A nameless singer attending Sunday’s awards has been sharing its highs and lows. Her lowest of the low…. this may come as a surprise… was the me-me-me speech by the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera.

Read here.

Tribeca Talks After the Movie: "Wagner's Dream" - 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

And more failures here.

Already head of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, Bartoli has been announced as artistic director of a new baroque ensemble, Les Musiciens du Prince, at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

She has signed on until 2021.

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A fellow of the Royal College of Organists and an associate of the Royal School of Church Music received a four-month suspended prison sentence after police found 29 images of boys aged 14 to 16 on his computer.

John Barnard is presently suspended as head of choir at John Keble Church, Edgware. He is a retired French and German teacher at London private school Godolphin and Latymer.

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We regret to report the death of Marc Claesen. The cause is unknown. He leaves a partner, Ester Salemi.

Marc, a baritone, sang major roles in Flemish Opera, Dutch National Opera, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and elsewhere. Latterly, he was artistic director of Arte Duct.

Marc Claesen

Speaking tonight on Classic FM, the prime minister talks up his government’s work on music education: ‘As a government we’ve put something like £390m into music education. We’ve created these hubs around the country so that more children get the chance to learn a musical instrument. I think it is important. There’s more to be done.’

But he goes on to say that reading, writing and numeracy must come first. Arts and sport can follow when those basics are nailed down.

He says he always weeps in The Sound of Music.

Oh, dear. More here. 

 

The Classic FM Interview with David Cameron.

The New Zealand-born conductor Gary Brain has died in Paris, aged 72.

Gary was a percussionist in Wales, Ulster and at the Royal Opera House, London. He became principal timpanist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra but on a flight to the US a suitcase fell from an overhead locker and crushed his wrist beyond repair. He retrained as a conductor, working with Rafael Kubelik and Lorin Maazel.

He won a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for reviving th music of the Swiss-Polish composer Czeslaw Marek and went on to make quite a few recordings for Toccata Classics. Martin Anderson remembers him here.

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The cellist Aristide de Plessis informs us:

A colleague of mine recently acquired a 200-year-old cello. She headed to Zurich from Johannesburg to do an audition. Being a student, she had no choice but to check it in as hold baggage as she could not afford a second seat from one hemisphere to another.

Not only did the airline lose her cello in Paris and deliver it to Zurich two days too late, the case was badly damaged with small chunks missing, and the fingerboard had completely fallen off. A closer inspection revealed a nasty, fresh crack on the top, which will devalue the instrument considerably.

The victim of the accident has asked to remain anonymous.

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UPDATE: Credit to AirFrance. They contacted us within an hour and are handling the complaint.

She’s unwell again and has been advised not to travel, the LSO has announced.

Her replacement this Thursday is Baiba Skride.

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He can rest easy now.
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‘Passepied’ by the Punch Brothers, courtesy of friend Greg Shea at WGBH.
Chris Thile leads on mandolin.

That’s what is says in the Frankfurter story. Two winners and Jonas failed to show respect.

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Another bummer here.

The devaluation of music education took a fresh descent today when a boy of 11 was awarded the Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL), equivalent to the final year of a first music degree.

The boy, Curtis Elton, has been playing piano since he was 3.

He has twice appeared as a contestant in Britain’s Got Talent, where he was dubbed Mini Mozart.

His music role models are Liberace and Lang Lang.

You can see where this is heading.

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Edward Gardner was to have given his last concert as principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchetra, but we hear he’s agreed to extend his commitment for another year to give the orchestra more time to choose a new music director.

Andris Nelsons is proving a hard act to replace. Boston may have to face up to the same problem soon.

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