Chanticleer

Chanticleer, the famed American 12 male-voice ensemble, has appointed Christine Bullin to the newly-created position of President and General Director directly following her work as Director of the Opera Training Center for the Paris National Opera. She will serve as primary leader of Chanticleer, overseeing the company's $2 million artistic and operational activities.

Celtic Music

The Continuing Education in Music program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is offering an online culture and history course entitled Celtic Music. Regional Cultures and Modern Success. Self-paced and permanently open to enrollment, further information is available on the web or by calling +1 608 262 2451 (course no. 3750).

Slatkin succeeds Davis at the BBC

55 year-old American conductor Leonard Slatkin is to take over as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Andrew Davis and becoming the first American in this position (which involves appearing regularly with the orchestra at the BBC Proms each summer). Slatkin's first appearance on 22 October 2000 will celebrate the orchestra's 70th birthday. The BBC's head of Classical Music, Dr. John Evans, is delighted to have attracted a conductor of Slatkin's international standing.

Jerrold Northrop Moore

Jerrold Northrop Moores's new book on F.L.Griggs, the early 20th century etcher and illustrator, has just been published by OUP. Jerrold Northrop Moore is best known to musicians as the editor of Elgar's letter and the author of a key work on the composer, Edward Elgar : A Creative Life, now available in OUP paperback.

Moore sees F.L. Griggs, whose work has long been deserving of reevaluation, as a key figure following in the imaginary British pastoral tradition of Samuel Palmer. Many of his superbly reproduced etchings depict monastic and ecclesiastical buildings, real or imagined, set in idealised urban or rural surroundings.

An exhibition of etchings by F.L.Griggs runs at the Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond St., London W1Y OJT (Tel. +44 (0)20 7629 5116) until 29th October. A further exhibition runs at The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford during November and December.

F.L.Griggs, l876-l938 : The Architecture of Dreams (ISBN 0-l9-817407-1) is published in October l999 by OUP at GBP 70.

Roderic Dunnett

Britten catalogue

Just announced is the publication of a Catalogue of the Published Works of Benjamin Britten. It is comprehensive, with the chronology and publication of the works in detail. Published by the Britten-Pears Library for the Estate, it is distributed by Boosey & Hawkes at GBP 25 in cloth and GBP 10 paperback.

Meteor Showers

A unique project has been organised by the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle UK. In advance of a new Music Centre in Gateshead, two projects - StarBirth and Meteor Showers - will create two groups, vocal and instrumental, from the local populace, to create pieces inspired by themes and images from Handel's Messiah for public performance in the Caedmon Hall, Gateshead. Info: +44 (0)191 477 3478.

Beethoven discovery

A manuscript in Beethoven's handwriting was recently discovered at Pencarrow in Cornwall, England. Beethoven wrote the piece, in B minor, dating from 1817, for Richard Ford, a young English traveller who visited Vienna. The Eroica Quartet gave the work its first public performance in modern times on 7 October at Sotheby's in London. The manuscript will be auctioned by Sotheby's on 8 December, and is expected to sell for GBP 150,000 - 200,000.

Tansman Competition

The Aleksander Tansman 3rd International Competition of Musical Personalities will be held in Lodz, Poland. 5-11 November 2000. The competition aims to promote both promising young musicians and the music of Aleksander Tansman. The 3rd Competition is open to soloists in any of the following disciplines: voice, oboe, violin, cello, piano and guitar. Applicants can be of any nationality, but must have been born after 1 January 1970. The closing date for applications is 22 August 2000. The 1st prize is USD 12000. Regulations, an application form and further information about the music of Tansman are available at www.tansman.lodz.pl.