Slipped Disc

Shocking survey laid out in the Church Times by the The Royal School of Church Music. Most music in churches in England is unpaid: 92 per cent of choirs, 50 per cent of piano/keyboard players, […]

The Fremch organ composer Maurice Duruflé (1902-86) was a shy and retiring man who did little to promote his music other than playing it in church. This is the composer playing his Suite opus 5. […]

PLAY is a low-cost Icelandic airline flying between Europe and North America. Without instruments, apparently. The violinist Pétur Björnsson had this experience: I just had access to PLAY flight to Berlin with a violin on […]

The Russian cellist Nina Kotova lost her grip at IMG Artists when its co-woner, her husband Barrett Wissman, was ousted by his Russian partner Alexander Shustorovich. No-one grieved for Wissman, a self-confessed fraudster. But Kotova, […]

The death was made known today of the long-serving Chief Conductor of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra Vladimír Válek. He was 89 years old. Founder of the Dvořák Chamber Orchestra in 1970, Valek was in […]

The former Harrisburg Symphony concertmaster Odin Rathnam has been offered a 15-30 year sentence if he pleads guilty to 28 charges of child rape in Pennsylvania. The alternative is life in jail. Prosecutors want to […]

Nine months after its last flare-up, Wakefield Cathedral is back on the skids. The Dean announced this morning that he’s clearing out. Dimon Copwling has been in the job just over six years. There has […]

The audience were evacuated Friday night from a performance of Lully’s opera Perseus. Fire broke out five minutes into the performance, apparently from a kitchen in the basement. Report here.   The post Fire at […]

French culture minister Rachida Dati has made an announcement at the Gare de Lyon that double-basses will be permitted in future to travel on TGV trains. Under these conditions: • Double basses transported on board […]

The Frenchman Francois-Xavier Roth has stopped conducting for the time being after being accused of sending indecent selfies to female members of an orchestra. Under current social norms, he has been globally cancelled. But Roth […]