Latest news – Page 252
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London Mozart Players chamber orchestra launches emergency funding appeal
The London Mozart Players could be wound up before the end of this year if it fails to raise funds to cover core costs of £50,000, reports the London Evening Standard. The orchestra, which was founded in 1949 by Harry Blech as the UK's first chamber orchestra, applied unsucessfully for ...
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Exhibition at Kunsthistorisches Museum explores 19th-century violin tradition
A new exhibition at Vienna's Kunsthistoriches Museum explores the flourishing of violin playing, teaching and making in the Austrian capital during the 19th century. The exhibition, 'Heaven is Full of Violins: The Violin in the Biedermeier and Romantic Periods', runs at the Neue Burg in Heldenplatz until 25 September 2011. ...
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EU funds new youth orchestra
Norfolk County Council has won a €200,000 grant from the European Union Education, Audiovisual and Culture fund to set up a new international youth orchestra, according to BBC News. The ensemble will comprise musicians from Serbia and Germany as well as players from the existing Norfolk County Youth Orchestra. The ...
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ABRSM updates violin syllabus and sightreading tests
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) is launching a new violin syllabus from July, as well as revised scale and sightreading tests for all bowed stringed instruments. The changes will come into play for exams from January 2012. The new violin syllabus features jazz tunes ...
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Smithsonian's five Stradivari instruments played together for first time
The five Stradivari instruments in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution have been played together for the first time. The museum hosted a concert in Washington, DC, on 17 April marking the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The Smithsonian Chamber Players performed string quintets by Cherubini and Boccherini on the ...
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Violinist leads El Sistema-inspired programme in New Zealand
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO) has received government funding for a community music programme inspired by Venezuela's El Sistema. The new scheme, Sistema Aotearoa, will be based at Auckland's Otara Music Arts Centre. Musicians from the APO will teach children basic musicianship and instrumental skills after school and during school ...
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Tetzlaff, Ma, Mutter and Kavakos to play at BBC Proms
After last year's parade of young violinists, the BBC Proms this year turns to some long-established string stars for its 117th season (15 July–10 September), details of which were unveiled yesterday.Yo-Yo Ma and Nigel Kennedy are among the headline names, the former performing the world premiere of Graham Fitkin's Cello ...
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London Philharmonic Orchestra to record Olympic anthems
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has won the contract to record 205 national anthems for the 2012 Olympics. Thirty-six musicians from the orchestra will start recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios next month. The sessions are expected to take 50 hours over six days, with the last day in September. British ...
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Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura sticks up for pernambuco
Sepultura, one of Brazil's leading heavy metal bands, is adding its voice to the movement to safeguard the future of pernambuco (pau-brasil) wood. A special benefit concert this Saturday 16 April as part of São Paulo's Virada Cultural festival will see the band collaborating with the Orquestra Experimental de Repertório ...
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Britten Sinfonia launches crowdfunding campaign to fund new commission
The Britten Sinfonia is the latest UK classical music organisation to turn to the public to help finance a new commission. The Cambridge-based chamber orchestra's new 'A Tenner for a Tenor' campaign will offer contributors £10 'shares' in a new work by Jonathan Dove for the ensemble and tenor Mark ...
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Aronowitz Ensemble to perform Britten's Bagatelle for violin, viola and piano
One of Britten's early chamber works is set for its first performance in more than 80 years. The Aronowitz Ensemble will perform the Bagatelle for violin, viola and piano in their programme at The Forge in London on 17 April, alongside a selection of little-known miniatures including an Arabian Dance ...
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Man jailed for Stradivari violin theft
A man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for the theft of a Stradivari violin in London. The instrument, valued at £1.2m, was stolen from South Korean violinist Min-Jin Kym while she was eating at a branch of Pret A Manger at Euston Station in November 2010. John Michael Vaughan, ...
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Actor's double bass stolen before show
A Royal Shakespeare Company actor who was preparing to perform Patrick Süskind's one-man play The Double Bass in London had his vital prop stolen two days before opening night. The £500 bass was taken as actor Christopher Hunter unpacked his van outside Hampstead's New End Theatre, where his solo performance ...
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Man who helped recover Stradivari violin in Germany loses cash fight
A man who tipped off German investigators about the location of a stolen Stradivari violin has had his claim for a payment from police thrown out by a court in Hanover. The insurers of the 1721 'Sinsheimer', which was stolen from a manor house near Hanover in October 2008 and ...
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South London museum to display Stradivari violin and others for three years
A year after the Victoria & Albert Museum controversially closed its musical instruments gallery, 35 instruments from its collection have gone on display at the Horniman Museum in south London. The new display, entitled The Art of Harmony, includes the V&A's 1699 Stradivari violin, a 1686 baryton by Joachim Tielke, ...
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Luthiers wanted for BBC Scrapheap Orchestra documentary
The BBC wants a team of expert makers to transform junk and reclaimed materials into a full complement of orchestral instruments for a new documentary. The 90-minute film for BBC Four, entitled Scrapheap Orchestra, will follow the instrument making process and include a performance on the specially created instruments by ...
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Baroque ensemble uses crowd-funding to finance CD
An award-winning period instrument orchestra is using crowd-funding website WeDidThis to drum up financing for a new CD. The International Baroque Players is looking to raise £2,500 to fund the recording, which will feature violin concertos by Telemann and Heinichen alongside an unrecorded sonata for orchestra by Handel and a ...
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Neglected chamber pieces by UK composers to be performed again
Twelve overlooked chamber works by British composers have been chosen to receive performances as part of the Encore project by the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC Radio 3. The twelve works were chosen from nearly 70 pieces nominated by artists, publishers and programmers. The pieces selected include Anthony Payne's ...
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Emerson Quartet signs recording contract with Sony after 24 years with DG
The Emerson Quartet has signed an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical. The new deal brings to an end the ensemble's long relationship with Deutsche Grammophon, with whom the quartet has recorded more than 30 discs since 1987. The Emersons' first recording for Sony, set for release this November, ...
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Three arrested over stolen Stradivari violin
Police have arrested and charged a 30-year-old man and two boys aged 16 and 14 in connection with the theft of a Stradivari violin in London. The instrument, which is valued at £1.2m, was stolen from violinist Min-Jin Kym in a sandwich bar at Euston Station on 29 November. Two ...