The Independent

Classic FM

Mice capable of singing, scientific study says

Mice are capable of manipulating their vocal pitch depending on their setting and any surrounding mouse friends, a new study confirms.

Piano scores turned into dazzling visualisations

Piano works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart, Liszt and more have been turned into incredible visualisations

Gramophone

(Written on October 12, 2012 )

New York Times

Emboldened Orchestras Are Embracing the New.

New music increases in popularity.

As New Composers Flourish, Will They Be Heard?

Club kids are storming music museums.

Gramophone

Belcea Quartet Sign to Zig-Zag Territories.

Label to release ensemble’s complete Beethoven Quartet cycle.

Slipped Disc

The Next Stradivarius Will Be Made Of Mushrooms.

Last week, scientists were using health authority CAT scanners to discover the secrets of Stradivarius violins and make a modern replica.

Chicago Classical Review

Lyric Opera Appoints Renée Fleming’s manager as director of public relations.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago announced late Friday that Alexandra Day has been appointed to the newly created position of director of public relations.

LA Times

James Levine Won’t Return To The Metropolitan Opera Until At Least 2013.

James Levine, the music director for the Metropolitan Opera, will not be back to conduct the orchestra for performances until at least 2013.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/12/james-levine-wont-return-to-metropolitan-opera-until-at-least-2013.html

(Written on December 13, 2011 )

Every day the WildKat team scan the newspapers and blogs online to bring you a digested list of the day’s classical music.

The Guardian

An opera for Auschwitz

Art can’t do justice to the Holocaust’s full horror, but it can ask questions, provoke and remind us. English National Opera’s The Passenger, partly set in Auschwitz, has had mixed reviews.

The Guardian

Shattering boundaries? Can’t we just go to hear the music?

Next spring’s Reverb festival has some great looking gigs. So why the need for fighting talk? Conductor Sir Mark Elder and Imogen Heap on the same bill?

The New York Times

Met Orchestra And New Chief, Out of the Pit

Fabio Luisi has been under the opera world’s microscope since last season, when it became clear that the Metropolitan Opera, which had made him its principal guest conductor in 2010, was grooming him to succeed James Levine as its music director

Gramophone

Lang Lang coming to a cinema near you

Pianist broadcasts live performance in Europe and Asia.

(Written on October 18, 2011 )

Every day the WildKat team scan the newspapers and blogs online to bring you a digested list of the day’s classical music news.

Gramophone

HJ Lim signs exclusive deal with EMI Classics

Pianist found wide following through internet. By Mark Seow.

New York Times

Maestro’s Injury Ignites Game of Musical Chairs

A man falls in Vermont. Classical music shudders.

The effects of James Levine’s accident this month and his replacement as conductor at the Metropolitan Opera have rippled across two continents. By Daniel J. Wakin.

The Telegraph

Sir Paul McCartney ballet premieres in New York

Former Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney writes his first original orchestral score for dance.

BBC Radio 3 hits all the wrong notes

The corporation should maintain its commitment to serious classical music, says Max Davidson.

The Times

Philharmonia/Hall at the Festival Hall, London SE1

An evening called ‘The Best of British’ celebrated 200 years of popular choral, orchestral and film music published by Novello. Hilary Finch reports.

Slipped Disc

Does the soprano voice change with ovulation?

Researchers in Germany have been working on the age-old legend that sopranos have their monthly ups and downs. Norman Lebrecht reports.

(Written on September 22, 2011 )

The Arts Desk 

My Summer Reading: Violinist Vadim Gluzman 

Some violinists just play; others have a voice.

The Guardian

Salvatore Licitra obituary

Operatic tenor with exemplary phrasing, dramatic charisma and a rare sensitivity  

The Evening Standard

Big ideas for small opera

Unless the major institutions learn the lessons of smaller companies and get closer to their audiences they run the risk of reducing opera to a museum piece, director John Fulljames tells Nick Kimberley

The LA Times

Conductor James Levine cancels fall performances after new injury 

James Levine, the ailing music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, has suffered from recurring back problems in recent years that have forced him to cancel a number of appearances. On Tuesday, the company announced that Levine has had to withdraw from all fall appearances this season due to an accident last week that damaged one of his vertebrae.

The Times

Le nozze di Figaro at the Peacock, WC2

It is back to school week. But for the singers of British Youth Opera this month marks their final farewell from music college and graduate opera courses. 

(Written on September 7, 2011 )