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Arts settlement 2015/16: what the numbers mean

Arts Council England has won a ring-fenced 5% funding cut in the Comprehensive Spending Review for 2015/16, while the settlement for the Department for Culture Media and Sport is 8%.

Musicians honoured in Queen’s birthday honours list

CBEs for Aldeburgh's Jonathan Reekie and Sage Gateshead's Anthony Sargent, while Wigmore Hall's John Gilhooly, baritone Alan Opie and Opera North's Richard Mantle are awarded OBEs. Aled Jones is made MBE.

DCMS secures better-than-expected Spending Round settlement

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, led by culture secretary Maria Miller, is reported to have negotiated a cut of 8% for the period 2015/16, with a roughly 5% cut to be dealt to arts organisations and museums.

Three music buildings win RIBA awards

The Bramall Music Building at the University of Birmingham, the Colyer-Fergusson Building at the University of Kent and the new development in Manchester for Chetham’s School of Music are among the 43 UK recipients this year.

ROH recommissions Benjamin and Crimp to follow Written on Skin

Covent Garden has commissioned a second new opera from George Benjamin and Martin Crimp. It is the principal commissioner but expects to bring further companies on board.

New Britten-Pears archive opens in Aldeburgh

A new archive housing the world’s most comprehensive collection of Benjamin Britten’s work has opened in the grounds of the Red House, Aldeburgh, as part of a £4.7m redevelopment of the site. Dame Janet Baker will officially open the building today.

Love and leisure: The AAM at the National Gallery

The Academy of Ancient Music will be resident ensemble at the National Gallery this summer, providing extensive accompaniment to the gallery’s exhibition Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure.

Opera Holloway: The Gingerbread Project

Opera Holloway is running a week of workshops and rehearsals and performances in London, 30 July-3 August. The Gingerbread Project will see children aged 12-15 working alongside members of the Opera Holloway company in the lead up to two performances.

PPL announces increase in income despite declining record sales

PPL, the UK-based organisation which licenses recorded music played in public, has revealed and increase in its income by 11% to £170.8m, despite a tough market and declining CD sales.

IMZ ends three-decade association with Midem

The IMZ, the leading international showcase of music and dance film and tv programmes, is ending a 30-year association with the Midem music industry trade fair and moving to Berlin.

Creative Scotland appoints new chief executive

After a long search, Creative Scotland has announced the appointment of Janet Archer as its new chief executive. She will be leaving her current post as director of dance at Arts Council England to join the Scottish organisation on 1 July.

DCMS ‘barely viable in current form’, but cabinet representation should not be lost

Dan Jarvis MP, shadow minister for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, has warned against disbanding the department and losing representation for the arts at the top levels of government.

Army Corps of Army Musicians Summer Academy, 4-10 August

Army offers chance to sample life as a forces musician over week-long academy, with opportunities across the UK in 22 full-time bands, and 'golden hello' payments for music graduates.

Is it possible to argue that classical music is good for the economy?

A closer look at exactly where public money is spent reveals that classical music organisations are much more reliant on grant funding than other sectors of the arts world. Seven of the ten organisations receiving the largest funding grants from the Arts Council were opera, ballet or classical music companies, and collectively they received nearly a quarter of all the money handed out in 2011/12.

Record distribution: two down, more to follow?

The decline in CD sales and high-street music retailers has led to the closure of two classical music distributors on opposite sides of the Atlantic, with the future of a third being questioned.

Classical:Next, day three: Concert hall and opera house design

Opera houses and concert halls have stuck to horseshoe and shoebox shapes respectively for centuries, but today's needs are dictating new shapes, says David Staples, principal of Theatre Projects Consultants.

Classical:Next, day two: A Spotify spat

A panel discussion differed over how much Spotify cannibalises other parts of the record industry, with claims that major labels received special revenue terms in exchange for buying stakes in Spotify.

Classical:Next, day two: The market in China

One session at Classical:Next provided a useful overview of the market in China, with important lessons for performers visiting the country.

Classical:Next, day one: Korea’s classical market

Tragic death of Joohoo Kim prevents him delivering keynote speech; but his text suggests a market with potential for growth made up of young and predominantly female audiences.

Classical:Next, day one: Innovation in concert presentation, reversing audience decline

A conference strand on how to reverse the decline in audiences for live music filled much of the first full day of Classical:Next.

DCMS may be scrapped, says shadow culture secretary

Labour’s shadow culture minister, Dan Jarvis, has said that he believes the Department for Culture, Media and Sport could be scrapped as part of the forthcoming comprehensive spending review.

Poetry in Sound: Britten at the British Library

The British Library has produced a new exhibition, opening 31 May, to coincide with the Britten 100 celebrations.

Daniel Hope keynote at Classical:Next

The future of classical music lies not in taking it out of concert halls but bringing youth audiences into those venues, violinist and broadcaster Daniel Hope said in a wide-ranging and challenging keynote speech at the opening of the second Classical:NEXT industry forum.

Worcester to host pan-European singing festival

Worcester International Festival for Young Singers (WIFYS) will see choirs from Belgium, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria, Russia, Hong Kong, Germany, Lithuania and the UK giving concerts across the town and surrounding areas.

LSO performs in Trafalgar Square

The second of the London Symphony Orchestra’s BMW LSO Open Air Classics concerts took place on 27 May, the LSO performing Berlioz to an audience of thousands.

Jesse Owens in song: The Sharecropper’s Son, 6 July

Baritone Njabulo Madlala, soprano Abigail Kelly and pianist William Vann will be the performers in the new cycle, adapted from Michael Stimpson’s 2011 opera Jesse Owens.

Lord Mayor of London launches City Music Foundation

The Lord Mayor of London has set up a new fund to provide support to musicians at the start of their professional careers.

Choristers of the Coronation: Radio 4, 25 May

The 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation will be marked with a documentary about the 200 boy choristers who took part in the service which is ‘nothing more, nothing less, than the memories of those boy choristers.’

Henri Dutilleux, composer: 22 January 1916-22 May 2013

Henri Dutilleux: 'A fiercely independent composer steeped in the languid sensuousness of Debussy yet touched by the hand of modernism.'

Scottish Opera announces new season and refurbishment update

A new Venetian-themed production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni directed by Thomas Allen and a touring chamber version of Handel’s Rodelinda are among the highlights of Scottish Opera’s 2013/14 season, unveiled by general director Alex Reedijk on 21 May.

Academy of St Martin in the Fields celebrates Britten: Cadogan Hall, 23 May

Concert includes world premiere of Sally Beamish's Variations on a Theme of Benjamin Britten, a companion piece to Britten's Bridge Variations.

BBC Young Musician 2014: Open for entries

Entries for the classical arm of the biennial competition close on 26 July. The final will be held on 18 May 2014 at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, with the BBC SSO under Kirill Karabits.

Exhibitors’ 70% increase is vote of confidence in Classical:NEXT

Delegate numbers are up 20% for the second outing of Classical:NEXT, the music congress that opens in Vienna on 29 May. More remarkably, the number of exhibitors is up 70% at nearly 130, selling out the exhibition area in the MAK (Museum of Applied and Contemporary Arts).

RCM awards fellowships, honorary memberships and inaugurates new award for community work

The President’s Award inaugurated for RCM students who have done outstanding work in the community.

RPS Awards: Full winners

The awards, for work in 2012, were presented by RPS gold medallist Dame Janet Baker at a ceremony hosted by Radio 3’s Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Sean Rafferty.

Oldest surviving English grand piano goes on display at former home

What is thought to be the oldest surviving English-manufactured grand piano has gone on display at the former home of its first owner, the Duke of Wellington.

Hallé goes for matinées in 2013/14

The Hallé’s season plans for 2013/14 at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester include a major switch in scheduling for its most popular series: the ‘Opus One’ concerts.

Abuse in music schools: Petition reopens after new press coverage and MP’s support

Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central, has become the first MP to publicly support calls for an inquiry. Widespread media coverage into the issue this week has included an in-depth report by Channel 4 News.

Southbank redevelopment hits Heritage Lottery Fund setback

Six successful proposals stood out in latest HLF round ‘because of their strong focus on regeneration and importance to their local communities’. Aberdeen's Cowdray Hall is part of plans to redevelop the Aberdeen Art Gallery area awarded a £10m grant.

Consortium to trial ways of encouraging audiences to support new commissions

Sound and Music, London Sinfonietta, Café Oto and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival will run trials involving crowdfunding, mobile giving, online giving and cultivating mid-level donors, publishing the findings of a two-year project.

Minnesota Orchestra: A season of silence

The Minnesota Orchestra has announced the cancellation of the remaining two weeks of its current season. The decision means that the 110-year-old orchestra will not have played a note of music in public during the whole of its 2012-13 season.

Steve Martland, composer, 10 October 1959-6 May 2013

Composer who crossed genre boundaries dies aged 53. He was a former artistic director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music and ran the Strike Out summer composition course.

Abuse in music schools: widespread press coverage as GMP investigation continues

Greater Manchester Police continues its investigation into allegations of abuse at both Chetham's and the RNCM, revealed to encompass some 39 current and former teachers.

John Wallace to retire from RCS in 2014

John Wallace has announced that he will retire as principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in September 2014, after 12 years in the post.

ENO and Opera North announce plans for 2013/14

Britten has showing in both seasons, while ENO commissions new work by Julian Anderson. Both companies have made reference to fundraising in light of an increasingly difficult environment for public funding.

Bryn Terfel among artists-in-residence in RLPO new season

Four internationally-acclaimed musicians have accepted invitations to become artists in residence at Liverpool, following the announcement of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s new concert season. Bryn Terfel, Andrew Manze, Christian Lindberg and Simon Trpčeski will perform not only with the orchestra but will also become involved in all other aspects of the Liverpool Philharmonic, including the burgeoning learning programme.

NCEM 2013 composers award goes to Joseph Howard, 20, and Lilly Vandaneaux, 11

The National Centre for Early Music’s 2013 composers award has been won by Lilly Vadaneaux (aged 11) in the 18 years and under category, the youngest entry and youngest winner of the competition to date, and Joseph Howard (20) in the 19-25 years category.

Leipzig Wagner Festival: composer’s birthplace puts on a grand show

Think Wagner, think Bayreuth.  The 19th-century predecessors of the German Tourist Board did a fine job of pulling in the visitors to this home of Wagner opera.  But now the city of Leipzig, 200km up the road, and city of Wagner’s birth, is making a sterling attempt to compete in the year of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Sound and Music announces new direction

Susanna Eastburn, chief exec: 'Sound and Music has reformed itself, and now we can work with others to transform the future of new music.'

Warner/Parlophone deal set to strip EMI and Virgin Classics brand names from their catalogues

Artists who have recorded for EMI and Virgin Classics could find their releases appearing under a new brand as a result of Warner Music Group’s £487m purchase of the Parlophone group of labels.

New Music Biennial: 20 diverse commissions announced for 2014

Selected commissions represent greater range of genres than precursor in 2012, with 20 projects including collaborations with dancers, film-makers, poets, artists and skateboarders as well as musicians.

Maria Miller sets direction of travel: ‘To hammer home the value of culture to our economy’

'We should value the arts for their own sake ... but in these tough economic times, we need to make a broader case.’

Emmanuel Joel-Hornak announced as Scottish Opera chief

Joel-Hornak will join Scottish Opera in August, taking over from Francesco Corti, and is 'particularly thrilled' to settle into role after an international freelance career.

New director for Edinburgh International Festival announced

Fergus Linehan has been announced as the Edinburgh International Festival’s director designate to become festival director and chief executive from October 2014. He will take up his post on a part-time basis from May this year to plan for his first festival in 2015.

Proms 2013 launch, with Barenboim Ring and audience-expanding initiatives

Steve Lamacq and Tom Service unite for 6Music Prom in a concert featuring the London Sinfonietta and Laura Marling, while Urban Classic brings together the BBCSO and Laura Mvula, broadcast live on Radio 1 and 1Xtra.

Sir Colin Davis remembered

Tributes pour in for great conductor, 'a man whose professional encounters were often as tempestuous as his private life'. The volume of tributes paid bears witness to his place in the genuine affections of many.

NYCGB announces Royal Albert Hall partnership

The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and RAH announce five-year partnership before concert which marked end of one era and beginning of next

Fazil Say given suspended 10-month sentence for anti-Muslim tweets

Say: 'The fact that I have been charged with punishment despite being totally innocent is alarming not only on a personal level but in terms of freedom of expression and beliefs in Turkey.’

Sir Colin Davis dies

Sir Colin Davis, veteran conductor and giant of the British classical music industry, died on the evening of Sunday 14 April. He was 85.

Global recording revenues rise for first time in more than a decade

The global music industry is on the road to recovery after a decade of decline, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

RPS music awards: nominees announced

London 2012 Festival proved a catalyst for high-quality classical music as a number of events are nominated, and three big-hitting composers, Birtwistle, Anderson and Barry, go head-to-head in the large-scale work category. But there is no place for The Space, the BBC and Arts Council England's multi-platform arts service.

Richard Hallam takes up ISM presidency

New president commits to cultivating unified voice in music and music education: 'Organisations too can work more effectively together for the greater good'

Ways forward for Edinburgh’s cultural development

Edinburgh’s cultural venues could receive a well-needed boast if any one of four hypothetical plans to develop an arts hub in Edinburgh were to go ahead.

Hallé victorious at BBC Music Magazine recording awards

Live disc of Elgar’s The Apostles named recording of the year as the Berlin Phil wins two and Malaysian pianist Mei Yi Foo is named best newcomer.

Martyn Rose announced as ENO chairman

Millionaire businessman, who has strong links to Conservative party and policy, described by artistic director John Berry as 'a coup'.

Joint child protection inspection finds Chetham’s to be underperforming

While ‘the vast majority of pupils said that they feel safe around the school’, a number of procedures had not been followed or had been inconsistently applied.

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on track for major facelift

The proposed £12m refurbishment of Liverpool’s art deco Philharmonic Hall has moved a step closer following the submission of a detailed planning application and listed building consent to Liverpool City Council.

Sounding Out: Stage Notes discussion on the future of opera: video

Highlights from Sounding Out: Stage Notes, an afternoon of discussion on the future of opera organised by Sound and Music.

Gregynog Festival joins REMA early music network

The festival’s invitation is the first offered to a Welsh organisation, and only the third in the UK.

Mike Brewer, former Chetham’s and NYCGB director, sentenced to six years’ imprisonment

Brewer had been convicted of five counts of indecent assault while he was head of music at Chetham's School of Music in 1970s and '80s. His ex-wife, Kay Brewer, received a 21-month sentence for one count of sexual assault.

Setting the stage for northern opera | Young Opera Venture

A singing teacher has started up her own opera company to revitalise the operatic artform in North England, providing opportunities for young singers and instrumentalists

Blessed and Bremner throw weight behind Kickstarter Scheherazade

Campaign lets supporters pre-order a graphic novel, buy signed copies of the CD and purchase exclusive ring tones of Brian Blessed and Rory Bremner delivering lines from the script.

Trinity College London appoints head of teacher development

Music Teacher editor Christopher Walters appointed to new role with responsibility for Certificate for Music Educators

Winners announced for the inaugural Music Teacher Awards

On 20 March 2013 the winners were announced for the first ever Music Teacher Awards for Excellence. The awards were created by Rhinegold Publishing and Music Teacher magazine to celebrate excellence in the UK’s music education sector

RSNO announces 2013/14 season

Britten’s War Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No 8 and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie are among the musical monoliths that the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has announced for its ambitious 2013/14 season, its second with Peter Oundjian as music director.

New Chilcott Passion premiere: Wells Cathedral, 24 March

Major new work by the composer takes similar form to Bach's Passions for an hour-long work. Chilcott's St John Passion will be performed at Wells Cathedral, 24 March at 3pm.

Royal Opera House appoints new chief executive

Alex Beard, deputy director at Tate, will take over before September; Sally O’Neill will continue as interim chief exec until then. He will be on £250,000 per annum.

Tallis Scholars release Whitacre premiere on iTunes only

Sainte-Chapelle, a commission for the choir's 40th anniversary, is the group's first single release in nearly 30 years. Eric Whitacre is the first living composer recorded by the group since John Tavener in 1984.

Ticciati renews contract with SCO until 2018, as 2013/14 season announced

Conductor commits to orchestra until at least 2018 as 40th anniversary is announced, to include a Schumann symphony cycle, new works from Peter Maxwell Davies and Martin Suckling, and a Far East tour that takes in China and Japan.

Sounding Out: Stage Notes, Royal Opera House, 16 March

Professional development and networking afternoon at the Royal Opera House will feature librettists, composers, performers and producers including Huw Watkins, David Harsent and John Fulljames, ROH associate director of opera.

Petrenko signs open-ended Liverpool contract

The musical future of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has been strengthened following the announcement that chief conductor Vasily Petrenko is to extend his contract indefinitely.

Royal Opera House reveals 2013/14 season

Seven new productions will appear on the main stage, and the Linbury theatre is established as dedicated home for 'new or very recent work'. At the press conference, Sir Antonio Pappano ticked off the press for its reaction to casting changes in 2012's Robert le Diable.

City of London Festival announces 2013 programme

The City of London Festival has announced its full programme, which will run between 23 June and 26 July, with more than 150 music, film, poetry and art related events to take place.

Programme announced for 2013 Edinburgh Festival

Beethoven in space, Berg in the Deep South jazz clubs and Dido meets Bluebeard are just some of quirky delights on offer at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.  Unveiling a line-up that is not as theme-focused as in previous years, festival director Jonathan Mills said the 2013 festival will instead explore how technology has shifted artists’ perceptions of the world.

ABRSM’s new chief executive vows to improve infrastructure

Leslie East says his work in the immediate future will be on 'teacher support and working with the music services who are our life blood' following surprise resignation of Guy Perricone.

Westminster Council to cease arts funding and become lowest-tax borough

Decision is cruel, joyless and ideological, says Samuel West, chair of National Campaign for the Arts, as council members cite 'tough choices'. Streetwise Opera and ENO's community choir, both set up to work with vulnerable people, will see a current funding stream cut.

Newcastle council votes to halt funding of arts organisations

Classical will still be well served by The Sage Gateshead across the river, but are councils sliding towards providing only statutory services?

British Council increases arts investment

The British Council, which five years ago had scrapped its arts funding and reinstated it after government intervention, is increasing its arts investment by £14m over two years.

The announcement came as BC chairman Sir Vernon Ellis unveiled Mark Wallinger’s The White Horse, commissioned by the artist at a cost of £100,000. Ellis said the increased investment underlined that ‘the arts are at the heart of the British Council and define who we are as seen from overseas’.

Major building plan announced for Southbank Centre’s ‘Festival Wing’

The Southbank Centre has announced a major renovation and new building project, aimed at rationalising the areas around the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery and creating a large rehearsal space. A new foyer will connect the spaces of the Festival Wing, and the 'glass box' rehearsal space will form a dramatic addition to the South Bank skyline.

Lancaster University students discuss options following closure of music programme

Students at Lancaster University are holding an emergency meeting today (Tuesday, March 5) to discuss the future of music and other arts subjects on campus. It follows a decision by university management to end the study of single and combined honours music. There will be no new intake in September this year.

Liverpool International Music Festival: A cheaper alternative

New venture will save the city £320,000, a 40% saving over the 20-year-old Mathew Street Festival, and will have 'broader appeal'. The opening concert will be given by the RLPO.

Music Teacher Awards for Excellence: Nominees announced

The awards will be held at a gala dinner on 20 March hosted by Classic FM presenter Margherita Taylor, as part of the inaugural Music Education Expo which is held at London’s Barbican Centre on 20 and 21 March.

Guy Perricone resigns from ABRSM as East and Abbotts step up

Executive director Leslie East has been appointed to succeed Perricone as chief executive and Lincoln Abbotts, who joined the ABRSM last year as teaching and learning development director, is to take up the newly created post of director of strategic development.

Van Cliburn, pianist, 12 July 1934-27 February 2013

Van Cliburn, the American pianist, has died aged 78. He was awarded the US’s National Medal of Arts in 2010 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003, and was one of the world’s best-known performers of classical music.

Michael Berkeley awarded life peerage

Composer will serve as cross-bench peer and is 'particularly pleased that the appointments commission was keen to increase representation in the field of music and the arts'.

Abuse in UK music schools: More than 1,000 musicians call for inquiry

Petition organiser says music schools and colleges 'should not have anything to hide' and so should support the petition's calls for an inquiry into 'sexual and other abuse at Chetham’s School of Music and other specialist music institutions'.

Music Theatre Wales announces plans for anniversary season

Music Theatre Wales has announced a year-long season of work to mark its 25th anniversary, including two UK premieres. In 2014 the company will give the world premiere performance of Philip Glass's The Trial, in a co-production with the Royal Opera House and Houston Grand Opera.

Peregrine’s Pianos offers exclusive tour of Schimmel factory

Ask the questions you've always wanted to ask and tour Schimmel's purpose-built factory in Braunschweig. The price of the tour will be discounted against the purchase of a Schimmel piano.

Taunton’s Brewhouse Theatre closes doors and enters administration

‘Our boarded up building in the centre of the county town will be the most visible sign of the disintegration of the cultural landscape in our beautiful county’, says artistic director Robert Miles.

Malcolm Layfield leaves ‘untenable’ RNCM position

Joint statement: ‘Professor Malcolm Layfield has left his post as Head of School of Strings at the Royal Northern College of Music, his position at the College having become untenable.’