Gramophone

(Written on November 12, 2012 )

Classic FM

A James Bond Celebration: The Music of 007

Celebrating the release of Skyfall, we’re offering you a chance to hear Bond composers Thomas Newman and David Arnold in conversation with Tommy Pearson in front of a live studio audience – watch our exclusive video!

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea loves Rachel Podger

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea has tweeted about his love of the baroque violinist Rachel Podger, alongside Iggy Pop.

Deceptive Cadence, NPR

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Excellent Violin Adventure

After 17 years molding the Los Angeles Philharmonic into one of the smartest and most adventurous U.S. orchestras, music director Esa-Pekka Salonen called it quits in 2009.

Slipped Disc

World exclusive: Woman to be named music director of Arab orchestra

The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra is about to appoint a music director. Well-informed sources have whispered the name to Slipped Disc.

Just in: Hot tenor renews his album deal. (No, it’s not Kaufmann)

Rolando Villazon has re-signed with Deutsche Grammophon.

The Wagnerian

BBC to broadcast ROH Ring Cycle live

Should you not have managed to get tickets, you can catch the entire cycle for free on Radio 3 over 8 days.

Denver Post

Classical music calms dogs in CSU research

Mozart and Chopin do a lot more to soothe the nerves of shelter dogs than Anthrax and Iron Maiden.

The Journal

Opera singer Janice Cairns is singing her heart out for good causes

A stalwart of the annual North East Last Night of the Proms concert, Janice Cairns is a force for good on three continents…

The Wagnerian

(Written on October 17, 2012 )

Classic FM 

Esa-Pekka Salonen carries Olympic torch

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen swaps his baton for the Olympic torch.

Katherine Jenkins is Team GB Ambassador

Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins cheers on the UK athletes.

Bach Flashmob stuns Californian plaza 

Musicians from the Carmel Bach Festival perform Bach Flashmob to the shock of crowds of shoppers.

Arts Journal- Slipped Disc

Just in: London Orchestra surrenders player control 

The London Philharmonic has appointed a new chair who is not a player.

Solti’s concertmaster is no more 

Victor Aitay dies at age 91.

BBC Music Magazine- Blog

Solti Accademia 

Helen Wallace joins students of the prestigious summer school conceived by Georg Solti.

Gramophone Blog

Filming Barenboim and the Beethoven Symphonies 

Michael Waldman gives an account of following Daniel Barenboim and the West- Eastern Divan Orchestra on their tour of China and South Korea and the performance of the Nine Beethoven Symphonies.

Gramophone 

Winner of the inaugural Delius Composition Prize announced  

US Composer Michael Djupstrom’s piece Walimai wins Delius Composition prize.

(Written on July 26, 2012 )

The Telegraph

Interview with composer Heiner Goebbels

Heiner Goebbels has transformed Henry Thoreau’s ideas into music for the UK premier of Walden as part of the London 2012 festival.

The Guardian

Glyndebourne and Figaro: a perfect marriage

The son of the festival’s founder and Glyndebourne’s first Susanna looks forward to a new production of Mozart’s great comic opera.

Neville Roberts obituary

Originally a tenor player, Neville answered an ad for bass trombonists and Sir John – always JB to his musicians – heard his audition and engaged him on a three-month trial.

BBC Music Magazine

BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers’ Competition winners announced

The three winners of this year’s BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers’ Competition have been announced.

The Independent

Bernard Haitink: A meastro passes on his baton to the next generation

It’s tough to make it as a conductor – so when 20 young stars where asked to perform for the great Bernard Haitlink, the pressure was on.

LA Times

A 4-D ‘concert’ at a London museum 

At Science Museum, an interactive digital installation co-developed by Esa-Pekka Salonen lets visitors conduct and step inside a virtual orchestra.

Hollywood Bowl opens with the queens of country and funk

Reba McEntire and Chaka Khan, both divas by virtue and of their talent, were inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame at this season’s opening night concert Friday.

Gramophone

Gearing up for the Aldeburgh World Orchestra

Aldeburgh Music launches remote learning learning technology.

Dudamel and Sounds Venezuela at the Southbank

Four days of events began Saturday.

Jessica Duchen

Brigitte Engerer, 1952-2012

Tributes have been pouring in following the death of the French pianist Brigitte Engerer at the age of 59.

Arts Journal – Slipped Disc

US orchestra chief quits after just three month

Lee Williamson started work as executive director of the Delaware Symphony in March. Now she has asked to be released from her contract with immediate effect.

The Times

Six of the best opera villains

If an opera is not a comedy or filled with people who wish to destroy their own lives (mostly as a result of failed love), then a villain is needed for the opera to end in the appropriately awful way.

My space: Gus Christie

The Glyndebourne boss talks about living on the grounds where the festival – founded by his grandfather – takes place.

(Written on June 25, 2012 )

Classical Music Magazine

Breakthrough for blind musicians as Prima Vista signs deal with OUP

Ms Machell, based in Leeds, has her own music publishing and software company, Prima Vista Braille Music Services, which provides music to enable blind musicians to ‘feel the music’.

Jubilee composers miss out on BBC coverage

The event, organised by the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, saw nine ‘music herald barges’ sail down the river, with performers on each.

LA Times

Vinny Golia to enable young talent

Vinny Golia is using his residency at the Blue Whale, which celebrates his Nine Winds label’s 35th anniversary, to showcase young musical talent.

Playboy Jazz Festival tries to broaden its appeal

The 2012 Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl will feature classic styles, jazz-rock fusions and genre pushers. Bill Cosby is the emcee.

Sonny Rollins, Esperanze Spalding head S.F. Jazz Festival lineup

Los Angeles-area jazz fans will have ample reasons to trek north on the Golden State Freeway beginning in August with the recently announced lineup of the 30th San Francisco Jazz Festival.

The Guardian

Opera North tackles Wagner’s Ring Cycle – minus the financial drama

Concert hall staging with giant video and ‘nicely blown in tubas’ keeps ticket prices down to draw Wagner virgins.

Gramophone

Obituary: Judith Nelson, early music soprano

The American soprano Judith Nelson, who has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, was one of the most prominent voices in the early music world.

New York Times

The White Light Festival Turns to Dark-Hued Mahler

White Light, Lincoln Center’s fall festival dedicated to humanity’s spiritual side, will present Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London next season.

BBC Music Magazine

Winners of Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition announced

The first prize at the annual competition founded by tenor Plácido Domingo,Operalia, has been awarded to 29-year-old American soprano Janai Brugger.

(Written on June 13, 2012 )

The Independent

Independent podcast: Saimir Pirgu

Quality voices will always be a rare and valued commodity. The young Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu falls into that category.

The Guardian

Saint and sinner: the Nelson Mandela opera

Tribesman, activist, icon – all the phases of Nelson Mandela’s life are o display in a new opera.

Gramophone

Bach cantata manuscript goes on public display at Christie’s in London

Rare chance to view Bach’s musical hand before ale on June 13.

New York Times

Video Preserves Hints of Future for a Director

Just out of Harvard, the director Peter Sellars made his name in the early 1980s. But what do you do when your defining work is made before you’re 30? An answer is found in Mr. Sellars’s haunting 2010 staging of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion”.

Arts Journal – Slipped disc

Russians squeaks it in tight Nielsen contest

Olga Volkova, a pupil of Zakha Bron in Cologne, took first prize in the Carl Nielsen competition in Odense.

Eminent Italian maestro is dead

We’re receiving reports of the death of Piero Bellugi, music director of the RAI orchestra from 1967 and, until his death, artistic director of the opera in Palermo, Sicily.

The Times

Salonen, bringer of interactive conducting at the Science Museum

Do you ever dream of guiding the the Philharmonia through a full-blooded performance of The Planets? Dream no longer.

(Written on June 11, 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 )

BBC Arts

Director Ken Russell dies at 84

British film director Ken Russel died yesterday afternoon aged 84.

LA Times

‘A Dangerous Method’ ‘Melancholia’ take cues from Richard Wagner

David Ng on the relationship between classical music and film.

Esa-Pekka Salonen wins the 2012 Grawemeyer Award

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto has won the 2012 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

The Guardian

The National Music Plan: it’s a good place to start

The Department of Education on Friday published The Importance of Music – A National Music Plan For Music Education, which looks promising.

New York Times

Olga Bloom, Founder of Bargemusic, Dies at 92

Violinist and violist responsible for New York’s floating concert hall, Bargemusic, dies on Thanksgiving Day.

Nan Melville for the New York Times

(Written on November 28, 2011 )