A paintball field might be an odd place to have a gig, but in a country where the last bar closed in the 70s, it beats playing a basement or a backyard. Between having a disproportionate amount of teenagers and a "boys' club mentality", Pakistan seems to have the perfect ingredients for a punk or metal scene. Gigs are furious affairs of hair, sweat and moshing, but the lack of a touring circuit has been detrimental to the creation of a scene. Due to a critical mass of bands and styles, however, one could finally be taking shape.

Source: guardian.co.uk

The increasingly bitter dispute that first erupted early in April when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced it was eliminating 31 categories from the Grammy Awards notched up yet another step on Thursday when a New York law firm announced plans to sue the Academy on behalf of musicians who play Latin jazz, one of the categories that is being dropped.

Source: TheNewYourkTimes

John Walker, one of the founders of 1960s group the Walker Brothers has died, his spokeswoman has confirmed. Walker, 67, passed away at his Los Angeles home after suffering with liver cancer.

Source: The Independent 

They may never win the football World Cup or triumph at the top of the medal table at the Olympics, but they were celebrating in Baku as Azerbaijan was crowned winner of the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time – finishing well clear of the United Kingdom and Ireland entries.

Source: The Independent 

Eurovision Song Contest gets biggest audience for at least a decade despite Blue failing to finish in top 10.

Source: guardian.co.uk

The talking drum is one of the cultural instruments that has endured and survived generations. The history of the talking drum is as old as most of communities; used in notifications or alerts and entertainment in palaces and most ceremonies, Yoruba land is incomplete without its use.

Source: allAfrica.com

Foreign musicians expressed deep impression with the colorful celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of Independence Day, the harmony and nationalism of the Eritrean people and the various artistic programs being staged on a daily basis.

Source: allAfrica.com

An ancient musical instrument, the mbira, used by the Shona people has had an important function in the development of Zimbabwean culture for hundreds of years. But why is it that certain sections of Zimbabwe's society shun the mbira today?

With influence from Western countries such as Britain and the United States of America in the early 19th century, Zimbabweans began to dump their traditional instruments and replaced them with Western instruments such as the guitar, the banjo, the harmonica and accordion.

In urban centres, those who continued to play the mbira, chipendani, chigufe or the hwamanda were now perceived as primitive by those who believed that it is only things coming from the West that would make one more acceptable, more respectable, more modern and more fashionable.

Source: allAfrica.com

The organisers of the Namibian Music Awards have acted quickly to try and defuse controversy over some of this year's choices. Dissent and Namibia's premier music event are joined at the hip, so it was no surprise that some fans were hopping mad. Again!

Most of the sound and the fury this year revolved around the Newcomer and Rap Hip Hop categories. Still, it seems the organisers felt there was merit to some of the criticisms and yesterday announced a number of changes.

Sources: allAfrica.com

The musician, who played alongside Sir Cliff Richard in the British rock and roll group, passed away at his partner's home in Winchester, south west England after battling throat cancer.

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Born some 42 years ago, Rotimi Martins, popularly known as Alariwo of Africa has carved a niche for himself in the music industry. From the time he released his debut album- Yawa go gas, the Cross-over King has churned out a fusion of other songs to the admiration of his teeming fans.

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Singer Lapiro de Mbanga finally received his ‘Freedom To Create Award’ on Music Freedom Day 2011. The Cameroonian singer who has been in prison for almost three years under harsh conditions was able to spend one day outside the prison as he went to court in his home town Mbanga.

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The Aspen Music Festival is welcoming Robert Spano as the new music director. The Music Festival has announced that the 49-year-old is the organization's next music director, filling a post that had been vacant since last April, when David Zinman resigned from the position he had held for 12 years.

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The Norwegian-born musician has been playing ice instruments for over 10 years and is the founder of Norway's annual Ice Music Festival in Geilo. His love of ice music began in his 20s when he was invited to play at a concert inside a frozen waterfall.

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Collins, who has sold more than 150 million records in his 40-plus years in the music business, says hearing problems, a dislocated vertebra and nerve damage in his hands are making it difficult for him to continue his career.

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The 26th Fajr International Music Festival wrapped up on Sunday evening by announcing the winners in the different sections during a ceremony held at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall.

A group of Iranian bands and six bands coming from Armenia, India Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Slovakia and Greece competed in different halls in Tehran during the event, which ran from February 21 to 27.

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Yael Naim won best female performer of the year at the Victoires de la Musique music awards in France. Naim was born in France to Jewish-Tunisian parents. At the age of four, her parents made aliyah to Israel. She served in the Israeli Defense Forces before travelling back to France. Naim has released albums in Hebrew, English and French.

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Irish traditional musicians and composers look to the annual TG4 Gradam Ceoil awards as a barometer, a measure of the state of the music today and a peep into what the future may hold. This year’s winners’ list is refreshingly eclectic and outward-looking, and includes two women who have opened up new ground in the fields of singing and composition.

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The sound made by the Dunvant Male Choir is a cornerstone of Welsh musical culture; it's the soundtrack to everything from the chapel to the rugby field to the rowdy pub singalong. It's also something I particularly cherish, both as a local girl who has long flown the nest – and as the elder sister of the choir's 28-year-old conductor, Jonathan Rogers, who is one of the young men taking this centuries-old musical tradition into the future.

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An unusually large number of teens were milling about Metra's Millennium Station when one of them started singing the old spiritual "Run Children Run" and was joined by another. And another. And another. Soon 85 members of the Chicago Children's Choir were in full voice, performing a South African chant, a Cuban folk song and a classical a cappella tune while seizing the surprised attention of passersby, retail workers and uniformed officers. When Yo-Yo Ma strolled out from the adjacent Starbucks and into the crowd with cello in hand, someone in the audience gasped, "Oh, my goodness!"

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It was 50 years ago that the then 18-year-old Maurizio Pollini won the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Held once every five years, the competition's stature is evidenced not only by its winners – Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimerman followed Pollini – but by its losers: both Vladimir Ashkenazy and Mitsuko Uchida were runners-up.

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For decades, a chunk of Haitian history sat, untouched, on an obscure shelf in the Library of Congress in Washington: huge piles of aluminum discs in little cardboard jackets containing more than 1,500 recordings made in Haiti in the 1930s by famed folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.

Source: The Globe and Mail View item Issue number 349

I was lucky to arrive in Berlin just in time to catch the last five concerts in a two-week music festival devoted to the music of Pierre Boulez, in honor of the great composer, conductor and cultural icon's 85th birthday earlier this year.

Source: NPRmusic View item Issue number 349

It's been a rough couple of years in Juarez. Known as the murder capital of Mexico, Juarez is plagued by drug-related violence and organized crime. A quarter of the population is estimated to have fled, and thousands of businesses have closed.But the Juarez Symphony Orchestra plays on to grateful audiences that choose violins as a refuge from violence.

Source: NPRmusic View item Issue number 349

As the profile of music as a tool for social transformation grows ever higher, more organisations appear to be latching on to the idea that music can bring peace. The sorry truth is that, much as we'd like it to, it can't.

Source: The Independent  View item Issue number 349

The liquidation of the Honolulu Symphony Society does not mean the end to live symphonic music performances in Hawaii. Read more: Hawaii still may hear symphonic music.

Source: Pacific Business News  View item Issue number 349

Music and protest have always gone hand in hand. But, as Britain's youth get militant, is anyone giving voice to their anger? John Harris meets the one man rising to the challenge.

Source: Guardian  View item Issue number 349

The winners of the Limelight Awards 2010 were announced at a ceremony last night at the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House. The ceremony was hosted by the editor of Limelight Francis Merson and conductor Guy Noble. The Limelight Awards are Australia's only prize for fine music voted by the listening public.

Source: MCAnews  View item Issue number 349

The event was organised after an interruption of 12 years.The jury of the competition has proclaimed the conclusions of its deliberations Saturday November 20, 2010 on the occasion of the closing ceremony of the Kolatier.

The Scottish Music Centre is delighted to announce that three of our composer members, Sally Beamish, Anna Meredith and Oliver Searle have been selected as participants in New Music 20x12.

New Music 20x12 presents twenty outstanding pieces of new music which will feature centre stage of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad as London hosts the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Extraordinary contemporary presentation within the XVI Latinamerican Music Education Seminar in Loja, Ecuador

An extroardinary concert with the Loja Symphony Orchestra,(Ecuador) conducted by Andrei Vasileuski, was held on October 28, 2010 at the Bolivar University Theater. The program included the Guitar Concerto from Luis Abraham Delgadillo (1886-1961), nicaraguan composer, played by costarican guitarist Nuria Zùñiga.

Public Enemy's Chuck D made an appearance at the MTV Africa Music Awards, leading a group rendition of Fight The Power. The rapper paid tribute to Nigerian Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, and recognised the tradition of music being used to fight injustice.

Source: The Independent  View item Issue number 349

The Observer's classical music critic looks back on a good year for Mahler, opera at the movies and legends of the past on YouTube.

Source: Guardian  View item Issue number 349