Latest news – Page 260
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Volans and Saariaho string works win RPS Music Awards
Composers Kevin Volans and Kaija Saariaho were among the winners of the UK's Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. Volans, who was born in South Africa, won the chamber-scale composition award for his piece viola:piano. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's Notes on Light, for cello and orchestra, won the large-scale composition category. ...
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Dudamel pulls muscle during performance of Dvorák Cello Concerto
Los Angeles Philharmonic maestro Gustavo Dudamel pulled a muscle in his neck while conducting the orchestra and Alisa Weilerstein in a performance of Dvo?ák's Cello Concerto. The orchestra's associate conductor Lionel Bringuier had to step in for the second half of the concert last Thursday, but Dudamel was back on ...
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Luthiers from Germany and Italy win at Beijing violin making competition
Two of the three top awards at the first China International Violin Making Competition have gone to makers based in Europe. Ulrich Hinsberger from Biberach, Germany, won first prize in the violin category. South Korean-born Min-Sung Kim, who works in Cremona, took the top award in the cello category. The ...
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Schermerhorn Symphony Center out of action after basement floods
The Schermerhorn Symphony Center was one of the Nashville landmarks affected by heavy floods that hit the city and surrounding areas last weekend. The building, which is home to the Nashville Symphony, has been closed for repairs after its basement level was completely flooded. The orchestra is working to find ...
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King Henry IV' Brothers Amati to join violins at National Music Museum
A Brothers Amati violin made in 1595 for the king of France is to go on display at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. The violin is decorated with the coat of arms of King Henry IV, ruler of France and Navarre, who was assassinated 400 years ago ...
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Afiara Quartet receives Young Canadian Musicians Award
The Afiara Quartet has won this year's Young Canadian Musicians Award, worth $25,000. The all-Canadian group, which was formed in 2006, is the graduate resident string quartet at the Juilliard School. In 2008 the Afiara won second prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and first prize in ...
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Christie's claims record for Gasparo da Salò viola
A c.1585 viola by Brescian maker Gasparo da Salò sold at Christie's on Wednesday for $542,500, which the auction house claims is a new world record for the maker. The sale in New York made a total of $2,522,625, with 91 per cent of lots sold. Other highlights included a ...
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Violinists Xiang Yu and Kerson Leong triumph at Menuhin Competition
Chinese violinist Xiang Yu, 21, and Canadian Kerson Leong, 13, won the senior and junior divisions respectively at the Menuhin Competition for young violinists. The start of the contest in Oslo was delayed because of the volcano-triggered flight bans in Europe, and several north American competitors were unable to make ...
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Juilliard Quartet's original cellist Arthur Winograd dies aged 90
Arthur Winograd, one of the founding members of the Juilliard Quartet, has died in New Jersey at the age of 90. He studied cello at the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute before founding the Juilliard Quartet in 1946 with violinists Robert Koff and Robert Mann, and violist Raphael ...
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Stringed instruments go on display at Arizona museum
Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum opens this weekend. Claiming to be the first global museum of its kind, it will initially display 3,000 instruments and objects, with every country in the world represented. Instruments will be exhibited in five Geo-Galleries, each focusing on a different region. The museum's European stringed instrument ...
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Young stars lead violin-heavy string programme at BBC Proms
The BBC has unveiled the programme for its summer Proms festival, which runs from 16 July to 11 September. String interest is dominated by staples of the violin repertoire, including concertos by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bruch, Barber, Korngold, Shostakovich and Berg. Young women violinists are particularly well represented, with Nicola ...
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Ben Lee breaks record for world's fastest violinist
Ben Lee was confirmed by Guinness World Records as the 'world's fastest violinist' after playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee in 64.21 seconds. The rock violinist used an acoustic violin to beat the previous record of 65.26 seconds held by David Garrett. Lee had made a previous attempt on the ...
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Mariinsky violinist is reunited with $400,000 Rogeri violin
A 1697 Rogeri violin, which was reported stolen from a hotel lobby in Austria, has turned up in the hotel's lost-and-found office. The $400,000 instrument belongs to a violinist in the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, which was in Vienna to play at the city's spring festival. She left it ...
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Menuhin Violin Competition delayed by Icelandic volcano
The schedule of the international Menuhin Competition for young violinists has been hit by the effects of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. With many northern European countries forced to close their airspace because of the danger that the cloud of volcanic ash poses to jet engines, the travel plans of ...
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Jennifer Higdon wins Pulitzer for violin concerto written for Hilary Hahn
Jennifer Higdon has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto. The work was written for Hilary Hahn, who gave the premiere with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in February 2009. The Brooklyn-born Higdon, who teaches composition at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, won a Grammy earlier this ...
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Dallas Symphony Orchestra concertmaster to step down
Dallas Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Emanuel Borok is to retire this August. Borok joined the orchestra as leader in 1985, having previously served eleven seasons as associate concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Latvian-born violinist said that he wanted to dedicate himself to teaching and to solo and chamber music ...
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Violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Alina Ibragimova up for UK music awards
Violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Alina Ibragimova feature on the shortlist for this year's Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, which are given for outstanding live classical music making in the UK. Kavakos and Ibragimova join pianist Stephen Hough in the instrumental category while the Schubert Ensemble and the Takács Quartet head ...
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Morton Feldman's six-hour String Quartet no.2 to get New York airing
Morton Feldman's marathon String Quartet no.2 will receive a rare performance this Sunday, 11 April. Four members from the new-music ensemble Ne(x)tworks will perform the piece at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, New York. Composed as one continous movement, the quartet lasts for around six hours. The performance will ...
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Violinist Ryu Goto launches initiative for New York public school students
Japanese-American violinist Ryu Goto has joined forces with New York City Council and the city's Department of Education to launch a music education scheme for public school students. The 21-year-old New Yorker's Excellence in Music initiative includes masterclasses and individual workshop opportunities, as well as a $1,000 scholarship for a ...
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Ex-Nash Ensemble violinist Marcia Crayford to lead Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra
British violinist Marcia Crayford is the leader of a new professional orchestra serving Mid Wales. Crayford led the Nash Ensemble for 25 years and later served as leader of the London Symphony Orchestra. The Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra will serve audiences, schools and communities across rural Powys and Dyfed. Its ...