IMC MUSIC WORLD NEWS     The weekly music news bulletin of the International Music Council Produced by the International Music Council with the collaboration of the Music Council of Australia   Music World News is emailed to subscribers every week free of charge. It reaches more than 70 countries on all five continents. TO REGISTER, click here. To get access to the news stories, you must complete a very simple registration process. TO UNREGISTER, please click on the "reply" button with the words "unsubscribe" written on the top of the BODY TEXT. TO SUBMIT A NEWS STORY, click here. TO VIEW LAST WEEKS MUSIC WORLD NEWS, click here. SELECT YOUR PREFERRED LANGUAGE by clicking on the appropriate flag. All text available in that language will appear in that language. All text not available in that language will show in English or the language in which received. TO READ FULL DETAILS OF ANY STORY BELOW. To the side of each title, flags show the language in which the story is available. Click on your flag of choice. You will be taken to the story or to a hyperlink that takes you to the story. This bulletin can be read at any time by visiting http://www.mca.org.au/mwn_bulletin.php. CONTENTS. Music World News is divided into these sections. Scroll through or, if you wish, click on one of the sections to be taken straight to those stories. Music the artform and artists Music the industry Policy, research and politics Music education Technologies and media The rest

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Eschenbach turns 70 - an interview

Source: Die Welt

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

A life in music - A teacher remembered

The other day, I found myself rummaging through a closet, searching for my old viola. This wasn’t how I’d planned to spend the afternoon. I hadn’t given a thought to the instrument in years. I barely remembered where it was, much less how to play it. But I had just gotten word that my childhood music teacher, Jerry Kupchynsky — “Mr. K.” to his students — had died.

Source: New York Times

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Ariel Ramirez dies; Argentine composer wrote 'Misa Criolla'

Argentine pianist and composer Ariel Ramírez, 88, who died of a neurological condition Feb. 18 in Buenos Aires, wrote his signature work "Misa Criolla" (Creole Mass) in the early 1960s, just as the Second Vatican Council permitted the celebration of the Catholic Mass in the vernacular.

Source: Washington Post

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Maazel back to Munich?

Well, that was a short retirement. Lorin Maazel, 79, who appeared to view his tenure at the New York Philharmonic as the culmination of an illustrious career, may be returning to Munich for a three-year, interim term as music director of the Munich Philharmonic.

Source: Washington Post

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

The thorny business of conducting in France

There is apparently trouble brewing among the leadership of the Orchestre national de Lyon.

Source: Ionarts

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Writer tries to understand composers -- by becoming one

Now, nearly a year after the first meeting of "Compose Yourself," I still think about the experience. From time to time, I run into a few of the classmates of mine who had similar backgrounds, and we always have the same conversation. "Have you written anything since the course?" they ask. No is usually the answer. It was more about the learning experience than about actually writing music, we both agree.

Source: New Music Box

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov follows his intuition

Composer Osvaldo Golijov tells of how he was watching a Montreal concert of the music of Astor Piazzolla on DVD.

Source: The Star

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

How Kronos reinvented string quartets

Credit for intuiting that the medium could be opened wider — in a sense reinventing the string quartet as a vehicle of limitless stylistic breadth — belongs to the violinist David Harrington, who founded the Kronos Quartet in 1973.

Source: New York Times

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

The touring musician: avoiding jet lag and other traps

Christian Tetzlaff will fly more than 17,000 miles, visit three continents and cross more than a dozen time zones over the span of two weeks. But when the acclaimed German violinist performs on a Carnegie Hall stage this weekend after a stint that has included stops in Rome, Seoul, South Korea, and Philadelphia, he expects the thrill of the music to blunt the jetlag.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Peter Gabriel says, ‘I’ll Sing Yours, You Sing Mine’

For many singer-songwriters there comes a time to make an album of other people’s songs. That’s what Peter Gabriel does with “Scratch My Back” (Virgin), which is being released on Tuesday in the United States. It’s his first solo studio album in eight years in a multitasking career: technology projects, musical collaborations, humanitarian initiatives, parenthood.

Source: New York Times

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Singer from Guatemala to give concert in Chile for earthquake victims

Source: Yahoo (EFE)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Chopin celebrations start in Valdemossa

Source: Yahoo

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

La Unión's Fundación del Cante will manage 2011 festival

La Fundación "Cante de las Minas" de La Unión, presentada hoy en rueda de prensa, gestionará el festival internacional de flamenco a partir de 2011, y tras el verano elegirá a su gerente entre las personas que se dedican en España a la gestión de eventos de este tipo.

Source: Yahoo (EFE)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Muse and Kasabian tied for top spot at the NME music awards with two prizes apiece.

Blur and Arctic Monkeys also scored wins at the music magazine's annual awards, where male bands dominated despite expectations in the pop world that 2010 will be another big year for female solo acts.

Source: Reuters

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Wall Street is alive with the sound of ... Chopin?

Wall Street might not seem like the obvious location for a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of romantic composer Frederic Chopin, but it's the venue this week for 200 hours of Chopin performances by an eclectic line-up of pianists.

Source: Reuters

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Colombian music legend Jorge Villamil Cordovez dies age 80

One of Colombia's most important music composers Jorge Villamil Cordovez passed away in his home in Bogota, at the age of 80.

Source: El Tiempo (Bogota)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

ISCM World New Music Days Festival in Sydney

Sydney’s hosting of the ISCM World New Music Days Festival from 30 April to 9 May heralds the first time in the 88-year history of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) that the prestigious event will be held in the Southern Hemisphere. It will also be the largest festival of contemporary music ever held in Australia.

Source: Music Council of Australia

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Legends of rock deliver a class act

AC/DC, long the pre-eminent musical heroes of blue-collar Australia will finish their career with the distinction of having won over fans of all classes and ages.

Source: Courrier Mail

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Prelude to a hit

Classical music is cool again. How do we know? Because cool people say so.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Ojos de Brujo: wizards make magic

Ojos de Brujo, the award-winning Barcelona-based collective, is a band without leaders. Percussionist and beat-boxer Maxwell Wright calls it a laboratory for making music. "If we have a common denominator, I guess it is a shared love of flamenco," he says.

Source: The Australian

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Zimbabwe: Apostolic Music Awards in the Pipeline

Inaugural awards to honour apostolic music groups that would have excelled during the course of the year will soon be unveiled.

Source: The Herald

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Sauti Za Busara 'Panders' to World sound, loses its Swahili appeal

The organisers of the Sauti za Busara music festival held in Zanzibar recently must be praised for pulling it off despite what most people considered a major hitch.

Source: East African

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Rwanda: Music pirates arrested

The suspects paraded behind the equipment they used in pirating music. Police hsd mounted a crackdown on piracy.

Source: The New Times

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

«Africa for Haïti» - solidarity concert of African musicians

Source: Fasozine (Ouagadougou)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Jazz in Karthago - a federating melting pot

Source: La Presse (Tunis)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Association El Mouahidia takes care of the heritage of Nedroma

Source: La Tribune (Algiers)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the artform and artists

Madagascar: Interview with singer Mia

Source: Midi Madagaskar

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the industry

Metropolitan Opera hikes its ticket prices

The Met had to scale back some of its ambitious plans for this season because of the recession. But Mr. Gelb said that while administrative cost cuts remained in effect, “We are not skimping on our presentations” for the coming season.

Source: New York Times

Posted: 02-03-2010 Music the industry

Music biz back to playing the blues

Since the days of Napster (version 1.0), the music industry has been mired in a funk. But then legitimate digital music services came along to help salvage sales, and the industry rejoiced. Now comes a return of bad news.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the industry

EMI appeal Men At Work plagiarism ruling

EMI Music is appealing against a court ruling that found Australian band Men at Work plagiarised a Girl Guides' song in their 1983 hit Down Under.

Source: BBC News

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the industry

Embezzlement at the Palau de la Musica under Millet amounts to 34 million

Source: Yahoo (EFE)

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the industry

Performers see tiny returns from streaming music

As the music business continues to watch traditional revenue streams slow or even evaporate, a good deal of faith often has been placed in what's hailed as a panacea for the industry's ills: online streaming.

Source: Reuters

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the industry

Black Eyed Peas make history again on U.S. chart

The Black Eyed Peas on Thursday became the first group in 19 years to send three singles from one album to the top spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

Source: Reuters

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music the industry

Botswana: Culture Spears find gold in piracy

Piracy seems to be working wonders for Culture Spears in Zimbabwe. The Botswana super group found out during their recent trip to Harare that not only are Harare streets flooded with fake Culture Spears' DVDs and music, but they also realised that where ever they travelled almost every Zimbabwean seemed to identify them as Culture Spears musicians, thanks to the cheap fake DVDs and CDs in the city.

Source: Mmegi

Posted: 02-03-2010 Policy, Research and Politics

Audiences hate modern classical music because their brains cannot cope

For decades critics of modern classical music have been derided as philistines for failing to grasp the subtleties of the chaotic sounding compositions, but there may now be an explanation for why many audiences find them so difficult to listen to.

Source: The Telegraph

Posted: 03-03-2010 Policy, Research and Politics

More than bums on seats – Australians are participating in the arts

Over 16 million Australians are actively participating in the arts, according to new research released by the Australia Council for the Arts.

Source: Australia Council

Posted: 03-03-2010 Policy, Research and Politics

Tehran concert is cancelled over women musicians

Iranian authorities have cancelled a traditional music concert in the western city of Tabriz because two members of the band were women, the ISNA news agency reported.

Source: Gulf Times

Posted: 03-03-2010 Policy, Research and Politics

Marching to the top because they want their rock'n'roll

Central Melbourne came to a standstill yesterday as more than 10,000 musicians and music fans hit the streets in support of the city's live music scene.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Posted: 03-03-2010 Policy, Research and Politics

Germany: The conference of music councils of the Länder adopts position paper 'Children need music'

Source: German Music Council

Posted: 03-03-2010 Music education

The music schools of Medellin: An oboe for a gun

For years, the neighborhoods that sprawl over the mountains in northern Medellin, known locally as “Las Comunas,” have been consumed by poverty, unemployment, and gang warfare. For young people, the lure of crime can be overwhelming. Pressure to join armed gangs for protection and to earn a livelihood is constant, and with a lack of other viable options, the young people from these communities are often drawn into the world of violence and crime. However, amidst all of this chaos and violence comes a breath of fresh air, in the form of the rather eerie sound of beautiful classical music flowing through the air in the Barrio Popular #1 neighborhood.

Source: Colombia Reports

Posted: 03-03-2010 Technologies and media

Germany: Music downloads market grew by 40%

Source: Bitkom

Posted: 03-03-2010 Technologies and media

UK's BBC to cut radio, web spending; redirect cash

Britain's state-backed public broadcaster the BBC [BBC.UL] is to close radio stations, slash spending on its Web site and cap other parts of its budget in response to pressure from commercial rivals and politicians.

Source: Reu

Posted: 03-03-2010 Technologies and media

Rob Swift kicks down some top DJ knowledge

If hip-hop was the human body, the DJ would be its heartbeat, pumping blood and music at varying beats per minute. Without the DJ, the body fails to receive the essential sounds that keep it flowing through life. And once the heartbeat stops, the body dies, the music is over.

Source: Wired

Posted: 03-03-2010 Technologies and media

Medellin hip-hoppers get behind the camera

After months of storyboarding, filming and editing, hip hop musicians from the Medellin neighborhood of Moravia on Friday publicly screened videos that for them represent ideas of local identity and collective memory within their community.

Source: Colombia Reports

Posted: 03-03-2010 Technologies and media

Australia: Radio music price cap challenged in the High Court

Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), on behalf of Australian recording artists and recording labels, has launched a constitutional case in the High Court challenging 40 year old legislation which unfairly limits the price that the commercial radio industry pays for the recordings it broadcasts.

Source: Phonographic Performance Company of Australia

Posted: 03-03-2010 The rest

Vancouver Games anthem gets French-language redo

The Vancouver Games anthem "I Believe" has been reshot to include French-language lyrics to appease Quebec critics of the Vancouver Games broadcast.

Source: Reuters

Posted: 03-03-2010 The rest

Sting to give concerts in Latin America to promote education cause

Source: Vive in Musica

Posted: 03-03-2010 The rest

Zimbabwe: Music Crossroads launches Anti-Graft music competition

Music Crossroads Zimbabwe Trust, a life skills and music training organisation, is calling for local artistes to compete in a music competition themed on the issue of fighting corruption.

Source: Zimbabwe Independent