MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: NEWS performers
Soprano Leontyne Price, conductor James Levine, composer Carlisle Floyd and administrator Richard Gaddes will be the initial recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors. The awards, patterned after the NEA Jazz Masters honors that were established in 1982, will be handed out during a ceremony Oct. 31 at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington. Speaking at a news conference to announce the prizes, tenor Placido Domingo said he hopes it's a step toward establishing "the Oscars of the opera."
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has named maestro Riccardo Muti as the next music director of the CSO. He's the tenth conductor to hold that post. 
The Chief Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre, Aleksandr Vedernikov, has been pronounced the Best Conductor of the Year by BBC Music Magazine. The decision to confer the awards of the popular British edition is taken by open voting amongst the readers and the jury, which consists of BBC Music Magazine editors, music critics, and writers. This year, nearly 90,000 people took part in the voting. Maestro Vedernikov was praised in the “Symphony Music” category for his interpretations of the Russian 20th century classical composer Dmitri Shostakovich. According to Daniel Jaffe, who sat on the jury, the musical critics were impressed by Vedernikov’s rendition, which so much reflected Shostakovich’s humour and his expressiveness. 
