All News articles – Page 247
-
Article
Arcadia Quartet wins at Wigmore Hall string quartet competition
The Arcadia Quartet has won first prize at the Wigmore Hall London International String Quartet Competition. The Romanian group was awarded £10,000 plus a UK tour, a Wigmore Hall recital and a two-week residency at the Banff Centre in Canada. Second prize went to the Meccorre Quartet from Poland. The ...
-
Article
Putin among those remembering cellist Rostropovich at unveiling of new monument
A monument to Mstislav Rostropovich has been unveiled in the centre of Moscow, reports the Voice of Russia. The bronze and granite statue of Rostropovich with a cello in his hands took sculptor Alexander Rukavishikov two years to complete. It was unveiled in the week of what would have been ...
-
Article
Queen Elisabeth violin competition selects 88 competitors from 29 countries
The Queen Elisabeth Competition has chosen the 45 female and 43 male violinists who will compete in Brussels for a first prize of €25,000. Twenty-nine nationalities will be represented at the competition, which starts on 30 April and runs until 14 June. South Korea tops the table of countries when ...
-
Article
London Music Masters violinists named
Music charity London Music Masters has named the three violinists receiving its 2012–15 career development awards. American Benjamin Beilman, 22, South Korean Hyeyoon Park, 20, and 22-year-old Alexandra Soumm from France were each awarded a package including £10,000 to support their career development, and performances at the Wigmore Hall and ...
-
Article
Leonidas Kavakos's premiere of Golijov violin concerto is shiftedto November
Anyone waiting to hear Osvaldo Golijov's already delayed Violin Concerto will have to wait another nine months. The concerto was originally due to be given its world premiere by Leonidas Kavakos and the Los Angeles Philharmonic last May. But when the Argentine composer didn't finish the piece on time, the ...
-
Article
Violinist Amyn Merchant named Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concertmaster
London-born violinist Amyn Merchant has been named the new concertmaster of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The 34-year-old makes his debut as leader at the orchestra's concert tonight (Wednesday 28 March) in Poole. He joins the BSO from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he was principal second violinist.
-
Article
Busch Ensemble wins Royal Over-Seas League Competition
The Busch Ensemble has won first prize in the ensemble division of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in London. The UK-based chamber group, founded in November 2010 by violinist Mathieu van Bellen and cellist Jonathan Bloxham, received £10,000. First prize in the solo strings division went to violinist Ben ...
-
Article
14-year-old Chinese violist among first-prize recipients at Johansen Competition
The prize winners of the Johansen International Competition for young string players have been announced. The event for students aged 13 to 17 was held in Washington DC from 22 to 24 March. US players won all three of the top prizes in the violin division. Gallia Kastner, 15, ...
-
Article
Stolen $40,000 cello taken from car in Minneapolis found in a garden
A $40,000 cello stolen from a musician's car in uptown Minneapolis turned up two weeks later in a local community garden, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Cellist Scott Lykins, a 26-year-old Eastman graduate and artistic director of the Lakes Area Chamber Music Festival, said he may have left the car ...
-
Article
New York conference to explore treatments for musicians' dystonia
Medical experts and musicians will meet in New York next month for the first-ever Musician's Dystonia Summit. The conference on 9 and 10 March will explore the latest research and treatment possibilities for dystonia, a neurological condition that in musicians is characterised by involuntary muscle spasms triggered by playing an ...
-
Article
Former concertmaster's violin stolen in Japan
Police in Japan are investigating the theft of a French violin and bow from a concert hall in Nara Prefecture, reports Japan Today. The instrument, which dates from 1804 and is valued at ¥13m (£100,000) is owned by Kazuto Umezawa, a former concertmaster of the Osaka Philharmonic and Nashville ...
-
Article
Plans revealed for 18-day US spring tour by North Korean national orchestra
An Atlanta-based humanitarian group is planning to bring the North Korean National Symphony Orchestra to the US this spring, reports the Associated Press. Global Resource Services, a non-profit organisation that works in North Korea, is organising an 18-day visit for 164 musicians, journalists and officials. The schedule features concerts ...
-
Article
Future of Music Coalition presents case studies of performers' earnings
The US-based Future of Music Coalition (FMC) has released the first financial case studies in its Artist Revenue Streams project, which aims to examine how musicians' income streams are changing, and why. The FMC, a national non-profit advocacy organisation for musicians, profiled a symphony orchestra string player and a contemporary ...
-
Article
Nine German quartets launch association to press for more ensemble residencies
A new association of German string quartets is campaigning for more ensemble residencies at the country's Musikhochschules and universities. The Verband Deutscher Streichquartette (German String Quartets Association), which officially launched yesterday, has nine founder members: the Auryn, Diogenes, Henschel, Klenke, Kuss, Leipzig, Mandelring, Minguet and Vogler quartets. The organisation, ...
-
Article
UK's Musicians' Union backs 'Art of Teaching' site for music teaching videos
Cello and double bass lessons have been filmed and posted on YouTube as part of a new project that aims to share good practice among instrumental teachers. The Art of Teaching has been launched by the UK's Musicians' Union and musicteachers.co.uk, and the lesson videos can be seen at musicteachers.co.uk/youtube. ...
-
Article
First complete performance of Stockhausen's helicopter quartet to take place in Birmingham
Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet is to be heard in its intended context for the very first time when Birmingham Opera Company mounts a production of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light) this summer. The flying quartet is only one part of the opera, a five-hour epic that also ...
-
Article
Minnesota Orchestra violinist Sarah Kwak joins Oregon Symphony as concertmaster
The Oregon Symphony has appointed Sarah Kwak as its new concertmaster. The Boston-born violinist has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1988. She was acting concertmaster from January 2010 to September 2011 and is currently first associate concertmaster. She will begin her new position in Portland at the ...
-
Article
Pacifica Quartet to be resident at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
The Pacifica Quartet has been appointed quartet in residence at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The ensemble is the first quartet to hold a residency at the school in more than 50 years. The quartet's members – violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and ...
-
Article
Kansas City Symphony.names Philadelphia Orchestra violinist as concertmaster
Noah Geller has been named concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony. The 28-year-old succeeds Kanako Ito, who left the post in August 2010. Geller is currently first assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he joined in 2008. He has previously been concertmaster of orchestras at Tanglewood Music Center ...
-
ArticleJapanese scientist creates violin strings from spider silk
A researcher in Japan has succeeded in using silk from hundreds of spiders to make a set of violin strings. Shigeyoshi Osaki, a professor at Nara Medical University in southern Honshu, used between 3,000 and 5,000 strands of silk for each string, which produced ‘a soft and profound ...
