violinist Min-Jin Kym looses instrument

Three people were arrested for stealing a 1.2 million-pound ($1.85 million) antique violin from an internationally acclaimed musician while she stopped for a snack at a London sandwich bar. South Korean violinist Min-Jin Kym was eating inside the sandwich shop outside Euston station on Nov. 29 when she noticed that her black violin case — which contained the 300-year-old Stradivarius as well as two expensive bows...MORE

Choir Conductor John Alldis has died

Choral director and conductor, John Alldis, was 81.  Obituary

John Alldis

2010 Grammy® Nomination for Best Surround Sound Album

Reference Recordings reports that "Prof." KEITH O. JOHNSON has received his eighth Grammy nomination! First release in Surround Sound. (Category 94 Best Surround Sound Album For vocal or instrumental albums. Albums only)


BRITTEN'S ORCHESTRA Michael Stern & Kansas City SymphonyKeith O. Johnson, surround mix engineer; Keith O. Johnson, surround mastering engineer
David Frost, surround producer, Reference Recordings.

Cambridge Singers for Christmas Listening

There is no composer currently alive who has been more closely associated with Christmas music than John Rutter. For more than 30 years his seasonal choral music has gained him an international following. This major new album of over a dozen new compositions and arrangements together with Rutter's selection of favourite carols was recorded at London's Cadogan Hall and is the first all new Christmas release from Rutter's celebrated Cambridge Singers for 20 years. Accompanying the superb choir are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and with contributions from the Farnham Youth Choir this is an album with a sales potential far, far beyond the average choral release. The Cambridge Singers are indeed in fine voice and bring to light the soaring melodic cadences of the new Rutter works like "Rejoice And Be Merry", "New Year" and "I Wish You Christmas". His new arrangements are strong too though there's only so much he could do with an over-jolly melody like "Nos Galan (New Year's Eve)", better known to you and I as "Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly". Having said that, the haunting Appalachian carol "I Wonder As I Wander" and the quite beautiful "The Shepherd's Carol" are two of the finest examples of Christmas music you'll hear this or any year. Reviewed by Tony Cummings

SHOP here for Rutter's A Christmas Festival 2008

Rutter on the WEB

SHOP The Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter

John Rutter Collection

The John Rutter Christmas Album

Soprano Helen Boatwright, famed for her pioneering performances of the songs of American composer Charles Ives, has died in upstate New York at 94.

Born: November 17, 1916 - Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA, died in upstate New York at 94, 2 DEC 2010.

The American American soprano and teacher, Helen Boatwright (née Strassburger), grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin during the Depression. She began her training with Anna Shram Irving. Later she studied voice with Professor Marion Sims (1892-1980) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio), receiving the bachelor degree in music in 1939 and the master's degree in music in 1943.

Bio | Search Amazon.com for Helen Boatwright

Tenor Peter Hofman dies at age 66

German tenor Peter Hofmann, who became famous for his performances of Richard Wagner operas, died Tuesday, 29 November 2010. He died at a hospital in Wunsiedel in Bavaria. The mass-circulation newspaper Bild also reported Hofmann's death after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Hofmann made his name performing at the annual Bayreuth festival celebrating the music of Richard Wagner. He toured stages across the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Wikipedia Bio | Search Amazon.com for Peter Hofmann

Fight for arts and music in public schools

Today in the United States of America a musical prodigy was born. A gifted composer or performer. His latent talents, however, were never discovered because there were no arts or music education programs in his school. Taunted by his peers in the 2020's because he could not express himself he tried and became addicted to recreational drugs. In the 2030's his dependency led to several taxpayer supported imprisonments and failed state rehabilitation programs. He died unknown and unrecognized.

During the 1960's and 1970's the majority of public schools in the United States had regular music and art programs as part of their curriculum. Art teachers and music teachers were employed by the schools and children as young as Kindergarten received instruction in both music and art....MORE

Classical Music HISTORY

Your daily dose of classical music history in an easy to take time capsule. A glance of what was going on in classical music history for each day of the year. Birth and death dates of composers and performers and first performances of famous works. CLASSICALmanac chronicles events in classical music history for every day of the year.



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The WarnerNuzova duo

The WarnerNuzova duo — cellist Wendy Warner and pianist Irina Nuzova — makes its recording debut with five late-Romantic Russian works on an album dedicated to the memory of one of Warner’s mentors, the illustrious Russian cellist, composer, and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (1927–2007). Fittingly, two of the pieces were originally written for Rostropovich: Nikolai Miaskovsky’s rarely heard Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 81; and Alfred Schnittke’s Baroque-inspired Musica nostalgica, for violoncello and piano. This is the first American recording of Miaskovsky’s mellifluous Sonata No. 2, a work that’s rarely performed outside of Russia. It will be a discovery for most listeners. Alexander Scriabin’s Etude Op. 8, No. 11, is a beautiful encore piece brimming with chromatic harmonies; Sergei Prokofiev’s Adagio from Ten Pieces from Cinderella, Op. 97b, is based on a duet from his ballet; and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19, is a riveting four-movement work from the same period as his Second Piano Concerto.


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Dame Joan Sutherland dies, age 83

Soprano Joan Sutherland, whose purity of tone and brilliant vocal display made her one of the most celebrated opera singers of all time, has died at 83 after a four-decade career that won her praise as the successor to legend Maria Callas. Her family said she died Sunday 10 OCT 2010, at her home near Geneva after a long illness.

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Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution in the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. She died in Switzerland on 10 October 2010. One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance as Alcina. She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "pin point staccatos, a splendid trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century", while Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven". Her highest note was a high F sharp in altissimo....(Wikipedia Bio)

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