BACKGramophone
Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2013 announced!
Winners include Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Julian Bream and Jan Lisiecki. Decca Classics are Label of the Year and trumpeteer Alison Balsom is the first British woman to win Artist of the Year.
Telegraph
N-Dubz singer’s new BBC 3 programme attempts to “blow apart the preconceptions of young people” concerning classical music by getting seven teenagers to create classical-urban fusion.
Is New Age thinking good or bad for musicians?
Concert pianist Stephen Hough discusses the presumption that “self-expression is what the arts are all about.”
Guardian
A new war themed concert series begins at Wigmore Hall and Steven Isserlis discusses how the intimate nature of chamber music allows composers writing in terrible times to respond in surprising ways.
Classic FM Online
Elton John stopped playing classical music due to short fingers
Despite winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy, Elton John claims his switch from classical to popular music was due to his “fingers like cocktail sausages.”
Alison Balsom to record with legendary rock producer Ethan Johns
When trumpeter Alison Balsom moves to America later this year she will record an album with Ethan Johns, who has previously worked with artists including Tom Jones, Kings of Leon, The Vaccines and Joe Cocker.
Huffington Post Arts & Entertainment
Sergei Filin Returns To Bolshoi Theater After Devastating Acid Attack
The Bolshoi ballet’s artistic director has returned to the famed Moscow theater after months of treatment in Germany for burns he suffered to both eyes when a man threw acid in his face in January.
Pacific Standard
Study: Classical Music makes men think women are more attractive
Recently published research found a relationship between the type of music used on someone’s personal webpage and whether they are seen as attractive by the opposite sex. Men found women more attractive if classical music was playing in the background, but women found men better-looking if their webpage had a heavy-metal soundtrack.
Neue Musikzeitung
„Sieg der Frauen“ bei ARD-Musikwettbewerb
Die Viola-Spielerin Yura Lee (28) aus Südkorea ist Gewinnerin des ARD-Musikwettbewerbs.
Alison Balsom, BBC News