MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: NEWS performers
NEW YORK - The remains of Czech-born American pianist Rudolf Firkusny are to be laid to rest in a cemetery in the Czech Republic 10 years after his death. Firkusny, known for his fiery artistic temperament coupled with a brilliant technique, died in 1994 at age 82 in Staatsburg, N.Y. His wife, Tatiana Nevole Firkusny, died in 2005 at age 60 in New York. They were cremated and their ashes mixed. The family held the urn until they could arrange the burial in their native land, according to Veronique Firkusny-Callegari, their daughter. The burial will be Sept. 10 2007 at the central cemetery in Brno, Tatiana Nevole Firkusny's birthplace ......MORE... | BIO
Ludwig van Beethoven may have died accidentally at the hands of his own physician. The Austrian composer died in 1827 at age 56, probably of pneumonia and complications of abdominal problems. But scientists think he suffered from lead poisoning....
Pianist, composer and teacher Clifford Benson died on August 10, 2007 from an inoperable brain tumor. He was 60. Benson is remembered as a collaborative musician of great versatility, spirit and sensitivity. Among those with whom he had worked are violinists Levon Chilingirian, Shlomo Mintz and Lydia Mordkovitch, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, clarinetist Thea King and flutists William Bennett, Marcel Moyse and Trevor Wye. 
Pianist Horacio Gutiérrez has cancelled all his engagements through January 2008 due to a diagnosis of primary gastric lymphoma. "[It] is 90% curable with chemotherapy, which he is undergoing now," his manager, Seldy Cramer, told Playbill Arts. "He plans to return to the stage in January." 
As the Met's fortunes began to recover in the late 1930s, the young singer established a distinctive and distinguished career, anchored by her rigorous interpretive standards and unfailingly honest musicianship and abetted by her tall, slim figure, graceful deportment and genial stage presence. 
The prolific Swindon-born composer Graham Whettam, who was known for his futuristic piano works, has died, aged 79. He passed away on Friday [18 AUG 2007] at his home in Gloucestershire and since then tributes have been paid to a man known as one of Britain's elder statesmen of music. 
Those of us who write about classical music are constantly being bombarded with reports that the art form is dying. We hear about the lack of music education in the schools, the decline in the number of groups touring, and the general lack of interest for it among those who attend performances....
Clarinets and roller-skating don't usually go together, unless you're at a Martin Fröst performance. The Swedish clarinetist -- a serious classical musician with plenty of high-brow credentials -- often glides on in-line skates during performances, dances or dons elaborate costumes and stage make-up, in an effort to bring elements of modern dance and theater to classical 
Richard Bradshaw, general director of the Canadian Opera Company and the man who brought an opera house to Toronto, has died. 
Leonard Slatkin says he "wants to put the Detroit Symphony back on the map," reports the The Detroit News, but has not yet received a formal offer to become the orchestra's next music director and is still in discussions with the DSO's president and executive director Anne Parsons and artistic adviser Peter Oundjian.