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Video: Music Hall — the Lego version
A Mason man is building a replica of Music Hall out of 60,000 Lego bricks. Read the whole story in this Sunday’s A&E section of The Enquirer and Cincinnati.com.
Did Britain’s Got Talent employ free child labour?
Three tweets from the National Youth Orchestra suggest that it did. - Tune in to Britain’s @GotTalent tonight and you might just catch quite a few NYO players on stage - 10 string players are currently in the ITV studios sound checking for Britain’s Got Talent, watch out for us tonight! - Blimey! That wasn’t one [...]
Happy Birthday IS in the Public Domain
You can read all about it (and the the lawsuit against Warner Chappell) here. Here are some highlights:If and to the extent that defendant Warner/Chappell relies upon the 1893, 1896, 1899, or 1907 copyrights for the melody of Good Morning...Show More Summary
Britten-Pears Archive Opens today
The new Britten-Pears Archive, designed by Stanton William (photo Philip Vile)
The £4.7 million Britten-Pears Archive is opened today by Dame Janet Baker, the singer for whom Britten wrote one of his last major works, Phaedra. The archive is the first such purpose-built composer archive in the UK. Show More Summary
Youtube’s favourite pianist: why I dropped out of music
Valentina Lisitsa, in a revealing conversation on Sinfinimusic.com, talks for the first time of the two periods in her life when she stopped playing. At 11 years old, she decided the Soviet competition system was too corrupt to be taken seriously and decided to compete as a chess champion. How she was brought back on [...]
Breaking: UK arts cuts ‘in single figures’
We are hearing that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has agreed an eight percent cut with the Treasury, of which five percent will be exacted from arts and museums. This is tough, but by no means as bad as feared. The Culture Secretary Maria Muller held the line and achieved the same cut [...]
Valentina Lisitsa – as never seen or heard before
Later today, Sinfini Music is going to publish my filmed encounter with Youtube’s most popular pianist, 58 million views and rising. Here’s a trailer.
How to be a French sufi
We’re not quite sure what’s going on here in Fez, but out videographer Lynn Evans Davidson was riveted by it all. Photo by Neil van den Linden.
Talent news: BBC young musician winner signs agency deal
The stunning Laura van den Heijden has joined Cambridge-based Hazard Chase. She’s just 16. Expect to hear lots of Walton. Details here.
Just in: Covent Garde commissions second Written on Skin
They’ve ordered another opera from George Benjamin and Brian Crimp, after the first sold out. 14 JUNE 2013 THE ROYAL OPERA COMMISSIONS A NEW OPERA FROM GEORGE BENJAMIN ANDMARTIN CRIMP FOR THE 2018 SEASON ‘We are delighted that – following the incredible success of Written on Skin, which we co-commissioned, and which now seems to be conquering [...]
Gidon Kremer’s China protégée declines the star trek to success
Last weekend, the great violinist went public again with his disillusionment with the classical star system and the corruption of the festival circuit, views that he first aired here on Slipped Disc. Gidon, as it happens, is in China, working with another of the rising generation of pianists, Chen Sa. Unlike some of her predecessors, Chen [...]
Singing the Changes
Thirty year's ago this month, I agreed to stand in as musical director of a fledgling choir, the Pink Singers, the first lesbian and gay choir in London. The choir had been founded a few months earlier, inspired by the recent visit to London by the New York City Gay Mens Chorus. Show More Summary
Slipped Disc editorial: The city of Berlin spends more on the arts than the British Government
A small fact to chew upon on the last working day before the Government axe falls, for a second time, on British arts. The German capital, Berlin, provivdes just under one billion Euros in annual arts subsidies. The British Government disbursed £1.04 billion last year through Arts Council England, but is cutting that sum year by [...]
Must-watch video: Katherine Jenkins takes on the real opera singers
Una semi-trained voce goes only thus fa! Fascinating compilation.
Only one Tory MP supports the arts (and he’s on his way out)
An early day motion has been put down in the House of Commons in the hope of averting severe cuts to arts funding. It reads: That this House notes the importance of arts and creative industries, with art and culture being at the heart of communities, central to the lives of individuals across the country [...]
The Ring summarised in verse
When I was a student I was introduced to the music of Wagner and one of the ways that I got to know about the Ring was through Anna Russell's The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis) in which she narrated the story in her own inimitable manner, including singing excerpts. Show More Summary
JAM - onwards and upwards
The last year has been something of a rollercoaster for JAM (John Armitage Memorial). The failure to secure a grant for their 2012 season in Scotland last year put the concerts in jeopardy, made a rather significant hole in the organisation's budgets and made it unlikely that the organisation will, in the short term, return to Scotland. Show More Summary
New drink limits at Glastonbury festival. Sort of.
The great Somerset mud-fest has asked patrons to be more careful with their consumption. You can bring your own drinks, but only as much as you can carry. The following message went out to ticket-holders: You must be able to carry your alcohol yourself, without using any wheeled devices, including trolleys, wheelbarrows and wheeled suitcases. [...]
Dude-maker contest is won by an Israeli
The Gistav Mahler conducting competition in Bamberg – which, in 2004, shoved Gustavo Dudamel blinking into the limelight – was won last night by Lahav Shani, 24. Joint second prize went to Tung-Chieh Chuang (Taiwan), 30, and David Danzmayr (Austria), 33. The winner gets 20,000 Euros, a round of engagements and a posse of agents chasing him [...]
Insext (2013). Daniel Wohl #rumble
"A volcanic rumble also persists throughout “Insext” in a way that makes it seem ready to devour the other elements at any moment." Textura
