BBC News

Jonas Kaufmann wins Best Male Opera Singer award

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann has won best male singer and the reader’s award at the inaugural International Opera awards.

Classic FM

The International Opera Awards 2013 – The Winners

The inaugural International Opera Awards took place at London’s Hilton Park Lane hotel.

Gramophone

The Berliner Philharmoniker announces its 2013-14 season

The Berliner Philharmoniker has announced its 2013-14 season, including 117 orchestral concerts and four opera performances of which chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle will conduct 57 concerts (27 in Berlin).

Gramophone

Elizabeth Watts releases a single for Streetwise Opera

The soprano Elizabeth Watts has just released a digital single of ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Handel’s  Rinaldo to raise money for Streetwise Opera.

BBC News

Fergus Linehan appointed as new Edinburgh International Festival director

Fergus Linehan, former director of the Sydney International Festival and head of music at the Sydney Opera House, will take over from Jonathan Mills.

BBC News

Shakespeare’s Globe sets up youth company

Shakespeare’s Globe is setting up a new youth company to specialise in Jacobean period drama.

NY Times – ArtsBeat

Met Opera Announces Outdoor Performances

The Metropolitan Opera released the performers, dates and places on Monday for the free park recitals it sponsors every summer in lieu of full-scale opera performances, which were suspended after 2007 because of the cost.

The Times

Conductor Robin Ticciati remembers Sir Colin Davis

Robin Ticciati, the young British conductor, writes movingly about his mentor Sir Colin Davis, who died last week

Telegraph

There’s a reason musicians are Lefties – it’s all about class

It’s worth remembering that the superstar, highly paid musician is a recent phenomenon. Before that, a musician had a status that was more like a cook.

BBC News

(Written on April 23, 2013 )

Classic FM 

Nicola Benedetti’s viral violin concerto 

Nicola Benedetti releases a new album of film music.

Author wants return of ‘Derry Stradivarius’ 

A Derry author is leading the campaign to have an antique Stradivarius violin returned to the city in time for the City of Culture celebrations.

Arts Journal- Slipped Disc 

Some more black holes at the Olympics 

Readers have spotted further omissions from the BBC credits at the closing ceremony.

Husband’s pics of boss’ girlfriend set Salzburg tongues wagging 

The husband of festival boss’ girlfriend has emerged

Good man: Edinburgh luthier fixes Iraqi orch’s instruments for free 

Finding the instruments of the Iraqi Youth Orchestra in poor repair, local Luthier Neil Kristof Ertz fixed the instruments for free.

Anne-Sophie Mutter and Jonas Kaufmann vs Angela Merkel

Violinist and Tenor were among 37 prominent Germans invited by the Süddeutsche Zeitung this weekend to put questions to the Chancellor.

Guardian Music Blog 

A guide to John Cage’s music 

Tom Service guides us through the music of John Cage.

Gramophone 

Harry Christophers, Khatia Buniatishvili, and Wells Cathedral School

In this month’s edition of the Gramophone Podcast, James Jolly meets pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and Harry Christophers.

(Written on August 14, 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 )

Telegraph

Vijay Iyer: the scientist who turned to jazz

Vijay Iyer, who next month visits the UK with two different trios, has made it his life’s work not to fit into any preset roles or identities.

NY Times

Jonas Kaufmann Withdraws From the Metropolitan Opera’s ‘Die Walkuere’

Stuart Skelton will take over in Monday’s performance.

The Times

Yuja Wang: more than a sexy starlet

Her hemlines have made headlines, but there is much more to the rising piano star.

Classical Music Magazine

Festival 2012 corrals 12,000 events into purview

The Philharmonia Orchestra and Science Museum will break new ground for Festival 2012.

Arts Journal – Norman Lebrecht

Chaos at Malaysian Philharmonic as French conductor cancels

Alain Lombard pulled out from the latest concerts of the troubled orchestra, officially for health reasons, after two days of rehearsals.

Gramophone

Leeds International Piano Competition launches new award

Orchestra prize winner selected by Sir Mark Elder and members of the Halle.

Asher Fisch appointed principal conductor of West Australian Symphony Orchestra

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) has appointed Seattle Opera principal guest conductor Asher Fisch as its new principal conductor and artistic advisor for a three-year term from 2014.

(Written on May 3, 2012 )

The Press Association

Hopkins To Release Classical Album

Sir Anthony Hopkins is adding a new string to his bow by releasing his first collection of classical works.

Digital Music News

Artists Say Facebook Likes Are Three Times More Valuable Than Email Signups

43.18% of the vote went to Facebook.

Arts Journal: Slipped Disc

Trade Unions Attack Bayreuth For Elitism

The German Trade Union Foundation has accused the Bayreuth Festival of betraying its founders’ ideals by pricing tickets out of the reach of the general public and creating an exclusivist atmosphere.

Kaufmann’s Coming, Live And Free, From Bavarian Opera.

The house has just announced a pilot projects to stream live opera online.

Throat-Struck Mezzo Makes Perfect Vienna Comeback.

Elisabeth Kulman recovers.

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/12/throat-struck-mezzo-makes-brilliant-vienna-comeback.html

(Written on December 16, 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 Telegraph

Aoife O’Sullivan: new face

Aoife O’Sullivan will be singing Gretel in Hansel and Gretel for Opera Northern Ireland.

The L.A Times

‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the Dorothy Chandler pavilion.

Los Angeles Opera has done it again. Six years ago the company introduced the most promising young tenor in quite some time, Rolando Villazón, and paired him with the exquisite soprano Anna Netrebko as the dazzling new dream couple in a new production of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

Guardian Blogs – Tom Service

Britain’s young classical musicians deserve to be trumpeted.

Michael Gove made no announcements about youth initiatives when he attended the Schools Prom, but from the talent on show it’s obvious what needs to happen.

The New York Times

2 stars spice up Verismo Opera

From the packed house at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night for the Opera Orchestra of New York’s concert performance of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur,” and from the ecstatic ovations for the soprano Angela Gheorghiu and the tenor Jonas Kaufmann, the evening’s stars, you would not have guessed that two years ago it looked as if this valuable company might go under.

(Written on November 10, 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 Independent

Castor and Pollux, Coliseum, London

The operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau have always been revered in his native France, but in Britain he’s the Baroque composer everyone overlooks.

The New York Times

Delayed by Injury, Giovanni Still Arrives.

The Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien looked nimble on his feet, sang robustly and threw himself into the title role of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday night in the new production by the director Michael Grandage.

Jessica Duchen’s Blog

Jonas Kaufmann, packed in polystyrene

Magical: his ability to transform himself into the character he’s singing, no matter what’s going on around him.

The Times

RPO/Austin at Cadogan Hall

Peter Maxwell Davies’s attempts, 25 years ago, to write an opera about St Francis of Assisi were scuppered when Olivier Messiaen got there first. But the idea for an overture remained, and London heard it for the first time this week, played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christopher Austin.

The Times

The Aurora Orchestra wants to terrify you!

The Aurora Orchestra is out to terrify its audiences, says its conductor. Scroll to end for eight other spooky arts events for Hallowe’en.

(Written on October 27, 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 Telegraph

Jonas Kaufmann, Festival Hall

After going under the knife to remove a done from his chest, one of the opera world’s hottest properties, Jonas Kaufmann kept the audience waiting and wanting more at the festival hall.

Norman Lebrecht- Slipped disc

Exclusive: Korean Orchestra to play at Vatican

You can’t keep these Seoul bands out of the news.

Financial Times

Castor and Pollux, Coliseum, London

There was a mini revolution at the opening night of Castor and Pollux on Monday.

The Times

Jonas Kaufmann at the Festival Hall

This wasn’t just a concert. It was a manifesto. There is no other tenor today apart from Jonas Kaufmann who could pull off such a diverse programme of operatic arias, from Mascagni to Bizet to Wagner, and do it with such flair.

(Written on October 26, 2011 )