FIDDLESTYLES

Glenfiddich piping and fiddle champions revealed

Nicola Auchnie was crowned winner of one of Scotland’s most prestigious music prizes, the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship, this weekend, with Angus MacColl triumphing in the Glenfiddich Piping Championship.

The two events took place at historic Blair Castle in Perthshire at the weekend, with the piping championship on the Saturday and the fiddle championship yesterday.

The fiddle championship, which celebrated its 21st anniversary this year, plucks its contestants from elite competitors. (As does the piping championship.)  All eight finalists were hand selected to compete following successes throughout the year.

Nicola, winner of this year’s fiddle championships said: “I’m overwhelmed to have won this year’s fiddle competition – even just to compete with so many great young musicians makes it a fantastic day.

“The Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship trophy is no doubt the most coveted of its kind and as we’ve seen is even known internationally, so it’s a fantastic honour to have won this year.”

Peter Gordon, chairman of William Grant and Sons Limited, said: “It’s been another great year for the Glenfiddich Fiddle Championship and we have been delighted to see such great fiddle talent this year and every year.

“The competition continues to go from strength to strength and we are seeing a growth in popularity with visitors making the journey here from as far as Hawaii and Canada. We thank all our competitors, and also our support from visitors, for making it another memorable year.”

The fiddle competition brought a weekend of traditional music at Blair Castle, Perthshire, to a close, following the Glenfiddich Piping Championships yesterday.  Angus MacColl, from Benderloch, Oban won the prestigious piping title, after successfully impressing the judges in a day of competitive musical heats.

The Glenfiddich Fiddle Championships were established in 1989 to reward, encourage and stimulate the art of fiddle playing throughout the world.  Their introduction came after the already established and successful Glenfiddich Piping Championships which began in 1974 to inspire and stimulate the world’s finest individual pipers, and to seek the best overall exponents of the legendary ceol mor or piobaireachd (the great music) and ceol beag (the little music).

via Glenfiddich piping and fiddle champions revealed | Music: Latest News | STV Entertainment.

Linden Quartet wins CAG competition

US–Canadian quartet nets contract with Concert Artists GuildThe Linden Quartet has won a two-year management contract with the New York-based Concert Artists Guild. The ensemble, which is studying under the Tokyo Quartet as the graduate quartet-in-residence at Yale University, received its award as one of three winners of the 2010 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition.In 2009 the Linden Quartet was the gold medallist and grand prize winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. It also won the Coleman-Barstow prize at the 2009 Coleman National Chamber Ensemble Competition.

via The Strad – Linden Quartet wins CAG competition – 29 October 2010.

Gidon Kremer and the art of the small orchestra

When Gidon Kremer, the great and inquiring Latvian violinist, turned 50 in 1997, he had already had his share of midlife crises, including putting down the violin for a brief period and going off on a personal quest to India. He’s not the red sports car type and already possessed a priceless violin. So he founded a chamber orchestra and named it after himself, Kremerata Baltica. His intention was to break down any musical barriers still standing, delve even more deeply into the essence of music than he already had, have a little fun and presumably get precise GPS bearings on the fountain of youth.Kremer has pretty much managed all of the above. His ensemble of young players from the Baltic has brought to vibrant life a treasury of spiritually intense Eastern European music with detours by way of Argentine New Tango, American and British Minimalism and Russo/Korean stand-up comedy. The Kremerata has this month added to its important discography not one but two profound, pioneering CDs on different labels. The players also tour restlessly: They will appear with Kremer on Monday at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa.Thirteen years later, the average age of Kremerata’s players somehow remains 27. No need to talk about the future of classical music when Kremer boasts this renewable source of probing, versatile and, it so happens, exceptionally attractive young musicians.But if we are to talk about the future of classical music in America, sooner or later, the Knights will come up. Around the time that Kremer created his Kremerata, two music students in New York, the brothers Eric and Colin Jacobson, a violinist and cellist, organized informal chamber music evenings they called “The Knights of the Many-Sided Table.” This eventually turned into a Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra of young musicians with a modern sensibility, a wide repertory of works new and old, along with a crusading musical mission of bringing classical music into clubs.Colin conducts. Eric is concertmaster. The Knights too have a new CD. And the brothers will soon have a presence in Orange County as well. They are members of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider, which will be in residence for the Laguna Beach Music Festival in February.For the full critics noterbook on these two exciting groups, click here.–Mark Swed

via Gidon Kremer and the art of the small orchestra | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times.

Charlie Daniels in concert

Folks in St. Luce County on the east coast of Florida, just north of Palm Beach had the opportunity to enjoy two great violin players this weekend February 27 & 28. One performing Max Bruchs Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor; and the other heating up the fiddle with The Devil Went Down to Georgia.Saturday night at the county fair Charlie Daniels burned down the barn. It was a cold and breezy 43, a temperature at which the people in south Florida just do not function well. The crowd all had jeans and wore their winter wear, but it wasnt until Charlie started playing that the crowd warmed up.Charlie showed no signs of the mild stroke he had suffered a few weeks ago while snowmobiling in Colorado. Each familiar favorite had the crowd roaring to its feet, but he really brought the house down with his rendition of Amazing Grace and the memory of Jonny Cash with Folsom Prison Blues.Its a little hard to box Charlies sound, but his self-described “southern rock” music gives a good picture: – a whole lot of country, – heavy on the rock and roll, – enough jazz to make it sizzle, especially from the keyboard Taz DiGregorio, – and a strong dose of old fashion boogie.A highlight at any fair is always the Budweiser Clydesdales prancing on parade or in their stalls. Of the many times the horses have amazed me, this was the first time I had seen “Bud” the Dalmatian up close. He was all curled up in the straw for protection from the cold, but was outside his house and a center of attention. Perhaps he was being shown with the horses since the commercial played which had him jumping brand wagons, to let the crowd know of his true loyalty.Sunday brought cool weather, but gorgeous Florida sunshine. Almost too beautiful a day to go inside the auditorium and listen to the Treasure Coast Symphony playing Modest Mussorgskys Night on Bald Mountain remember Disneys Fantasia and Franz Schubert, Symphony No. 8 in B minor.Lightning up the hall was the guest soloist, Valentin Mansurov. A musically gifted violist from Uzbekistan, he performed Bruchs Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor with both ease and fineness. During his performance he was naturally interwoven with the violin, at times his hands dancing over the strings, seemingly as if the music was coming out of the heart of the instrument. The balance with the orchestra was excellent and when the violin did a crescendo up the scales colliding with the orchestras forte burst, you could almost feel the floor rise.A great weekend in this part of the country for the violin call it a fiddle if the musics right. Charlie plays a real mean guitar and sings a sweet song, but when he picks up the fiddle; well, … the devil has not stopped running yet. When Mansurov put the violin to his chin, the devil knew not to even bother to come to town.

via Call It a Fiddle Or a Violin, Both Sound Great on a Weekend in Florida.

Steve Lopez on Nathaniel Anthony Ayers

Steve Lopez has chronicled the life of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a homeless musician with schizophrenia who sleeps each night on one of skid row’s most dangerous streets, in his columns listed here.

via Steve Lopez on Nathaniel Anthony Ayers – latimes.com.

FORT MYERS. Fla. – Celebrated violinist Reiko Niiya will present “Shall We Dance – Reiko & Friends”, a concert to benefit the Southwest Florida Symphony Society on November 6, 2010 at the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Fort Myers. The concert, scheduled from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., is a celebration of favorite classical and pops music to be performed by Niiya and her musician friends.As Concertmaster, Niiya is a popular entertainer both within and outside the Southwest Florida Symphony. With her charming and delightful sense of humor and warmth, Niiya calls upon audience members for surprising interaction with the musicians. Audience members are free to get up and dance or just sit back and enjoy the music. Music to be performed that evening includes “The Blue Danube Waltz” and “Shall We Dance” from “The King and I”.The concert is $50.00 per person. To attend, please make a check payable to the Southwest Florida Symphony Society and mail to Nancy Hamann at 6542 Plantation Pines Blvd., Fort Myers, FL 33966- 1321. She can be contacted at 239-768-3275. Checks must be received by November 3rd.

via Celebrated violinist Reiko Niiya will present Shall We Dance – Reiko & Friends.

Cleveland Orchestra receives $20m gift

Funding will be used to increase access for younger audiences

The Cleveland Orchestra will put a gift of $20m towards the creation of a new Center for Future Audiences. The money has been pledged by the Maltz Family Foundation to support the orchestra’s plans to increase accessibility for young people. The orchestra has set itself the goal of having the youngest audiences in the country by the time of its centenary in 2018.

The new audience centre will be funded through a $60m endowment, led by the Maltz family’s gift. Among the centre’s programmes will be to offer subsidised tickets to a broad audience including young professionals, and to provide free tickets for children and younger people.

via The Strad – Cleveland Orchestra receives $20m gift – 27 October 2010.

Miss Ireland Fiddles Her Way To The Head Of The Miss World 2010 Betting With Violin Performance

Miss Ireland Emma Waldron was already fancied by many to do well in Miss World 2010 and now she has shown she has talent to go alongside her stunning looks.

Emma put down a marker and and saw her odds slashed by Paddy Power to just 6/1 after wowing judges in Sanya China with her electrifying violin playing. Onlookers were visibly impressed with her fiddle rendition of a Chinese song, and an Irish Reel and further pleased the crowd by addressing them in their native tongue. She was the winner of Miss Talent and has now secured herself a place in the final fifteen.

Sharon McHugh, spokesperson for Paddy Power said: “Talented Emma has proved that she’s not just a pretty face and she’s now one of the firm favourites to steal the crown on Saturday night.”

The favourite for the 60th Miss World Final is Miss Norway who has also been the subject of a big gamble after she won Miss World Top Model. She can be backed at a best price of 13/8 with SkyBet. Other girls expected to do well on the night are Miss Russia at 14/1 with Bet 365 and William Hill and Miss Brazil at 14/1 with Boylesports.

Bookmakers Bet 365, Boylesports, Paddy Power and Victor Chandler have current Miss World odds and all offer free bets for new customers. The Miss World contest will take place on Saturday 30th October in the city of Sanya, located in China’s Hainan province. To place your Miss World Pageant bet click any of the highlighted names above.

via Miss Ireland Fiddles Her Way To The Head Of The Miss World 2010 Betting With Violin Performance.

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers has purchased the “ex-Molitor” Stradivarius violin for $3.6 million.

The fiddle once belonged to Napoleon, according to a number of sources, and to a general in Napoleons amry, Count Gabriel-Jean-Joseph Molitor, thus the name. The violin more recently was on long-term loan to Jascha Brodsky, through the Curtis Institute. Meyers will play it for the first time in public this weekend, when she performs the Barber Concerto with the Pasadena Symphony. The purchase price apparently broke a record, the previous record being set by the “Hammer” Stradivarius, which sold for $3.54 million at Christies, New York, in 2006. Tarisio clearly is pleased!

via Violin Community News 2010, Op. 25.

Violin playing robot from Toyota

As far as we know Toyota has been a car manufacturer for a really long time and they had nothing to do with robotics, but in fact the pictured violin playing robot has been under development for quite some time. The running robot from Toyota was great but this time Toyota has something different to offer.

After three years of development this robot was presented to the public at the Shanghai World Expo. At the moment this robot can only play violin with aplomb but it still does an amazing job. And even if this robot cannot be compared to the actual violin players over the worlds it’s pretty amazing how capable he is when it comes to playing. Besides that this robots plays excellent for a machine it also tries to act an actual violin player while on stage. It really feels like you’re having your own personal violinist with this robot but for now this robot could only be used for attracting customers and for presentations.

via Violin playing robot from Toyota | GadgetLite – Latest gadgets and technology news.