The Guardian

Paraguayan landfill orchestra makes sweet music from rubbish

Children of recyclers at Cateura landfill form band playing instruments fashioned out of discarded oven trays and oil barrels.

The Telegraph

Proms 2013: Most exuberant of all classical music festivals

Proms 2013 will feature some eye-catching ‘firsts’, as for the first time ever, the Last Night is conducted by a woman, Marin Alsop.

Gramophone

Borletti-Buitoni Trust celebrates 10th anniversary with live debate

Mitsuko Uchida will open ‘Is Talent Enough?’ at Southbank Centre with a video discussion – watch in advance on the Gramophone Player!

Classical Music Magazine

Warner/Parlophone deal set to strip EMI and Virgin Classics brand names from their catalogues

Artists who have recorded for EMI and Virgin Classics will find their releases appearing under a new brand.

Planet Hugill

Really rather rare – Verdi’s Alzira

(Written on April 29, 2013 )

BBC News

BBC Proms appoints first female director for Last Night

BBC’s The Last Night of The Proms is to be led by a female conductor for the first time in its 118 year history.

Gramophone

(Written on April 19, 2013 )

Excitement certainly abounds in our office when the BBC Proms programme is announced. This year was no different, from Joyce DiDinato closing the season, Marin Alsop becoming the first female conductor to lead the Last Night of the Proms, to a number of our clients performing in this year’s lineup.

Another great asset to this year’s Proms was the inclusion of new commissions, along with more national and world premieres in the programme. Whilst it is still less than 20% of the Proms that include new commissions, it is still a fantastic effort by the BBC to bring new works to a new, and very wide, audience. We hope that this number continues to grow in future!

This year’s BBC Commissions include works by Julian Anderson, Frederic Rzewski, John McCabe and Charlotte Seither. A definite highlight of the Proms will be the BBC co-commission of Mark-Anthony Turnage, with the Royal Philharmonic Society and New York Philharmonic: Frieze in Prom 38.

One of the 8 UK premieres this year is Colin Matthews’ Turning Point in Prom 21, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under the baton of Thomas Søndergård, in his Proms debut. Also appearing in this Prom is violinist Daniel Hope, who is playing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

Daniel Harding conducts works by Mozart, Schumann and Sibelius at Prom 23 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, while pianist Anika Vavic makes her Proms debut at Prom 64 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, also performing Prokofiev.

Prom 19 is a performance of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde including tenor Andrew Staples with the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

We salute all of these great performers with a ‘Toi toi toi!’ and look forward to the summer and another great year of BBC Proms programming.

(Written on April 18, 2013 )

The Independent

Jessica Duchen: How I put the tale of music in a Nazi camp on the stage

(Written on November 1, 2012 )

Classic FM

Benjamin Grosvenor’s extracurricular activities 

Jamie Crick talks to the 20 year old pianist and conductor Benjamin Grosvenor.

Arts Journal 

Russia’s foremost chorus conductor has died  

A memorial concert for Boris Tevlin has been announced for September 6th in the Great Hall of the Conservatory.

Share the pain: Atlanta musicians propose equal cuts for players and staff 

The Musicians of the ASO are threatened with a lockout next Monday unless they cave in to a massive pay cut.

Singapore opens magnificent Performing Arts Centre… with pop trash 

Michael Bublé amongst others to perform at opening of new Performing Arts Centre in Singapore.

Breaking: Covent Garden cuts new music team

The Stage reports that the Royal Opera House is shutting down ROH2 as a separate entity.

Just in: Domingo caught in storm over non-existent Norway millions 

Placido Domingo is recipient of the Kirsten Flagstad Prize next year, but there is no prize money …..

Jon Lord concerto is finally on its way

The concerto for group and orchestra by Deep Purple’s Jon Lord is to be released in October.

Gramophone

Edinburgh hosts first International Culture Summit 

Representatives from around the world discuss the harmonising effect of culture and the arts.

BBC Music Magazine 

Marin Alsop

Jeremy Pound Talks to the conductor on bringing the São Paolo Symphony Orchestra to its first ever BBC Prom.

(Written on August 16, 2012 )

Classic FM 

Joseph Calleja on tackling Mario Lanza

Maltese Tenor Joseph Calleja talks to Classic FM about his new tribute album to Mario Lanza.

New Classical App makes music theory fun 

‘Singsmash’ a new app for iPhone and iPad promises to make learning scales and music theory fun for musicians.

Arts Journal- Slipped Disc 

A public protest at Katherine Jenkins

‘Real’ Opera Singer Donal Byrne protests after BBC Television introduces Katherine Jenkins as ‘the opera singer’ on breakfast television.

Sad News: A trail- blazing horn is gone, too soon

Mary Knepper, an American horn player in the English Chamber Orchestra has died at the age of 63.

Dallas plucks its new boss from the boondocks

Jonathan Martin is announced as the new president of Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Gramophone Blog 

The Great and the Good 

Mark Wigglesworth discusses if it is possible to define truly great performances from merely very good ones.

FT Music

‘You have to be strong’ 

Conductor Marin Alsop shares how she is trying to help women make it to the top in a male-dominated profession.

The Guardian 

How we made: Franco Zeffirelli and John Tooley on Tosca (1964)

The director and assistant general administrator of the 1964 production of Tosca in which Maria Callas and Renato Cioni starred talk to The Guardian’s Anna Tims.

(Written on July 24, 2012 )

The Independent

An inventive addition to the Proms: Wallace promises a grand day out

Multi-talented Wallace is turning his hand to composing, with a new commission for this year’s Proms.

The Guardian

Proms 2012 celebrates best of Britain – youth, royalty, and Wallace & Gromit

Festival’s 118th season also features Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s Beethoven cycle and marks Delius, Debussy and John Cage anniversaries.

The Times

São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra debuts at the Proms

São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra amazes audience with their new maestro, the American conductor Marin Alsop.

Commentary: Richard Morrison’s view of the Proms 2012

With an emphasis on youth and visits from three of Europe’s greatest orchestras, the Proms should more than hold its own against the Olympics.

Classical Music Magazine

New Sam letter is conciliatory after ‘divisive and unhelpful’ furore

A further open letter has been sent in the ongoing public debate over the current and future work of contemporary music organisation Sound and Music (SAM).

Norman Lebrecht

Wow! My Fair Lady at the BBC Proms

With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, this summer promises to be unlike any other, and as such the Proms is delighted to be part of the London 2012 Festival.

The political maestro they just can’t fire

We’ve been receiving further messages of discontent from South Korea about the conductor Shinik Hahm, who is now taking legal action against seven players in the KBS Symphony Orchestra for supposedly blackening his character.

Eminent cellist ends his playing career

Heinrich Schiff has pulled out of a festival in Southwest Germany, saying he no longer wants to play cello.

(Written on April 20, 2012 )