How we learn and read music hasn’t changed in hundreds of years.   Until now....
Hummingbird co-founder and music teacher Blake West was inspired to create an entirely new music notation when he saw a lot of his students struggling with how to read music, West tells Business Insider.

Business Insider

The Australia Council extends congratulations to the successful applicants to the Creative Australia fellowships. The successful applicants for each category were:
read more...

Ahead of the 27th annual Australian Performing Arts Centres Association (APACA) conference to be held in Canberra beginning May 26, APACA are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2013 Drover Awards. This includes the categories of ‘Tour of the Year’, ‘Performing Arts Centre of the Year’and ‘Touring Legend’.

The oldest-surviving English grand piano, one of the first ever made, was built by the piano maker Americus Backers in London in 1772 and has now been returned by English Heritage to the home of its former owner, the Duke of Wellington.

BBC

The premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” in 1913 is often cited as a flash point in the divide between new music and its audience.

Washington Post

As a performer working my first job as a music writer, I’ve asked myself a lot of questions about what it is I’m doing. What’s the role of the writer—or, more ominously, the critic—in today’s musical ecosystem?

New Music Box

Don't make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer, she examines the new relationship between artist and fan. Palmer believes we shouldn't fight the fact that digital content is freely shareable — and suggests that artists who give away their music for free can and should be directly supported by fans.

TED

San Francisco Opera wanted to fling open its doors, and find a new audience. The plan it came up with involved the Giants’s stadium – and you could say they hit it out of the park.

Globe and Mail

Chunky Move founder Gideon Obarzanek and prominent indigenous artist Richard Bell are among 11 established and emerging artists to receive prestigious Australia Council fellowships.

SMH

Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne has made an impassioned 11th hour plea that the Annandale Hotel be sold to buyers who will continue it as a live music venue. Receivers Ferrier Hodgson Australia, which took possession of Sydney's most iconic rock venue from previous owners Matt and Dan Rule this year, are believed to be on the verge of announcing the new owner.

SMH

A guitar played by Beatles pair John Lennon and George Harrison has sold for $US408,000 ($A417,500) at a New York auction.

SMH

Camping, a permanent music bowl, even allowing the harbour to flow right through the gardens, are among the ideas under consideration as the NSW government commissions the first master plan for the centuries-old Royal Botanic Gardens.

SMH

Tony Grybowski has hit the ground running as he takes over Australia's peak arts body while it undergoes the biggest changes in its history.

SMH

The winner has been declared for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in the Swedish city of Malmo.

news.com

Millions of dollars are being spent on bizarre university studies into topics such as the emotional impact of visiting tourist sites or the merits of head measuring as $2.3 billion is being stripped from the tertiary education budget to fund the Gonski reforms.

news.com

Contact was made, the Motherboard was blown and everyone was there to Get Lucky when Daft Punk met the Wee Waa show.

news.com

Google  has unveiled a streaming music service called All Access that blends songs users have already uploaded to their online libraries with millions of other tracks for a $10 monthly fee.

The Australian

Indigenous musicians who've broken into the mainstream will pay tribute to original trailblazers Yothu Yindi at the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA).

news.com

A handmade harpsichord has taken its place in the music gallery at Pymble Ladies' College.

Daily Telegraph

Beauty Point Public School has opened a new music room to cater for a rise in the number of students wanting to learn to play an instrument.

Daily Telegraph

"Stop buying music and start borrowing it." That was the message to Australians one year ago when major music-streaming services finally arrived in Australia.

news.com

Crowd  funding isn't charity. Nor should it be confused with welfare. Maria Schneider, considered by some to be the most important living composer in jazz, wants to be clear on that. But of all the musicians prepared to gamble on new methods of delivery, all those from Radiohead to Amanda Palmer hunting for the best tools to counter the disruptive effects of the internet, Schneider has known for longer than most just how satisfying artist control can be.

The Australian

Ten years ago this December, Sydney music association Jazzgroove asked its members to form a big band for its Christmas party.

The Australian

An insider has been appointed to oversee the biggest changes to federal funder the Australia Council for the Arts since it was created.

The Australian

The  Australian String Quartet will begin a national search for two new players to replace violinist Anne Horton and cellist Rachel Johnston, who are leaving to pursue other projects.

Adelaide Now

They are used to performing inside the Opera House - now the Sydney Symphony has played underneath it.

news.com

Lance Ingram, born in Menindee, South Australia in 1925, was principal tenor of Australia in the early 1950s, and then national tenor of France for nearly 20 years.

news.com

Digital broadcasts of community radio stations including 3RRR, 4ZZZ and FBI are likely to cease following the Government’s failure to provide $1.4 million in funding in the federal budget.

The Australian

David Bowie has given Commander Chris Hadfield the thumbs up for the astronaut's zero gravity version of Space Oddity.

The Australian

Elizabeth Layton, Virginia Comerford, Michael Dahlenburg and Celia Craig have combined their considerable talents at violin, viola, cello and oboe to create a new chamber ensemble named Artaria.

Adelaide Now