05.09.05 (MusicPortal.com) VANESSA-MAE, the breakthrough artist who helped define the "Classical Crossover" sub-genre, will play a rare solo show at London's Royal Albert Hall this Thursday, May 12th. Performing a repertoire of Classical favorites and songs from her current album, "Choreography," VANESSA-MAE is set to dazzle the stage once again. From child prodigy to international icon, her performances are always vivacious and dynamic, as she is recognized worldwide as one of the most successful artists to combine Classical and Pop music, and at just 25 years old she has already performed with many of the greatest musicians in the world. Just in her mid-teens when she shattered the mold of the Classical virtuoso with the release of her first Fusion album, "The Violin Player, VANESSA-MAE helped forge a new style that has made her a multi-million selling worldwide phenomenon. "Choreography," a highly original album that celebrates dance rhythms from around the world that is also her Sony Classical debut, marks a new musical direction for the superstar violinist. VANESSA-MAE has collaborated with such Pop stars as Janet Jackson and Prince, performed on the soundtrack of the Disney animated feature "Mulan," played Bach for the British Royal Family on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, fiddled as she modeled a wedding dress on the runway of a Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion show in Paris, and reached out to the children of the South African township of Soweto, the first international artist to be invited to its music school. Her stunning presence only adding to her appeal, People magazine has voted VANESSA-MAE one of the "50 Most Beautiful People In The World," while FHM named her one of "The World's 100 Most Beautiful Women." She has also toured the world several times over, playing performances in many spectacular venues such as the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, the Acropolis in Athens and stadiums in Beijing and Shanghai. VANESSA-MAE made her U.S. debut in New York's Times Square, when she hopped spontaneously onto a passing yellow taxi in the climax to a live performance seen all over the world.

05.05.05 (AP) A New Milford, Connecticut probate judge has ordered the former executor of violinist ISAAC STERN's estate to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Stern's three grown children. Stern's children, from his second marriage, had gone to probate court asking former executor William Moorhead III for more than $2 million, claiming he improperly calculated the estate's value and transferred assets to Stern's third wife, Linda Reynolds Stern. They also had claimed that when there was not enough money to pay off the musician's debts, his personal items were auctioned, a move they say would not have been necessary had Moorhead accounted for the apartment's value. Probate Court Judge Martin Landgrebe said Wednesday the decision to exclude the apartment from the estate was wrong and that the selling of personal items caused the Stern children to suffer "incalculable personal loss." The judge also criticized Moorhead for paying himself $313,000, calling the payment, "outrageous, improper and unjustified." Landgrebe ruled Moorhead must pay back the $313,000, plus $250,000 he spent on the Central Park West apartment he used as the office from which he managed the estate. Moorhead charged the estate for the salary and benefits of a full-time office manager as well as cable TV, Internet access, three voice telephone lines, a fax line, telephone service, a New York Times subscription and maid service, according to the decision. "The legacy was squandered," said attorney Mark Schwartz, who represented Stern's children: daughter Shira, a rabbi, and sons Michael and David, both orchestra conductors. Their mother, Vera, had been married to Stern for some four decades. Schwartz also noted that musical instruments that had been bequeathed to the children were sold off. "In the ordinary course of any estate this behavior is intolerable. Here there were irreplaceable things. They were this man's musical legacy," Schwartz said. ISAAC STERN, who died in 2001 at age 81, was one of the foremost violinists of the modern Classical era.

05.03.05 (AP) RICCARDO MUTI, who resigned as music director of Milan, Italy's La Scala last month, made an emotional return to the opera house as a guest conductor, sparking calls for him to withdraw his resignation. Monday night's concert, in which Muti led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, had been organized before he stepped down amid a labor dispute last month after 19 years at La Scala. The 2,000 tickets for the concert sold out two months ago, organizers said. A giant screen was set up in a shopping mall in Milan where hundreds more watched the performance, some signing a petition for Muti to return to La Scala, organizers said. Monday's performance included Haydn's "Symphony No. 94" in G major, known as the "Surprise Symphony," and ended with a stirring encore rendition of the overture to Verdi's opera, "La Forza del Destino" ("The Force of Destiny"). Afterward, the audience broke in to rhythmic applause, and some threw flowers from the balcony of the theater, said La Scala spokeswoman Lucilla Castellari. "There was a feeling of hope that the maestro will return to conduct at La Scala," she said. RICCARDO MUTI served as music director at La Scala before stepping down amid a dispute triggered by the dismissal of superintendent Carlo Fontana, who had a difficult relationship with the conductor. Workers at La Scala had accused RICCARDO MUTI of trying to turn the opera house into his personal fiefdom, and several performances were called off because of the feud. During his career Riccardo Muti has obtained numerous awards and academic honours from the likes of the University Of Philadelphia, Mount Holyoke College, from Warwick University in England, Westminster College Choir in Princeton and from the Italian University Of Bologna, Urbino and Cremona. RICCARDO MUTI is also an honorable member of the Royal Academy Of Music, the Academy Of Santa Cecilia, and the Luigi Cherubini Academy in Florence. Muti also serves as Grande'Ufficiale (Great Official) and Cavaliere of Gran Croce of the Italian Republic.

[Classical News: April 2005]