Madness, death and loss – this tenor never gets the girl
Tenor Stuart Skelton is soon to be performing again in Sydney. This is an interview he have to SoundsLikeSydney last year, on singing Wagner and on some of the characers he has portrayed in opera. If you’re one who believes that in the end, the tenor gets the girl, even a cursory look at the roles sung…
Cuts to school music programmes in Queensland – Simone Young comments
Simone Young is in Brisbane to conduct the Australian Youth Orchestra. She comments on the Queensland state government’s slashing of music education in schools: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/conductor-heats-up-over-axed-programs/story-e6frg8n6-1226436119693
‘Dazzling Virtuoso’ opens in Sydney
Scenes from the opening night of Dazzling Virtuoso – Gabriele Cassone performing the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concerti on the keyed trumpet with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is safe from cuts
Gramophone magazine reports that the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will not be axed with the nation’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister describing the move as ‘unthinkable’: http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/minister-denies-axing-new-zealand-symphony-orchestra
Music in the middle-east – the thoughts of an iranian pianist
The geographic and ethnic boundaries of Western classical music are being extended. Extended with a purpose. Recently, the Australian Chamber Orchestra featured Palestinian-Israeli pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar. They played the music of Schubert and Messiaen. Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are recording the orchestral works of Beethoven. They have perhaps achieved more towards Middle Eastern reconciliation…
Beethoven For All – free download
Click on the link below for your free download of the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 from Decca’s Beethoven for All collection, performed by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim, with soprano Anna Samul, mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier, tenor Peter Sieffert and bass Wolfgang Koch and the Vokalensemble Kolber Dom. http://www.universalmusic.net.au/freedownloads/beethovenforall…
Barenboim Brings Beethoven for All
Beethoven for All. Music of Power, Passion and Beauty, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim pianist and conductor. Decca 478 3513. 2 CD set. The double CD set Beethoven For All- Music of Power, Passion and Beauty from Decca, features pianist, conductor and social activist Daniel Barenboim conducting the West- Eastern Divan…
Avan Yu wins the 2012 Sydney International Piano Competition
Avan Yu, the 24 year old Hong Kong born Canadian entrant has won the 2012 Sydney International Piano Competition. Yu has earned a sweep of prizes which include recording contracts with ABC Classics and Naxos, a major return tour in Australia, the opportunity to perform at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in 2013, the Bochum Festival in 2014 and…
The 2012 Sydney Eisteddfod
Keep up with all the results from the 2012 Sydney Eisteddfod: http://www.sydneyeisteddfod.com.au/Results_2012.htm