The Telegraph

Roch Modrzejewski: Opera’s guitar hero

With his virtuosic new recording of opera tunes, Poland’s Roch Modrzejewski has revived a much-neglected corner of the guitar repertoire, says John Allison.

Financial Times

Interview, Neeme Järvi, conductor

The music director known for his improvisatory approach is a ‘man of 100 projects’.

Classic FM

Classical music, colours and emotions linked

What colour is Mozart’s Requiem? A new study has confirmed a link between emotion, classical music, and colour.

National Portrait Gallery appoints choir in residence

Classic FM’s Sam Pittis talks to artistic director Gregory Batsleer about this “exciting new venture for choral music”.

Gramophone

Andris Nelsons named Boston Symphony Orchestra music director

At the age of 34, the conductor is the youngest music director of the prestigious orchestra in over 100 years.

HRH The Prince of Wales launches new Royal College of Music Award

The President’s Award recognises a student’s outstanding work in the community.

Planet Hugill

June at the Barbican

June in the Barbican opens with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s contribution to Britten 100 with a performance of Britten’s Owen Wingrave directed by Kelly Robinson.

The Telegraph

(Written on May 20, 2013 )

Gramophone

Britten Sinfonia launches Musically Gifted

The Britten Sinfonia is launching ‘Musically Gifted’, a flexible funding scheme, which allows audiences to contribute anything from £10 to £10,000 to a new commission.

Classical Music Magazine

Emmanuel Joel-Hornak announced as Scottish Opera chief

Scottish Opera has announced that French conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak will join the company as its music director in August, taking over from Francesco Corti.

Classic FM

Gareth Malone: “Expect the unexpected” in his new choir

After receiving his OBE for services to music, achieving a No. 1 single with the Military Wives, and becoming a father to baby Gilbert this weekend, Gareth Malone is topping off his whirlwind year by launching a nationwide search for a new choir.

The Times

Valery Gergiev: the most powerful man in classical music

The Times’ Richard Morrison enters the court of Valery Gergiev, conductor of the world’s music in more than one way.

NY Times – ArtsBeat

Boston Symphony Announces New Season

The Boston Symphony Orchestra have disclosed plans next season to tour China and Japan.

Classic FM

Amy Dickson in Tim Lihoreau’s Wednesday Web Chat

(Written on April 24, 2013 )

The Telegraph

La Scala opera house stars take 10pc pay cut amid Italian austerity

It may not quiet make it The Beggar’s Opera, but Italy’s famed La Scala is to cut the salaries of its top directors, in line with the rest of the country’s straitened economic circumstances.

Classical Music Magazine

Myerscough report recommends cuts of 10% at BBC performing groups

The independent report, commissioned by the BBC’s director of audio and music, Tim Davie, was written by academic John Myerscough, a former special advisor on the arts to the House of Commons.

LA Times

Receipt signed by Chopin when he sold compositions is up for sale

A one-page document signed by Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin is on the auction block through Wednesday and has proved more popular with bidders than expected.

Drama afoot as L.A. Opera feels heat of rival works

The L.A. Opera is on challenging ground as local groups like the L.A. Phil., The Industry and Jacaranda stage inventive productions of opera and opera-like music theatre.

NY Times

Tanglewood Revisits Its Past, for All to Hear

Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Mass., is celebrating its 75th anniversary this summer in several big ways.

Gramophone

Las Vegas Philharmonic launches search for new music director

David Itkin will not extend his contract beyong June 2013.

LPO to perform outside the Royal Academy of Arts

Courtyard concert coincides with French Impressionism exhibition.

Spoiler Alert

Could operatic surtitles replace the programme plot synopsis to deliver real surprises?

Re-thinking Nielsen’s centennial symphony

As Nielsen’s unusual and brilliant Third Symphony turns 100, it’s about time we respect his notes as we would Mahler’s.

Jessica Duchen

Heat and light

Kicking off the Olympic cultural festivities in style, The Dude and his Simon Bolivár Orchestra of Venezuela are back in Britain. Dudamel & co are taking over the Royal Festival Hall this weekend

The Guardian

Gustavo Dudamel and London: a special relationship

The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra conductor loves London, and London loves him back.

(Written on June 20, 2012 )

The Telegraph

Online piano star Valentina Lisitsa gets Royal Albert Hall debut

YouTube star and and virtuoso pianist Valentina Lisitsa signs record deal and will play a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Jessica Duchen

A Music World Fair

This year’s International Wimbledon Music Festival is ‘A Music World Fair’ – a tremendously international job, lighting up South West London with performances by the Kopelman String Quartet, Alina Ibragimova, Nicholas Daniel and Sam West, Christine Brewer, Zuill Bailey, Cristina Ortiz, Mark Padmore and many more.

NY Times

Philadelphia Orchestra Submits Plan to Cut Debt

The Philadelphia Orchestra has laid out its plan to erase debts and cut costs in a major step toward exiting bankruptcy court.

The Guardian

King Priam, a pacifist’s opera, can still shed light on the trauma of war

Half a century after its first showing, Michael Tippett’s libretto based on the lliad is a fitting work for today.

Fischer-Dieskau’s 12 best recordings

Martin Kettle’s pick of the great baritone’s recorded output.

LA Times

Glenn Dicterow leaving New York Philharmonic, joining USC faculty

Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic for more than 30 years, will be leaving the venerated orchestra and joining the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.

New West Symphony names Marcelo Lehninger as new music director

Marcelo Lehninger, the young Brazilian German maestro who serves as an assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has been named music director of the New West Symphony, which is based in Thousand Oaks.

Classical Music Magazine

Classical singles chart greeted with scepticism by industry

The launch of a weekly classical singles chart, the first of which will be released on 28 May, has been greeted enthusiastically by crossover artists but more sceptically by the core classical sector.

Gramophone

Anne-Sophie Mutter receives Distinguished Leadership Award

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has been awarded the Atlantic Council’s 2012 Distinguished Artistic Leadership Award, recognising her as ‘one of the most significant leaders of our society’.

(Written on May 25, 2012 )

NY Times 

What Happens in Vegas Will Also Happen at the Met Next Season

Look for Vegas flash at the Metropolitan Opera next season.

Kay Davis, Coloratura, Soared in Wordless Songs, Dies at 91

“She was a classically trained coloratura,” Phil Schaap.

Kurt Masur Withdraws From Performances With Boston Symphony Orchestra

The conductor Kurt Masur, 84 and increasingly frail, has withdrawn from performances of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

JDCMB

Cats and mermaids take over Covent Garden

Jessica Duchen went to have a sneak peek behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House the other week, where they were rehearsing Rusalka 

The Guardian

Why Oramo is great news for the BBCSO

Conductor Sakari Oramo will raise the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s game and put a smile on their faces, writes Fiona Maddocks.

BBC Music Magazine 

Colin Murray

The TV and radio sports presenter gets ready to make his conducting debut with the BBC Philharmonic.

LA Times 

Lorin Levee, principal clarinetist with L.A. Phil, dies at 61

Lorin Levee, the principal clarinetist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, has died at age 61, the orchestra announced Thursday.

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2012/02/lorin-levee-principal-clarinetist-with-la-philharmonic-dies-at-62.html

(Written on February 24, 2012 )

The Times

Spotify to launch ‘music app’ service.

Spotify is to launch apps with its online music service yesterday, allowing millions to read reviews, sing along to lyrics and buy concerts tickets as they listen to songs.

The Independent

The Nutcracker: It’s all going nuts at the ballet.

Jessica Duchen is overwhelmed by the volume of Nutcrackers around.

New York Times

Andrew Kazdin, Record Producer, Dies at 77.

Andrew Kazdin, a producer known for his recordings of the New York Philharmonic, died on Monday in Manhattan.

LA Times

Grammys: Gustavo Dudamel in classical’s West-leaning field.

The classical Grammy nominations have been announced.

Slipped Disc: Norman Lebrecht

Chailly’s out. Boston’s options are down to one.

Riccardo Chailly has withdrawn from January’s long-planned concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Breaking: Santa Claus gets an opera house.

Leif Segretsam, also known as Father Christmas:

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/breaking-santa-claus-gets-an-opera-house.html

(Written on December 1, 2011 )