Rae Woodland, who is thought to be the first English soprano to sing with Luciano Pavarotti (La Sonnambula at Covent Garden, in 1965), has died at the age of 91.

She worked and recorded extensively with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears and became a much-loved teacher at their young artist programme in Aldeburgh. She also sang opposite Janet Baker in the first BBC Proms performance of Mahler’s second symphony, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Though never among the big stars of her era, Rae (as you can hear below) had a lovely, rich soprano voice and was notably popular among her fellow-singers and her students.

The Telegraph reports in its obituary that, as a child, Rae was among the early successes of reconstructive surgery for a harelip. The operation left hardly any trace and she enjoyed a rich and full career in the public eye.

The first sign of artistic dissent within Russia to the anti-gay laws has been articulated by Maria Maksakova, a mezzo-soprano working at the Mariinksy Theatre and a member of a celebrated operatic dynasty. At the Mariinsky, she has sung orabella (Cosi fan tutte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Frugola (Il tabarro), The Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos),Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann) andEboli (Don Carlos). Maria, 36, is also a presenter on Kultura TV and a member of the state parliament  for  President Putin’s United Russia party (according to her Wiki entry).

In a video forum, she spoke out against the ‘extremely negative consequences’ of anti-gay laws. She added: ‘Those artists, who are now in Europe, perform in various theaters around the world, and our wonderful colleagues come across great difficulties of discriminatory character, because they get thrown out from the performances and orchestras.’

Here’s the video clip:

Press release:

The 2014 Category Finalists are:

Strings

William Dutton (18) – violin

Anna Im (16) – violin

Elizaveta Tyun (18) – violin

Roberto Ruisi (17) – violin

Juliana Myslov (17) – harp

Keyboard

Martin Bartlett (17) – piano

Ning Hui See (17) – piano

Hayley Parkes (18) – piano

Julian Trevelyan (15) – piano

Isata Kanneh-Mason (17) – piano

Woodwind

Hannah Foster (17) – flute

Daniel Shao (18) – flute

Jessika Gillam (15) – saxophone

Nick Seymour (17) – saxophone

Sophie Westbrooke (15) – recorder

Brass

Ellena Newton (14) – trombone

Isobel Daws (14) – trombone

Matilda Lloyd (18) – trumpet

Lewis Bettles (18) – trombone

William Thomas (13) – trumpet

Percussion

Matthew Farthing (17)

Elliott Gaston-Ross (15)

Jess Wood (16)

Tom Highnam (17)

Stefan Beckett (18)

The category finals will take place on 3-7 March 2014 in the Dora Stoutzker Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. The semi-final follows on 9 March, before the BBC Young Musician Final on 18 May 2014 at Usher Hall in Edinburgh. BBC Young Musician will be broadcast extensively on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3.

For the first time, BBC Young Musician adds a new Jazz Award. Running alongside the established classical music format, the first ever BBC Young Musician Jazz Award will comprise two audition stages followed by a Final on 8 March 2014 to be held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The Jazz Award finalists will be announced in early February.

This comes our way from a Moscow insider:

Two members of the Bolshoi staff are discussing the candidates for chief conductor.

What do you think about Vladimir Jurowski?, – asks one of them. – Well?

He is good, – answers another.- But he is obviously too busy, has a lot of obligations and that’s why it will be hardly possible.

Then may be his younger brother Dimitry?

He is still too young, not experienced enough.

Then maybe their father Mikhail?

Oh, no! Impossible – I am sure he is a Jew.