chung to conduct North Korean orchestra in joint concert with French orchestra
An orchestra from North Korea will play a concert with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on 14 March, reports AFP. Seventy musicians from the Unhasu Orchestra will join 70 players from the French orchestra to play music by Brahms, and non-classical scores, at the Salle Pleyel. ...
-
Article
London Symphony Orchestra to give free Trafalgar Square performance
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) will swap the Barbican Hall for the rather more challenging acoustic of Trafalgar Square when it performs a Stravinsky programme on Saturday 12 May. The event is the first in a new series of annual open-air performances that the LSO will give in association with ...
-
Article
Competition winner gets to record on 300-year-old Stradivari violin
A 16-year-old has won a competition to play and record on a 300-year-old Stradivari violin. Laura Ayoub was chosen to play a piece of her choice at London's SARM Studios. She also received a masterclass with Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, who paid a surprise visit to the recording studio. ...
-
Article
Violinist and violist Ida Kavafian to join Juilliard faculty
The Juilliard School has appointed Ida Kavafian to its violin faculty from autumn 2012. The violinist and violist, who studied at Juilliard with Oscar Shumsky, is a longtime member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and former violinist of the Beaux Arts Trio. She teaches at the Curtis ...