The Guardian

The fantastic Dr Dee: angels, magic and the birth of modern science

As Damon Albarn’s opera opens in London, Carole Jahme wonders why Dee has been written out of the history of science.

The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel – live stream

Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall with conductor Gustavo Dudamel on 23 and 26 June.

The Times

Delius takes Hassan on the Golden Road

On July 7 Frederick Delius’s Hassan is staged in Cheltenham.

MUSO

Edward Gardner among artists given Queen’s birthday honours

English National Opera director Edward Gardner has been named among the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, being awarded an OBE for services to music.

BBC Music Magazine

Arts Council awards Catalyst Endowment funds

The Arts Council has awarded ‘Catalyst’ awards to a host of music organisations including the Hallé and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE).

Arts Journal – Slipped Disc

Bayreuth’s American Siegfried has died

Jean Cox was not the first American to sing at the Wagner shrine but he was surely the first to fly a bombing mission before he took to the stage.

Gramophone

Performing musical saw in a potato barn

The SCO’s principal cellist prepares for the East Neuk Festival.

New Music 20×12 issues three more releases

Hear excerpts from works by David Bruce, Emily Howard and Michael Wolters.

Jamie Philips appointed assistant conductor of the Hallé

21-year-old succeeds Andrew Gourlay in September.

(Written on June 27, 2012 )

The Telegraph

La Scala opera house stars take 10pc pay cut amid Italian austerity

It may not quiet make it The Beggar’s Opera, but Italy’s famed La Scala is to cut the salaries of its top directors, in line with the rest of the country’s straitened economic circumstances.

Classical Music Magazine

Myerscough report recommends cuts of 10% at BBC performing groups

The independent report, commissioned by the BBC’s director of audio and music, Tim Davie, was written by academic John Myerscough, a former special advisor on the arts to the House of Commons.

LA Times

Receipt signed by Chopin when he sold compositions is up for sale

A one-page document signed by Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin is on the auction block through Wednesday and has proved more popular with bidders than expected.

Drama afoot as L.A. Opera feels heat of rival works

The L.A. Opera is on challenging ground as local groups like the L.A. Phil., The Industry and Jacaranda stage inventive productions of opera and opera-like music theatre.

NY Times

Tanglewood Revisits Its Past, for All to Hear

Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Mass., is celebrating its 75th anniversary this summer in several big ways.

Gramophone

Las Vegas Philharmonic launches search for new music director

David Itkin will not extend his contract beyong June 2013.

LPO to perform outside the Royal Academy of Arts

Courtyard concert coincides with French Impressionism exhibition.

Spoiler Alert

Could operatic surtitles replace the programme plot synopsis to deliver real surprises?

Re-thinking Nielsen’s centennial symphony

As Nielsen’s unusual and brilliant Third Symphony turns 100, it’s about time we respect his notes as we would Mahler’s.

Jessica Duchen

Heat and light

Kicking off the Olympic cultural festivities in style, The Dude and his Simon Bolivár Orchestra of Venezuela are back in Britain. Dudamel & co are taking over the Royal Festival Hall this weekend

The Guardian

Gustavo Dudamel and London: a special relationship

The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra conductor loves London, and London loves him back.

(Written on June 20, 2012 )

Classical Music Magazine

Former Royal Academy of Music director jailed for £230,000 fraud

Janet Whitehouse, the former director of finance at the Royal Academy of Music who earlier this month pleaded guilty to charges of having defrauded the RAM of more than £230,000, was today sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment.

The Independent

Song of the suicided Bomber: How ‘Babur in London’ negotiated a cultural minefield

The daring new opera featuring British terrorists planning an attack is being staged next month.

Israeli orchestra strikes note of controversy with Wagner work

A seven-decade old cultural taboo will be broken next month when an Israeli symphony orchestra will play works by Richard Wagner inside the country for the first time since the state’s foundation in 1948.

The Guardian

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra concert to be live-streamed

Sell-out Venezuela orchestra concert to be live-streamed on Guardian website on 23 and 26 June.

Arts Journal – Slipped disc

Orchestra goes looking for unpublished composers

Now here’s one they haven’t tried before. The Britten Sinfonia want to hear from composers – but only if they haven’t been published before.

Gramophone

Hear the score behind the final Olympic film

Composer Thomas Hewitt Jones captures the spirit of the Games.

(Written on May 31, 2012 )

From today LA Phil LIVE “Symphony of a Thousand” will be broadcast to UK cinemas.

The concert being screened was the climax of the recent Mahler Project, which saw Gustavo Dudamel conduct all of Mahler’s 9 completed symphonies and the opening movement of his unfinished tenth. The exciting final concert saw him conduct more than 1,400 musicians in the epic Eighth Symphony – the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’.

For more information, read today’s Independent, and for tickets to UK screenings, follow the links below:

Electric Cinema, London April 13^th 2012 2.00pm

Apollo, Piccadilly, London April 16^th 2012 6.30pm

Vue Westfield, London April 16^th 2012 7.30pm

Showcase CDL Bristol April 19^th 2012 7.30pm

Showcase CDL Derby April 19^th 2012 7.30pm

Showcase CDL Leicester  April 19^th 2012 7.30pm

Bluewater April 19^th 2012 7.30pm

Reading April 19^th 2012 7.30pm

(Written on April 13, 2012 )