BBC News

National Portrait Gallery to have choir in residence

The National Portrait Gallery in London is to have a choir in residence – a first for any museum in the UK.

The Times

Late composer Claude Vivier goes underground

Some things are meant to be. One is that the last piece of music Claude Vivier wrote, but never finished, would be played in a disused Tube station.

The Telegraph

Five great classical music scandals

A century since the Rite of Spring caused a riot in Paris, Ivan Hewett picks five other classical and opera scandals.

Classical Music Magazine

Exhibitors’ 70% increase is vote of confidence in Classical:NEXT

Delegate numbers are up 20% for the second outing of Classical:NEXT, the music congress that opens in Vienna on 29 May.

Classic FM

Big audience boost for Classic FM

More than 200,000 new listeners have tuned in to Classic FM in the past three months, according to new radio listening figures published today.

Gramophone

Gramophone Hall of Fame 2013 announced!

We welcome 50 new influential and inspiring individuals to our list of those who have changed classical music

Classical Source

Lufthansa Looks Forward To Celebrating 30 Years Of The Lufthansa Festival Of Baroque Music In 2014

Lufthansa German Airlines has confirmed it looks forward to celebrating 30 years of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music in 2014, a momentous year which also marks the 300th anniversary of the Hanoverian succession to the British throne.

The Times

(Written on May 17, 2013 )

The Telegraph

Peter Maxwell Davies: The old rebel has a new cause

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies talks about the inspiration for his Ninth symphony.

The Guardian

Carmen in the desert: Israeli Opera promises hot staging at Bizet

Dead Sea and Massada fortress form backdrop for ambitious performance of fiery, romantic opera.

Interview: Sergei Leiferkus

Baritone Sergei Leiferkus, singing the Forester in Glyndebourne’s current production of the Cunning Little Vixen, talks about the opera.

Classical Music Magazine

Clandeboye’s former young musicians to return to celebrate tenth festival

Booking has opened for the tenth Clandeboye Festival, taking place 13 – 18 August at the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava’s Clandeboye estate near Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.

Gramophone

Universal’s ‘Bass Hunter’ search uncovers what may be the world’s lowest singing voice

For singer Tom Stroms, the low E is effortless.

Arts Journal – Slipped disc

Naked Spencer Tunick is modifying his art for Munich’s Ring

Bavarian State Opera have just announced that the naked flash mob it is preparing for Wagner’s Ring will not be in the altogether. The American artist Spencer Tunick has been persuaded to cover prudish Muncheners with body paint.

Cathedral fires choirmaster for ‘being rude about Scotland’

Ian Simcock has been sacked by Glasgow Cathedral for merciless teasing of singers and ‘being rude about Scotland’.

Jessica Duchen

On the future of music journalism

Here are a few thoughts I’ve cobbled together in the wake of last week’s panel discussion at Classical:NEXT.

The New Yorker

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s Art Songs

As everyone knows, Fischer-Dieskau, who died on May 18th, was the reigning master of the art song.

(Written on June 7, 2012 )

The Telegraph

Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade: Vivaldi’s Olympic opera returns

L’Olimpiade is one of Vivaldi’s 50 or so largely obscure operas, most of which have never been performed.

The Guardian

Accordion wrestling – squeezy does it

In the 40s and 50s, accordion wrestling was huge in Finland. Meet the man who brings it here.

A guide to Judith Weir’s music

Lightness, wisdom and imagination. Welcome to the rich musical world of Judith Weir.

LA Times

Bone flutes found in German caves point to roots of creativity

Make jokes about flute players all you want, but it’s looking more likely that our earliest musical impulses may have been fed by a variation on just such an instrument.

Johnny Mandel has composed quite a life in music

The songwriter, 86, convenes an orchestra for a weekend gig.

Classical Music Magazine

Creative Scotland drops ‘flexible funding’, meaning uncertain future for ensembles

Scottish music organisations including Aberdeen’s Sound festival, the Hebrides and Red Note ensembles, and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, are facing an uncertain future following a financial review by funding body Creative Scotland (CS).

Muso

Composers sought for year-long collaborations

Applications are now open for the 2012/13 Adopt a Composer scheme, which pairs Making Music member groups with up-and-coming composers for a year-long collaboration that results in a new piece.

Winners of NCEM Composers Award announced

Young composers Alex Woolf (16) and Benjamin Rowarth (20) have been named the winners of the NCEM Composers Award 2012, in the under 18 years category and the 19 to 25 years category respectively.

Jessica Duchen

Off to Munich

Tomorrow I’m heading for the new classical music trade fair, Classical:NEXT, in Munich. The Classical:NEXT programme is jam-packed with intriguing talks, showcases, performances and screenings.

Gramophone

Jonas Kaufmann withdraws from Royal Opera House Les Troyens

Tenor suffering from a kong-running infection.

(Written on May 30, 2012 )

Kimiko Ishazaka and Robert Douglass will be featured at Munich’s Classical:NEXT conference on 31st May, where they will provide a demonstration of the Open Goldberg Project. Audience members will have the capability to see every note played via their partners’; MuseScore and SampleSumo’s unique technology.

Previously, the public domain Goldberg Variations scores and recordings were extremely hard to locate or non-existent. The Open Goldberg Project (OGP) desired to produce a public domain score and recording that is easily accessible to all. MuseScore.com is creating a public version of the score using open source software, based on an open peer review process.

Thanks to Robert Douglass’ vision, the project is realised! Through the use of crowd-funding via Kickstarter, the OGP raised over $20,000. Embracing technology – from raising funds to online publishing to open peer review and sourcing – is a distinguishing feature of the project.

The score and recording will be available for digital download on 28th May 2012.

For more information on the Variations and the free download please visit the OPG website here

For more information on Classical:NEXT please visit their website here

For information on the new technolgy used please visit MuseScore’s website here and SampleSumo’s here

(Written on May 18, 2012 )

Kathleen Alder, WildKat PR’s Founder-Director, will be appearing at the global classical music conference, Classical:NEXT in Munich at the end of May. She has been selected to be one of four specialist mentors discussing different aspects of the classical music industry. Kathleen will be discussing PR and social media tools with her mentorees in pre-booked fifteen-minute sessions. Other mentors will include Penny King, of Arts Council England, Philip Krippendorff of Artefakt Classica and Michaela Ludyk of Monogenuss Records / Andy K. Productions oHG.

For more information on Classical:NEXT and its mentoring program, please click here

(Written on May 16, 2012 )

The Guardian

Portrait Of The Artist: James MacMillan

‘My high point? Writing a piece for Celtic FC: my heart filled with pride’.

Schubert: Ferocious, Tender, Sublime

Schubert’s short, prolific career changed history. As Radio 3 devotes a season to him, musicians and artists reveal the one work they can’t live without.

The Rest Is Noise

The Real Mitt Romney

A Presidential election year is again upon us, bringing with it more politically inflected speech-music videos.

BBC Music Magazine

English National Opera Dominates Opera Categories At The Oliver Awards

Composer Mark-Anthony Turnage also nominated for his opera Anna Nicole at the Royal Opera House

Gramophone

Classical Music Gets A Raw Deal At South By Southwest

The music festival in Austin, Texas, hosts its third nonclassical record label night – with mixed results.

BBC Four To Broadcast Angelic Voices

Documentary examining the lives of Salisbury Cathedral choristers.

Composer Heiner Goebbels Receives 2012 Ibsen Award

Goebbels will speak at Birmingham’s Frontiers + festival.

LA Times

Esa-Pekka Salonen To Carry Olympic Torch For London Games

Esa-Pekka Salonen is pretty good at wielding a conductor’s baton, but how will he fare wielding an Olympic torch?

The 100 Cellos Of The Piatigorsky International Cello Festival

There goes the Disney Hall stage.

Jessica Duchen’s Classical Music Blog

Everyone’s Going To…Classical:NEXT

It’s the big news in the classical music world: a new trade fair for the industry, to be held at the Gasteig in Munich at the end of May, organised by the same team that does WOMEX.

The Telegraph

Katherine Jenkins Hasn’t Got The Voice Or Technique To Sing Opera – So Why Does She Pretend She Can?

Is it not ironic that the woman complaining in the tabloid press about being bullied via a fake Twitter account is, when all is said and done, essentially faking the art of singing opera? Steve Silverman writes

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stevesilverman/100061641/katherine-jenkins-hasnt-got-the-voice-or-the-technique-to-sing-opera-so-why-does-she-pretend-that-she-can/

(Written on March 21, 2012 )

Open Goldberg Variations director Robert Douglass, pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, and music notation company MuseScore have been invited to demonstrate a unique score-following technology at the Classical:NEXT conference in Munich at the end of May. In addition, Robert Douglass will be speaking on a panel discussing crowdfunding music projects.

This score-following technology, developed by SampleSumo and MuseScore, recognises the music as it is being performed and follows the score accordingly, allowing the audience to see every note being played. This development will, for the first time, bring the score to the forefront of the audience’s experience of a live concert.

The demonstration will consist of Kimiko Ishizaka playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with all members of the conference following the score in real-time, on their own computers, phones, or tablets, thanks to MuseScore’s technology.

Robert Douglass, the founder and director of the Open Goldberg Variations project, will also be speaking on a panel discussing the crowd-funding of music projects. The aim of the Open Goldberg Variations project is to provide a new public domain recording and score of the Goldberg Variations for anybody to listen to, copy, and use, however they like. Over 400 fans donated money towards the project via the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. The Goldberg Variations recording, made by pianist Kimiko Ishizaka, will be available as a free download for everyone in the summer.

For more information on the Open Goldberg Variations Project, please visit: http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/

For more information on MuseScore please visit: http://musescore.com

For more information on SampleSumo please visit: http://www.samplesumo.com/

For more information on the Classical:NEXT conference please visit: http://www.classicalnext.com/

(Written on March 20, 2012 )