The week’s concerts in review…

The New York Times reports that a new website, The Opera Platform, will begin free live streaming of opera from 15 of Europe’s most prestigious opera houses this weekend. The opera houses include the Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Berlin Komische Oper and those in Lyon, Turin and Madrid. This three-way collaboration between Opera Europa, which represents…

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

He grabbed a worldwide audience during the closing ceremony of the London Olympics and has had a 40 year career at the pinnacle of performance. Sadly, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber played his final public performance on May 2nd.  A slipped disc has caused the 63-year-old musician to call an end to public performing. The Guardian…