Latest news – Page 254
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US violinist Eugene Fodor dies aged 60
Eugene Fodor died on Saturday, of cirrhosis, his wife has told the New York Times. Fodor made his debut aged ten, playing the Bruch Violin Concerto with the Denver Symphony Orchestra, and later studied at the Juilliard School, Indiana University and the University of Southern California. His teachers included Ivan ...
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Violinist Maxim Vengerov launches UNICEF campaign
Violinist Maxim Vengerov has launched UNICEF’s campaign in Armenia, ‘Every Child Needs a Family’. He kicked off the campaign during a masterclass for members of UNICEF’s Children’s Chamber Orchestra in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.The campaign hopes to get public support to return around 4,000 children in special boarding schools and orphanages ...
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Japanese violinist and teacher David Takeno wins ABO award
Tokyo-born violinist and teacher David Takeno is the winner of this year’s Association of British Orchestras (ABO) Award. The presentation was made at the Derby Assembly Rooms on 17 February as part of the ABO annual conference. Takeno, who holds the post of Eugène Ysaÿe international chair of violin ...
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Violinist Nicola Benedetti warns against arts funding cuts
Violinist Nicola Benedetti has warned that the UK government’s spending cuts could stop arts students from poorer backgrounds from going to university. Speaking at the launch of the Nicola Benedetti Scholarship Fund, which will support students taking Italian Studies at Edinburgh University, she is reported by Deadline News as commenting, ...
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ISM fights for music in schools
The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) has launched a campaign to get music included on the new English Baccalaureate. The society is asking its members and those working in the music sector to write to the Education Select Committee of the House of Commons, urging the government to include the ...
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Polish cellist Tomasz Daroch wins Lutos?awski Cello Competition
Tomasz Daroch has won first prize in the 8th Witold Lutos?awski International Cello Competition. The 22-year-old Pole, who studies with Michael Flaksman at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim, Germany, was awarded €6,000. Second prize went to fellow Pole Magdalena Bojanowicz, third prize to ...
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Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding beats Justin Bieber to Grammy
In an major triumph for the string world, jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding beat Justin Bieber – the teenage pop artist with millions of fans worldwide – to win as Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards. The ceremony took place on 13 February at the Staples Center, Los Angeles. ...
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The New York Philharmonic Orchestra archive goes live
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra has launched the first phase of an ongoing digital archive project. The International Era 1943–1970 is the first tranche of the orchestra’s extensive archives to go online, and thousands of documents are now available to view. These include conducting scores marked by Leonard Bernstein, André ...
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Violinist and violist Philipp Naegele dies aged 83
Violinist and violist Philipp Naegele has died aged 83. Born in Stuttgart in 1928, he fled the Nazi regime, going first to England on the Kindertransport in 1939, and then settling with his family in New York City in 1940. Violin lessons and academic studies there led to a doctorate ...
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Violist Paul Laraia wins Sphinx Competition
Violist Paul Laraia has won first prize in the senior division at the Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino string players. The 21-year-old, who studies with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory in Boston, received $10,000, a series of concert engagements and a CD recording opportunity with Naxos. ...
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Two new concertmasters for Dallas Symphony Orchestra
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has appointed a concertmaster and co-concertmaster to share the leader's chair left vacant since Emanuel Borok retired last August. The two new leaders will join the orchestra for the start of the 2011–12 season. Kerr, who has held concertmaster positions at the Cincinnati, Charleston and ...
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British violinist and concertmaster Raymond Cohen dies aged 91
British violinist Raymond Cohen, the last leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to be appointed by Thomas Beecham, has died aged 91. Cohen won a scholarship at 14 to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music, and at 15 began playing with the Hallé Orchestra as its youngest ever ...
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Violin making drama seeks funding
A UK filmmaker has launched an appeal via campaigns website IndieGoGo for funding for his next project, a film about a reclusive young man with a passion for violin making. Writer-director Dan Smyth from Manchester has secured financing from the UK Film Council, but needs to part-match it to the ...
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André P. Larson to step down as National Music Museum executive director
André P. Larson, the founder and executive director of the National Music Museum in South Dakota, is to retire on 23 February. He established the museum, located on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion, in 1973. Among his major achievements was acquiring the Witten-Rawlins collection of rare Italian ...
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American violist Emanuel Vardi dies aged 93
Emanuel Vardi, one of the leading violists of the 20th century, has died in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 93. Born in Jerusalem, he was four when his family emigrated to New York. He had violin lessons with Joseph Borisoff and Auer's assistant Khusdo, and then studied with Constance ...
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Toronto Symphony Orchestra conductor Peter Oundjian to play violin again
Peter Oundjian, the Toronto Symphony music director whose career as a violinist was cut short in 1995 by focal dystonia, is to pick up his instrument again. In April 2012 he will partner his former teacher Itzhak Perlman in a one-off performance of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. Oundjian was ...
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Chinese violinist Ying Fu wins Schmidbauer Competition
Chinese violinist Ying Fu has won first prize at the Schmidbauer International Young Artist Strings Competition in Nacogdoches, Texas. The 26-year-old, who is a student at Rice University, where he studied with the late Sergiu Luca, received $7,500 for his first place in the senior division. Violinist Xiaoxiao Qiang, 23, ...
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Endowment honours violinist and teacher Robert Mann
The entrepreneur brother of Juilliard Quartet founding member Robert Mann has given $6m to endow two chairs in the 90-year-old violinist's name. The donation from 85-year-old Alfred Mann and his wife Claude will fund a chair at the Manhattan School of Music, where Robert Mann teaches violin and chamber music, ...
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Ulster Orchestra wins community award for helping elderly
The Ulster Orchestra has been honoured at the Allianz Arts & Business NI Awards for its community work. The orchestra, in partnership with local employer JTI UK, has been operating a ticket-and-transport scheme over the winter called Move to the Music. Aimed at people over 70 who are living alone, ...
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New $10,000 grant for young string players
Online auction specialist Tarisio has launched a scheme to help young string players buy instruments and bows. Its new grant programme will award up to $10,000 of matching funds towards the price of an instrument or bow purchased at a Tarisio auction. Musicians under 30 who are studying or have ...