The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has launched a new strategy on music education, in and out of schools. The low-cost initiative, announced today on London’s South Bank, puts cash into new links between local authorities and grass roots music making.

Two months before a general election, the arts are low in the pecking order and music is bottom of the pile. So it’s good to applaud one politician at least who takes time out of the daily cut and thrust and puts a little song into the people’s hearts.

Read fuller reports here and here.

It has been a busy winter, with artists rushing from one team to another searching for stability. The headline moves were Lang Lang and Dudamel. Here are some more:

Artist                      From                              To

Lang Lang               DG                                 Sony

The Dude                A/Holt                             VW Mgement

Edward Gardner      IMG Artists                      A/Holt

Andreas Scholl       H/Mundi                           Decca

Alexandre Tharaud  H/Mundi                           Virgin Classics

Elizabeth Watts     Sony                                H/Mundi

Kazushi Ono          IMG Artists                       VW Mgement

Simone Dinnerstein Telarc                              Sony

Yundi Li                  DG                                  EMI

Aled Jones                                                     Novello

Jean-Guihen Queyras                                     Opus-3 Artists

Gerald Barry           OUP                                Schott

Ingrid Fliter              H/Parrott                         Intermusica

Jan Vogler                                                     IMG Artists

Feel free to send in any more you may know about.