Latest news – Page 255
-
Article
Columbus Symphony Orchestra concertmaster quits after 16 years
Charles Wetherbee has resigned as concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra to focus on his chamber music career with the Carpe Diem Quartet. Wetherbee was appointed concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony in 1994. In December Wetherbee spoke of pay cuts for musicians and the orchestra's financial position as factors in ...
-
Article
French archetier uses gold and diamonds in 100,000-euro bow
French bow maker Jean-Luc Tauziede has fashioned an elaborately decorated cello bow with the help of a team of jewellers. The bow's frog and button incorporate rose gold and white gold, the back plate is set with 66 diamonds, and the button is adorned with an eight-point crown. Named ...
-
Article
US instrument trade show sets attendance record
Organisers of the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show, which ran from 13 to 16 January in Anaheim, California, have reported record attendance figures. The number of registered attendees was 90,114, up three per cent from the 2010 total. The number of non-US visitors also increased from last year ...
-
Article
Violin Suzuki pedagogue John Kendall dies aged 93
John Kendall, the violin pedagogue who brought Suzuki teaching techniques to the US, has died at the age of 93. Kendall, who studied at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Columbia University Teachers College, was introduced to the Suzuki method in 1958, when he saw a film of 750 Japanese ...
-
Article
Delhi violinist plays 50 hours non-stop
A Delhi musician has completed a record-breaking public performance in which he played the violin non-stop for 50 hours. Paras Mani Choudhary's marathon recital was certified by officials from the Limca Book of Records, an Indian-based records book. The previous record was a mere 32 hours. Choudhary was already in ...
-
Article
YouTube chooses 97 musicians for next orchestra
YouTube has selected the musicians for its next symphony orchestra project, which takes place in Sydney this March. Ninety-seven players from more than 30 countries were chosen after submitting video auditions to the site. The musicians, ranging in age from 14 to 49, will spend a week in Australia working ...
-
Article
Musicians Union's no-touching advice attacked
Education secretary Michael Gove has attacked the Musicians' Union (MU) for advising its members to adopt a policy of no touching when teaching pupils. In an open letter to the union, he said that the advice 'plays to a culture of fear among adults and children', and that his department ...
-
Article
Special lifetime achievement Grammy for Juilliard Quartet
The Juilliard Quartet will be given a lifetime achievement award at next month's Grammy ceremonies in Los Angeles. The group is the first classical ensemble to receive the prize, and will be honoured alongside artists including Julie Andrews, Dolly Parton and The Ramones. Formed in 1946, the Juilliard Quartet ...
-
Article
Violist and Juilliard Quartet founding member Raphael Hillyer dies at 96
The founding violist of the Juilliard Quartet, Raphael Hillyer, has died at the age of 96. Born in New York, he had already begun studying the violin when he visited Leningrad in 1924 and received ear-training from the 18-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich. Hillyer studied mathematics at Dartmouth and music at the ...
-
Article
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group to lose local council funding
One of Britain's leading new music ensembles, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), is one of the big-name casualties of local authority arts cuts that are hitting some parts of the country. From 2012 Birmingham City Council is withdrawing all the funding it provides to the ensemble, amounting to nearly £72,000 ...
-
Article
Viola pedagogue Karen Tuttle dies at 90
American violist and teacher Karen Tuttle has died at the age of 90. She famously developed the 'coordination' technique, which balances both the physical and the emotional approach to the instrument. Born in 1920, she was a successful young violinist before switching to viola in order to study with ...
-
Article
BBC open to orchestra funding talks
The BBC has indicated it would join talks about the future funding of British orchestras, reports the Guardian. The corporation, which funds five orchestras across the UK, is facing budget cuts of its own. But director general Mark Thompson told MPs on the House of Commons culture, media and sports ...
-
Article
Coull Quartet plans work for 2012 Cultural Olympiad
Twenty 12-minute works have been commissioned for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad as part of the PRS for Music Foundation's New Music 20x12 project. Each commission will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and will tour the UK as part of the celebrations of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. ...
-
Article
Honolulu Symphony Orchestra set for Chapter 7 bankruptcy
A US judge has given the go-ahead for the Honolulu Symphony's bankruptcy case to be moved from Chapter 11 reorganisation to Chapter 7 liquidation, reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser. The decision effectively silences the 110-year-old orchestra, the country's oldest symphonic ensemble west of the Rocky Mountains. The orchestra has been ...
-
Article
Romanian-born American violinist Sergiu Luca dies
Sergiu Luca, the Romanian-born American violinist, has died of cancer at the age of 67. Since 1983, he had been professor of violin at Rice University in Houston, the city in which he was also director of the Da Camera concert series, and the founder, in 1995, of period instrument ...
-
Article
Min-Jin Kym's 1696 Stradivarius violin is taken from a sandwich bar
A £15,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the recovery of a Stradivarius violin stolen in London. The 1696 instrument, valued at around £1.2m, was stolen along with two bows from a branch of Pret a Manger outside Euston Station on 29 November. The victim of the theft ...
-
Article
Bassist organises flashmob-style performances to protest against UK cuts to music education
Pop-up orchestras are expected to give simultaneous renditions of Lalo Schifrin's Mission Impossible theme in cities across the UK today (Friday 10 December). The orchestras are due to take to the streets and shopping centres of London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool at 6pm for impromptu performances in protest ...
-
Article
BBC Radio 3 to broadcast all of Mozart's works in first 12 days of 2011
Following on from previous intensive celebrations of Beethoven and Bach, BBC Radio 3 is to devote its entire schedule to Mozart for the first twelve days of January. Alongside special Mozart editions of regular programmes such as Private Passions and In Tune, live music highlights include a performance by the ...
-
Article
Four-year-old violinist to perform in Arizona
A four-year-old violinist who has become something of a YouTube sensation is taking to the stage with a local symphony orchestra this weekend, reports the Arizona Republic. A video of Jonathan Okseniuk conducting along to a recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony when he was just three years old has been ...
-
Article
Violinist Julia Fischer up for a Grammy
Julia Fischer is one of the bigger string luminaries to feature in the nominations for the 53rd Grammy Awards, which will be presented in Los Angeles on 13 February. The violinist is nominated in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) category for her Decca recording of Paganini’s 24 Caprices. ...