Ode to St Cecilia – image gallery from the church of St Cecilia in Rome

Did the ailments of composers influence the music they wrote?! Did Tavener’s life-threatening inherited disease Marfan’s Syndrome initiate the otherworldly sound of his music? Did Beethoven’s deafness cause him to focus on his physiological rhythms? Click here to read Tom Service’s feature in The Guardian.  

Fifteen of the most offbeat works in classical music – can you pick them?! From the baroque to the contemporary these composers thought outside the square in creating these works. Read the feature in Classical-Music.com.

There is a change of leadership at The Australia Council for the Arts, as CEO Kathy Keele steps down at the end of the year. The government’s central arts funding and advisory body distributes more than $160 million each year in funding for arts organisations and individuals, nationally. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/australia-council-chief-kathy-keele-steps-down/story-e6frg8n6-1226519446195

With opera companies facing financial constraints and grappling with new ways of finding funds, Gillian Moore in BBC Music Magazine looks at the merits of presenting opera in the concert hall.