BACKCharity, ISM notes a significant dip in the number of GCSE Music students
The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) released worrying statistics yesterday that demonstrated a significant decrease in the amount of pupils studying GCSE music.
The figures showed how Music has suffered 18.6% decline in GCSE intake over the past five years, with their being a 2.3% less students this year alone. This disputes the government’s claim that art subjects are enjoying a sudden rise in intake, since the 9.5% increase only applies to art and design.
Deborah Annetts, chief executive of the incorporated society of musicians says: ‘We congratulate pupils on their achievements today and commend them for their hard work over the past two years. However, we remain deeply concerned regarding the continued decline in uptake of GCSE music, a non-EBacc subject, which has now fallen by 18.6% since 2014.’
Vom Beifall exkulpiert
Standing Ovations, bevor noch ein Ton erklungen ist, dürften auch bei den Salzburger Festspielen singulär sein. Entgegengebracht wurden sie dem Jahrhundertsänger Plácido Domingo, der kürzlich wegen sexueller Belästigung ins MeToo-Gerede gekommen ist. Als er zusammen mit den anderen Starsolisten auf die Bühne des restlos ausverkauften Großen Festspielhauses kam, sprangen prompt ein paar spanische Opernfreaks auf, die sich in ihrer vehementen Domingo-Begeisterung nicht bremsen ließen, bis sich der ganze Saal zu minutenlangem Begrüßungsapplaus erhob: eine Welle der Sympathie, Verehrung und Exkulpation umspülte Domingo, der sich während der Proben zur konzertanten Aufführung von Verdis Oper „Luisa Miller“ in einem der „schwersten Momente seines Lebens“ befunden haben soll, wie die Salzburger Presse berichtete.
Standing ovations, even before a single note has been heard, is something unique, even at the Salzburg Festival. These ovations were given to the singer Plácido Domingo, who recently became one of the renters of the MeToo movement for sexual harassment. When he came, along with the other star soloists, on the stage of the sold-out Great Festival Hall, a few Spanish opera freaks promptly jumped up in their vehement Domingo enthusiasm until the whole hall rose to minutes of applause greetings: a wave of sympathy for Domingo, who has said to have found himself in one of the “hardest moments of his life” during the rehearsals for the concert performance of Verdi’s opera “Luisa Miller,” a wave that lurked veneration, and exultation, as the Salzburg press reported.
En 2020, la Folle Journée lancera l’anniversaire mondial de Beethoven
Le festival nantais, dont la 25e édition s’est achevée ce dimanche soir, renouera avec un thème consacré à un compositeur unique. Le choix de Beethoven n’est pas vraiment un hasard puisqu’on célébrera l’an prochain le 250e anniversaire de sa naissance. « L’anniversaire va être mondial, explique René Martin. Il va y avoir 15.000 concerts dans le monde, c’est inouï. Et comme la Folle Journée est en janvier, c’est Nantes qui va ouvrir tout ça. C’est une chance. » Avec Beethoven, déjà à l’honneur de la Folle Journée en 1996 et 2005 le festival nantais renoue avec les thèmes centrés sur un seul compositeur, dix ans après Chopin.
The Nantes festival, whose 25th edition ended this Sunday evening, will return to a theme dedicated to a unique composer. Beethoven’s choice is not really a coincidence, since next year we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth. “The anniversary is going to be global,” explains René Martin. There will be 15,000 concerts in the world, it’s incredible. And since the Folle Journée is in January, it’s Nantes that will open all this. It’s an opportunity. “With Beethoven, already in the spotlight at the Folle Journée in 1996 and 2005, the Nantes festival returns to themes centered on a single composer, ten years after Chopin.