Karen Kain, Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada, has announced that Principal Dancer Jurgita Dronina will become a Lead Principal Dancer with English National Ballet next season. Dronina will remain with The National Ballet of Canada as Principal Dancer and will be featured in The Winter’s Tale, which opens the 2017/18 season, as well as The Sleeping Beauty and … [Read more...]
Interview with Steven McRae and Takafumi Adachi, creators of ‘Ballet Hero Fantasy’, now available in English
While the phrase “Ballet Hero Fantasy featuring Steven McRae" may conjure up images of a red-haired Byronic smoulderer in tights, sweeping you off your feet, and down into a fish dive, as his lips brush sensuously against… ok, ok, enough. It’s not that type of fantasy. We’re talking manga. And no, grandad, that’s not a fruit; it’s a Japanese cartoon.Gramilano reported on … [Read more...]
Founder of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, violinist Bronislaw Huberman, died 70 years ago today
Seventy years ago, on 16 June 1947, virtuoso violinist Bronislaw Huberman died at 64. He founded the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra by bringing Jewish musicians from Nazi Europe to Palestine, giving refuge to 1,000 musicians and their families.Huberman was a child prodigy. He was born in Poland on 19 December 1882, began lessons when he was six, and gave his first public … [Read more...]
Great musicologist Philip Gossett remembered by his colleagues and friends
Philip Gossett called himself “a fan, a musician and a scholar,” in that order.The great music scholar, who died yesterday in Chicago at the age of 75, saw himself first and foremost as a fan. It was his love and passion for opera, especially Italian opera of the 19th century, which led him to communicate the fruits of his study so effectively not only to conductors and … [Read more...]
Royal Ballet ballerina stages starry gala in memory of her mother
Emma Maguire is a Soloist of The Royal Ballet. She lost her mother, Ann, a teacher, when she was stabbed to death in front of her class by a 15-year-old pupil at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. Her murder, which shocked the entire UK, was in 2014.Emma and her family have admirably turned this horrific happening into something positive by creating the Ann Maguire … [Read more...]