Category Archives: Classical music

BBC Young Musician competition crowns pianist Ryan Wang

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The biennial competition that counts Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Nicola Benedetti as previous victors was won by the 17-year-old Canadian for his performance of Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto

The 2024 BBC Young Musician competition has been won tonight by 17-year-old pianist, Ryan Wang.

Three musicians competed in the final, in which each played a concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Ben Gernon before an audience at Bristol Beacon. Joining Wang was another pianist, Jacky Zhang (also a category finalist in 2022’s competition), and violinist Shlomi Shahaf.

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Three-armed robot conductor makes debut in Dresden

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German city’s Sinfoniker says aim is not to replace humans but to play music human conductors would find impossible

She’s not long on charisma or passion but keeps perfect rhythm and is never prone to temperamental outbursts against the musicians beneath her three batons. Meet MAiRA Pro S, the next-generation robot conductor who made her debut this weekend in Dresden.

Her two performances in the eastern German city are intended to show off the latest advances in machine maestros, as well as music written explicitly to harness 21st-century technology. The artistic director of Dresden’s Sinfoniker, Markus Rindt, said the intention was “not to replace human beings” but to perform complex music that human conductors would find impossible.

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‘The UK is invited’: Bradford reveals 2025 City of Culture lineup

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West Yorkshire city to host magic, music, film and theatre performances celebrating local talent, plus Turner prize

A city centre magic show, the Brontës as you’ve never seen them before, and a bassline house symphony are all part of Bradford’s City of Culture lineup, which its organisers call a celebration of everything that makes the West Yorkshire city great.

Shanaz Gulzar, the creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said the whole of the country was invited to come next year to a place she billed as young, diverse, creative and “the heart of the UK”.

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French court rules Boléro was Ravel’s work alone

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Claimants, backed by composer’s estate, lose claim of co-authorship, described as ‘historical fiction’

A French court has ruled that Boléro, one of the best-known works of classical music in the world, was written by Maurice Ravel alone, in a verdict on a case with big financial stakes that could have taken the work out of the public domain.

Ravel first performed Boléro at the Paris Opera in 1928 and it was an immediate sensation. He died 10 years later and his heirs were paid millions of dollars until the copyright ran out in 2016.

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Tracey Emin and Imelda Staunton get damehoods in king’s birthday honours

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Others honoured from cultural world include the writer Monica Ali, choreographer Wayne McGregor and children’s laureate Joseph Coelho

Tracey Emin, the confessional visual artist, and the stage and screen actor Imelda Staunton are among leading figures from the world of culture to be honoured in the king’s birthday honours, both becoming dames.

Emin, who has survived aggressive bladder cancer and opened her own art school as well as embarking on a new body of work since her diagnosis four years ago, said it was a “brilliant surprise”.

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‘We’re going to blame the women, not our sexism’: bias holding back top female pianists

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Discrimination and misogyny in classical music are denying women opportunities at festivals, venues and in recordings, research finds

A discordant chord over sexism in the classical music world has sounded again. The head of one of the most prestigious competitions is calling for the industry to confront an apparent bias that is holding back female pianists from pursuing concert careers, however brilliant their talent.

Fiona Sinclair, chief executive of the Leeds International Piano Com­petition, told the Observer that female pianists are failing to reach the top of their profession despite an equal number of men and women now training at conservatoires.

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Putin loyalist Valery Gergiev installed as director of Bolshoi theatre

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Star conductor becomes latest Kremlin supporter to lead a major Russian cultural institution

Valery Gergiev, the star Russian conductor and prominent supporter of Vladimir Putin, has been installed as general director of Moscow’s Bolshoi theatre, in the latest appointment of a Kremlin loyalist to a leading cultural institution.

The appointment means that Gergiev, who also heads the rival Mariinsky theatre in St Petersburg, will have artistic control over the two crown jewels of the Russian ballet and opera.

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Vogue World to donate £2m to London-based arts organisations

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National Theatre and Royal Ballet among 21 groups to receive grants from new fund

Vogue World will donate £2m to London-based arts organisations through a newly established fund, Condé Nast has announced.

The star-studded event at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Thursday night was masterminded by the Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, and the Bafta- and Olivier-winning director Stephen Daldry. Its aim was to celebrate London’s heritage as a cultural powerhouse and to raise money for the UK’s cash-strapped performing arts scene.

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Just Stop Oil protesters interrupt opera at Glyndebourne festival

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Three activists use glitter cannons and air horns during performance of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites

Just Stop Oil protesters have interrupted a performance during the Glyndebourne opera festival in East Sussex by letting off glitter cannons and blowing air horns.

The disruption took place during a performance on Thursday of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the festival near Lewes.

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‘I felt so betrayed’: classical musician forced out of London flat after noise complaints

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Fiona Fey, of popular choir Mediaeval Baebes, says her livelihood was threatened by noise abatement order

Musicians are facing a postcode lottery of noise complaints, industry leaders have warned, after a member of the classical chart-topping choir Mediaeval Baebes was handed a noise abatement notice for playing music in her flat.

Fiona Fey was told she had created “excessive noise from the playing of musical instruments that is audible and detectable from your property” and that she must cease making any more “noise from the property in the form of playing loud music”.

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Ukrainian orchestra’s key members refused visas to play in UK

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Promoter claims ‘catastrophe’ has cost it more than £88k and accuses British government of hypocrisy

Key members of a Ukrainian state orchestra were refused visas to play a series of concerts in the UK this month in a “catastrophe” that the promoter claims cost it more than €100,000 (£88,000).

The Khmelnitsky Orchestra was due to tour the UK this month with two shows: The Magical Music of Harry Potter, and The Music From the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit andThe Rings of Power.

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Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese pop pioneer and Oscar-winning composer, dies aged 71

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Sakamoto was one of Japan’s most successful musicians, acclaimed for work in Yellow Magic Orchestra as well as solo albums and film scores

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese musician whose remarkably eclectic career straddled pop, experimentalism and Oscar-winning film composition, has died aged 71.

Sakamoto’s management company said he died on Tuesday. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer.

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Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Ethiopian nun and pianist, dies at 99

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The musician, who spent nearly the last 40 years of her life living in a monastery in Jerusalem, has died

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, an Ethiopian nun, composer and pianist, has died at the age of 99.

According to the country’s state-run news outlet Fana Broadcasting Corporate, she died in Jerusalem. Guèbrou had been living at the Ethiopian Monastery there for almost 40 years.

This article was amended on 27 March 2023 to correct the name of the film The Honky Tonk Nun from The Honky Tonk Man

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National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine announces UK tour

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Biggest tour in orchestra’s history reflects boom in interest in Ukrainian culture since Russian invasion

The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (NSOU) has announced its first UK tour in more than 20 years, and the biggest in its history, to reflect venues and audiences’ newfound interest in Ukrainian culture since the Russian invasion.

During the three-week tour the orchestra will play works by Ukrainian composers such as Borys Lyatoshynsky alongside classical greats such as Finland’s Jean Sibelius and Germany’s Richard Strauss across 17 venues in October and November 2023. No Russian music will be played.

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Last night of the Proms cancelled out of respect for Queen

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After cancellation of Thursday evening’s event, BBC announces final two concerts of the eight-week season will not go ahead

The BBC has announced that both Friday and Saturday’s Proms have been cancelled. Saturday would have been the Last Night, the traditional celebration that concludes the eight-week classical music festival that takes place predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall.

Although the Last Night has been modified in response to public events (the programme was changed in 1997 after the death of Diana Princess of Wales and in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks) this is the first time since the second world war that the final concert has not taken place at all.

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Russian sponsorship row overshadows opening of Salzburg festival

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The festival defends decision not to cancel Teodor Currentzis’s appearance despite links to ‘Putin’s private bank’

The official opening of one of the world’s leading classical music festivals is being overshadowed by the appearance of a conductor whose orchestra and choir are funded by a bank controlled by the Russian government.

Cultural commentators have described Austria’s Salzburg festival, which is also receiving sponsorship money from a foundation with close ties to the Kremlin, of being in the grip of Vladimir Putin’s influence. Along with other classical music events in the region, they argue it has turned itself into a paradise for dubious and often intransparent cultural-corporate partnerships, referred to as “toxic sponsorship”.

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Row over UK child visas as Ukrainian violinist’s three-month wait continues

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Talented musician, 17, stuck in Russian occupied area after British government changes policy on travel rules

A talented 17-year-old violinist living on the frontline in south-east Ukraine has been left waiting three months for a British visa, revealing serious flaws in government promises to help unaccompanied children.

Anastasiia, who lives in the Russian occupied Zaporizhzhia region, where fighting has been intense, has faced constant shelling while waiting to join a family in Hertfordshire.

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‘Impossible’: Bolshoi music director quits over calls to denounce Ukraine invasion

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Tugan Sokhiev resigns without stating his position, saying he could not choose between ‘my beloved Russian and beloved French musicians’

The Bolshoi Theatre’s music director and principal conductor Tugan Sokhiev announced his resignation Sunday, saying he felt under pressure due to calls to take a position on the Ukraine conflict.

The Russian said in a statement he was resigning “with immediate effect” from his post at the Moscow theatre, as well as his equivalent position at France’s Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

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The show can’t go on: Russian arts cancelled worldwide

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Concerts, dance recitals and exhibitions have been postponed indefinitely after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has prompted responses from the cultural sphere, with Russian artists and companies beginning to feel the repercussions of decisions taken by the Kremlin. Not only has Russia been stripped of two prestigious events – the Champions League men’s final and Formula One’s Russian Grand Prix –but an increasing number of performances by Russians are being cancelled worldwide.

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Denounce Putin or lose your job: Russian conductor Valery Gergiev given public ultimatum

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Star conductor and close friend of Putin dropped by his management ahead of deadline to speak out or be fired from Munich Philharmonic

Russia’s star conductor, Valery Gergiev, has been dropped by his management over his close ties to Vladimir Putin as he faces a looming deadline to publicly denounce the Russian president or lose yet another role in his rapidly crumbling career.

The 68-year-old Russian, an old friend and supporter of Putin, has faced increasing pressure to speak out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over the last week. He has been removed from performances around the world and faces more professional punishment if he does not condemn Putin’s aggression in the next 24 hours.

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