No sooner was Mathieu Gallet appointed head of French radio than the head of music, Jean-Pierre Le Pavec, promptly resigned. His replacement is Jean-Pierre Rousseau, 58, director of the royal philharmonic orchestra of Liège, in Belgium. He is a thoughtful programmer and, of course, a name to conjure with.

In the long tail of the Pittsbark Symphony’s current auditions for musical pups, we are obliged to inform you that the Baltimutt Symphony is advertising for one of wo/man’s best friends to play a non-speaking role in a Shakespearian concert.

You think we’re kidding? Click here.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

h/t Anne Midgette

Sylvia Jiang, 18, of Auckland, New Zealand, has been offered full scholarships to Juilliard, Yale School of Music, Peabody and NEC. Eat your hearts out Tiger Mums everywhere.

Sylvia has been playing the piano since she was four years old.

Here’s how she got the offers.

There were auditions yesterday for two vacancies in the second violins.

The successful candidates were Ms Adela Frasineanu and Mr Benjamin Morrison.

You read it here first.

You couldn’t make it up. You really couldn’t. This orchestra has gone to the dogs.

The PSO is auditioning 10 canines to perform with the symphony….
Click here for the full story.

Slipped Disc has moved to a standalone site. The address is www.slippedisc.com – note the single d.

The content is unchanged and the aim is to make the reader experience more friendly in a number of ways.

We hope you enjoy the new site, which will continue in association with artsjournal.com.

There are still a few teething problems – comments do not seem to be getting through – but we hope to resolve them by the end of the day.

Click here for our first exclusive of the day.

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He’s an old conductor dragged out of retirement to perform for the Queen – as if she’d prefer one maestro to another – in Paolo Sorrentino’s imminent new film The Early Years (La Giovinezza).

Wonder who he’ll imitate. Sir Colin?

Some 40 people staged an anti-Putin demonstration outside Sanders Theatre at Harvard during a concert by Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi. One young man staged a demonstration on stage. Spivakov allowed him to make a statement, then asked him to leave. When the student refused, he was arrested. New video here.

Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the German musical reference work, has announced it will go online, starting in 2017.

By which time, Wikipedia may have rendered it redundant.

Shocking news from Stockholm of the death of Malik Bendjelloul, director of Searching for Sugar Man, which won a 2013 first-timer’s Oscar. Malik was found dead. Stockholm police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

Searching for Sugar Man traces the life of  Sixto Rodriguez, an impoverished American singer who, unawares, achieved celebrity status in South Africa. Bendjelloul, who came from Ystaad, also made TV documentaries about Elton John, Bjork and Kraftwerk.

Great loss.

Nobody knows more about the decade than Whispering John Schaefer of WQXR. His selection of ten electronic landmarks, faded and almost forgotten, is just impossible to resist. What’s stopping you? Click here.

William Salchow, America’s pre-eminent maker of bows for the stars, has passed away, aged 88. His son and grandson continue the craft.