Latest news – Page 247
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Tory MP Louise Mensch responds to allegations about incident with violinist Nigel Kennedy
The Conservative MP Louise Mensch has said she probably took drugs with violinist Nigel Kennedy and danced with him while drunk at a nightclub when she worked at EMI.Mensch, who sits on the Commons culture committee and recently questioned News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch about phone-hacking at the News of ...
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Violinist William Fedkenheuer replaces Sandy Yamamoto in Miró Quartet
The Miró Quartet has appointed William Fedkenheuer as its new second violinist. He replaces Sandy Yamamoto, who is retiring to spend more time with her young children. Fedkenheuer was a member of the Borromeo Quartet from 2000 to 2006, and since 2006 has been first violinist of the Fry ...
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Israel Chamber Orchestra performs Wagner in Bayreuth
The Israel Chamber Orchestra has broken a longstanding taboo by performing music by Hitler's favourite composer. The orchestra included Wagner's Siegfried Idyll in its concert in Bayreuth yesterday, as part of the fringe festival linked to the town's annual Wagner opera festival. It was the first time an Israeli orchestra ...
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Kronos Quartet album cover courts controversy
The album cover for the Kronos Quartet's new Nonesuch recording of Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 has provoked strong reactions online. Posters to contemporary classical music site Sequenza 21 and the Nonesuch website have questioned the label's artistic taste, with some calling the cover tacky and exploitative. The cover, which was ...
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Mandelring Quartet to play complete Shostakovich quartets in two days
Fresh from performing Shostakovich's 15 quartets in Maulbronn, Germany, last weekend, the Mandelring Quartet is set for a repeat performance at the Salzburg Festival in August. The German ensemble will perform nos.1–3 and 4–8 on the afternoon and evening of 18 August respectively, with nos. 9–11 and 12–15 to ...
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Japan fund to repair school violins damaged by tsunami
A new fund has been set up to help schoolchildren in the disaster-hit north-east of Japan start playing their instruments again. The School Music Revival fund is a joint initiative of the Zenkoku Gakki Kyokai (All-Japan Musical Instrument Association) and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, reports the Mainichi Daily News. ...
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Interpol joins hunt for Dietmar Machold violins
Austrian authorities have published a list of 17 instruments and four violin bows that they want to recover in connection with a criminal investigation of violin dealer Dietmar Machold's business activities. Machold was arrested in Switzerland in March on charges of serious fraud, misappropriation and fraudulent bankruptcy. He ...
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Aldeburgh to host 'world orchestra'
As part of next year's Cultural Olympiad celebrations in the UK, Aldeburgh will host a gathering of 124 young musicians from across the world. The Aldeburgh World Orchestra will be resident at Aldeburgh's Snape Maltings concert hall for 18 days in July, before giving performances in Ingolstadt in Germany, at ...
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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 ...