In a rare cosmopolitan move, the Royal Northern Sinfonia has appointed Thorben Dittes as its next director, and as head of classical music at Sage Gateshead.

Dittes, 35, has been in charge of the Glasgow-based Scottish Ensemble for the past four years. He joins incoming music director Lars Vogt.

Miriam Barth, 22, a student at the Lausanne conservatoire, is pedalling 750 kilometres along the mighty river, giving recitals as she goes, in a highly personal protest against human trafficking. Read here (in German).

h/t: Viola Viola

This is Dmitri Bashkirov on peak form, upright and prone.