Columbus, OH

For lack of taste and talent you would be hard pressed to find an act duller and more banal than this official state presentation by veteran pop persona Arielle Dombasle.

Beethoven abused at Paris Olympic preview

Seven years ago, the Portuguese poet of the piano Maria Joao Pires shocked the classical world by announcing her retirement. It seemed somehow unreasonable as she was playing better than ever and her occasional four-hand partner, Martha Argerich, three years older, showed no sign of slowing down. But Pires said...

A titan of the piano turns 80

The University of Exeter has awarded a degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) to Dougie Scarfe (centre), chief executive of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. The award is for his ‘commitment to breaking down barriers in classical music’.

Summer’s a time for wearing silly hats

The Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires, 80 today, became a global legend when, at a lunchtime public rehearsal in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in 1998, she heard the orchestra start up a different Mozart concerto from the one she was expecting to play. Her face is a picture of panic and...

The nightmare moment of a mighty pianist

New York City, NY

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Cheryl E Preston

Yesterday was the third time this year that an ad stating Chelsea Clinton lives in a beautiful Virginia home popped up on my laptop. My computer did not warn me this was a dangerous site, so this time, I clicked on the link.

Chelsea Clinton is rumored to be living in Virginia but probably still in NYC

Elvis Duran and the Morning Show

Skeery was dozing off during the show today!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have You Ever Fallen Asleep At Work?

The Israeli composer Ella Sheriff, widow of Noam Sheriff who died six years ago, got married in a private New York ceremony yesterday to Noam Ziv, from Jerusalem. Our blessings to the happy couple. Ella has an opera on Alma Mahler coming up at the Vienna Volksoper.

Composer’s widow weds

Ann Arbor, MI

The Society for American Music has announced the death of Charles Hiroshi Garrett, general editor of the 2013 second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Michigan since 2004.

Death of Grove editor, 58

The Hollywood illusionist made a film of himself meeting, supposedly, the composer of Peter and the Wolf. You don’t have to look too closely to see that it’s not Prokofiev but a body double. He was a composer called Ingolf Dahl, a Stravinsky assistant well known in Hollywood.

When Walt Disney faked a meeting with Prokofiev

Francesca Fiore, cellist of the Archos Quartet, has married its first violinist Filip Jeska. We wish them great happiness. The quartet was founded in 2009 by four students at the Musikhochschule Lübeck.

Half a quartet gets wed

The persistent journalist Axel Brüggemann has obtained confirmation of long-running rumours that the artistic director of the Salzburg Festival Markus Hinterhäuser has been blacklisted by the Cafe Bazar, a popular watering hole. Ours not to reason why, but the Salzburg press office has told Axel that ‘apart from...

Salzburg artistic director is banned from local cafe

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Total Apex Sports & Entertainment

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are two of the biggest celebrities in modern times. While much of the happenings between the two involved their marriage and divorce, there are bigger things for them to focus on. Most notably their children.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s Son Diagnosed With Rare Skin Condition

The award-laden Cuarteto Casals of Barcelona has lost its violist Jonathan Brown to a teaching vocation at Colburn in LA. Brown is replaced by his former student Cristina Cordero, 26, who was not yet born when the quartet was formed in 1997. She says it’s a dream come true. ‘It...

Top quartet swaps violist

Lancaster County, PA

NewsByJoshua

Fans of Frisco's Chicken were left reeling as the beloved Peruvian-style eatery announced the closure of all its locations in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The chain, known for its delicious food and strong community values, posted a heartfelt note on its doors, informing customers of the devastating news.

Favorite Chicken Chain Suddenly Closes All Stores, Heartfelt Message Found on Doors

The Spanish conductor Noemí Pasquina has been pronounced winner of the Bucharest International Conducting Competition, directed by John Axelrod. Pasquina, a grduate of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, is married with three small children. She also plays cello and sings blues. Second in the competition was a British...

Just in: Mother of 3 wins conducting competition

Richard Bratby, in a poignant analysis in The Critic of the slow suicide of Arts Council England, concludes with this important point: The arm’s-length principle is one aspect of the Arts Council that needs to be inviolable. He blames its shortening chiefly on the last 14 years of Conservative-led...

How short is an arm in the arts?

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WyoFile

The woman who shot a video of a hydrothermal explosion in Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday morning told WyoFile she and her family were terrified as the blast sent boiling water and rocks skyward, destroying parts of a boardwalk, its guardrail and a nearby bench.

Yellowstone hydrothermal explosion: ‘We were terrified’

The Romanian Cristian Măcelaru will conduct the Orchestre National de France at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games on Friday. ‘I never believed in my life that I would have this opportunity. It’s a very beautiful thing because it’s an event where we all seem to forget about the things that separate us and remember the beauty of the things that help us come together,’ he told Romanian TV.

Who’s conducting the Olympics?

The erudite critic and provocateur Benoît Duteurtre, presenter of Astonish Me, Benoit on France Musique died at his rural holiday home of a heart attack this week, aged 64. An early groupie of Boulez, Stockhausen and Ligeti, he wrote an infleuntial 1995 essay, Requiem pour une avant-garde, and successfully sued Le Monde for calling him a revisionist. The following year he wrote a groundbreaking gay novel, Gaieté parisienne.. It was followed by Les malentendus, a novel about illegal immigants in France.

Sudden death of French gadfly

The Italian soprano Elena Mauti Nunziata has died at the age of 77. She made her name internationally in a 1977 Madrid La traviata that is still considered a benchmark. She sang 26 times at the Met between 1977 and 1979. Interview with Elena here.

Remember flashmobs? This was the best

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