The recent posts about Oberammergau reminded me of the Bregenzerache river, set in an Alpine valley with that characteristic beauty of softly-rolling foothills and majestic mountains, luscious mixed forests, high-Alpine coniferous woods and green meadows dotted with wild flowers.
Through this stunning landscape, captured by the lens of Peter Zelei, winds a narrow road to the small town of Schwarzenberg which lies in the heart of Bregenz Forest. Continuing into the centre of the town, the road is flanked in early summer by blossoming trees which lead to the Angelika Kauffmann Hall. It is the home of the Schubertiade, another Alpine summer festival and regarded as the most significant and distinguished Schubert festival in the world.
Besides the music and there are other notable music festivals in the region, there are numerous other activities on offer, such as river-rafting, bungee jumping, golf, rock-climbing, horseback riding, fishing, nature tours and of course hiking. Jame Bond fans might recognise the Tosca opera scenes in "Quantum of Solace", filmed on location.
The end of week videos about Verona, led me to this video posted by MultigramClassical of what they describe as the greatest mass in history, Verdi's Requiem Mass. It is sung at the Arena di Verona by Luciano Pavarotti and 3.000 members of the World Festival Choir accompanied by the Moscow Philarmonic Orchestra, conducted by Lorin Maazel, on the 45th Anniversary (August 1990) of the explosion of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Two clips this week, portraying the spirit of the WOMAD festivals. The first is a short video from sollyfilms of the Mamaku project's stunning performance at Womad NZ in 2007.
And next, we have a longer video from Shiuli (Swarajmusic) featuring the mind-blowing flautist Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee in an incredible duet with the equally talented flamenco guitarist Niki Mukhi at WOMAD Gran Canaria, Spain in 2008.
It has been announced that in April of this year, Abu Dhabi is to host a WOMAD festival. The three day, ethnic music and dance festival will be the first time for the Middle East to experience the WOMAD phenomenon.
The 2009 WOMAD season kicks of in March with the Australian and New Zealand festivals, Abu Dhabi now follows in April and then in May, the circus moves to Spain.
February 3, 2009 is the 200 th anniversary of the birth of the great Romantic period composer, Felix Mendelssohn, so there will be a lot of celebratory concerts around the world.
A much travelled composer, he was born in Hamburg, Germany and people are often familiar with pieces of his work, without knowing what they are called or who composed them. Popular pieces like his E minor Violin Concerto and Italian Symphony, the Hebrides Overture and the ever popular Wedding March.
Every Easter, Byron Bay, Australia, explodes with a music festival that has become the southern hemisphere's Glastonbury. The Byron Bay Bluesfest showcases the talent of over 120 local and international artists on five stages over five days. Get a taste of the atmosphere in this video from BluesfestAU.
Were moving into the Christmas Party season and the Performing Right Society (PRS) report that they expect Karaoke bars across the UK to be the office party destination of choice, as recession-weary workers search for cheaper parties.
The organisation, which collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and composers, has reported a 10% increase in revenue collected from Karaoke bars across the UK in the past five years.
Robbie William's Angels, is the most popular Karaoke song in the UK, followed by Valerie from the Zutons & Amy Winehouse, ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline taking the other top spots. Popularity results are based on the most performed Karaoke songs in licensed venues by the Performing Right Society. The PRS collates this data in order to make accurate royalty payments to its 60,000 composer, songwriter and music publisher members, whenever music is publicly performed or broadcast; their survey covered bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants and live music venues.
Last Christmas from Wham is at number one, Do They Know It's Christmas? (original 1984 Band Aid recording) is at two and the great Fairytale of New York from The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, comes in third place. Get the full list and interesting background, in the Beeb article that is linked above. All the favourites are their, including the perennial favourites from Wizzard, Slade, and Bing Crosby, but not in the order that most people would expect.
The Australians are planning a world-beating singalong, to takes place at 11.30am (Eastern Standard Time) on Thursday October 23, 2008.
Last year, over 200,000 school children from across Australia performed the same song together and this year it is expected that number will swell to more than 350,000, which could make it the biggest singalong that the world has ever seen.
Children from some of the smallest outback schools and those in big city schools, will be web-linked to 2,000 youngsters on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra.
Further to my post about the Festival in the Desert, I just had to show you this video from Wilfried Albin (willizvideoz) about Desert Blues, a music project with Habib Koité, Afel Bocoum and the Tuareg-Women-Ensemble Tartit from Timbuktu.
There cannot be a better way to set the mood for the weekend.
Music lovers from around the worldwide are looking forward to January, 2009 and the Festival in the Desert. Considered to be one of the world's most distinctive music festivals, the event features renowned local, regional and international artists, when for a week each January, it transforms the remote Saharan village of Essakane, Mali; January 5 to 11, 2009.
The village is about two hours from legendary, Timbuktu and I guess that in contrast to British music festivals, it comes with guaranteed sunshine. Enjoy this video from Leandre Busquet, which does a great job of conveying the atmosphere at the festival.
On Friday 12 and Saturday 13, September, 2008, in a beautiful pointy field by a lake, right on the edge of the New Forest, musicians, performing artists, festival goers, fun lovers and several fairies will be gathered for arguably the best music festival in the south of England.
The Pointy Field Faust Fest is where people come together, share delicious food and drink, listen to great live music, and whole families can immerse themseves in workshops and activities.
And you know what, 100% of the profits from the Faust Fest go to the development of cultural centres in Kenya, helping to provide traditional musicians and their communities with a sustainable source of income.
Lucca in Tuscany, Italy, birthplace and home of the great operatic composer Giacomo Puccini, is organising a rich calendar of events celebrating his birth, 150 years ago.
Many arias from Puccini's operas are enjoyed daily, throughout the world, for example the moving Nessun Dorma and the haunting O Mio Babbino Caro, making him the world's most performed composer.
Lucca, enjoys an excellent geographical position, just 20 km from Pisa, 70 km from Florence, 25 km from Viareggio and approximately 100 km from Massa. It boasts mountains and lakes, beaches, wetlands, underground grottoes and thermal springs. The region offers tourists an infinite variety of landscapes and activities, not least, renowned food and wine to accompany great music. No wonder Puccini was never short of inspiration.
To mark 50 years of NASA, together with the first US satellite and coincidentally, the 40th anniversary of the day the Beatles recorded 'Across the Universe', the song is to be beamed directly into space. Many years from now, alien researchers scanning space for the evidence of intelligent life, will decode the lines: 'nothing's going to change my world'.
To make an even bigger bang, fans around the world are invited to simultaneously play a recording of 'Across the Universe' at midnight GMT on Monday 4 February, 2008.
There is a nice video including archival pictures of the Beatles, with an early, pre-recording arrangement of the song, posted on YouTube by Anourag.
Each week, for a whole year, from October 1, 2006 until September 23, 2007, Canadian singer/songwriter Kevin Bath, released a CD every week. Each album had 8 original songs written, performed, recorded and released by him.
The result, 52 CDs containing 416 songs, by one musician, setting a new world record.
You can listen to his work by visiting his website and read more about Kevin Bath in an article on ChartAttack.
This video has been posted by Jampa, a Dutch Buddhist in the Tibetan tradition, who suggests that inner peace is the most solid foundation for world peace. His blog contains a thought provoking and interesting article by Claudia Sobrevila on Environmental Healing and World Peace.
The last WOMAD festival of 2007 is again in the Canary Islands, 22 - 27 November. Fabulous music, arts and dance from around the world, with the exhilarating backdrop of the beachside city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The festival is free and open to the public, so no need to book tickets, just be there.
Although many of the Liverpool 08 public art events will be free, tickets to big concerts, are being sold through a public ballot.
Major concerts include Paul McCartney's return to his native city, headlining a huge event at Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool United football club; a terrific opening show, headlined by fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr and Eurythmic's Dave Stewart, at the brand new Liverpool Arena, and the long-overdue return to Liverpool of one of its favourite sons, Simon Rattle, who returns to conduct a concert in the hall where he began his stellar music career.
Due to the national strike of Royal Mail postal workers, the Liverpool Culture Company has extended the deadline to register for the Liverpool 08 ticket ballot to Sunday, October 14, 2007. Registration forms can be collected at a number of locations in the city and online.
The Wickerman Festival - Scotland's Alternative Music Event
The Wickerman Festival is Scotland's alternative music event, held annually at East Kirkcarswell Farm, Dundrennan, Scotland; a site close to various locations used in the classic British horror film 'The Wicker Man' (1973). Now entering its seventh year, the festival is regarded as a smaller version of England's Glastonbury, or T in the Park, with a wide mix of music to suit all tastes. The festival organisers have developed a relaxed, family friendly event, with the accent on eclectic tastes in music. Stages include two main stages, a world music and funk tent, a classic Jamaican reggae sound system, an acoustic village, a punk/ska/northern soul tent, a new Scottish bands tent, several dance tents, children's area, workshops, crafts, cinema, camping and, of course, a 30 foot Wickerman who is sacrificed to the festival gods on the closing night.
The 2008 Wickerman Festival will be happening on the 25 and 26 July.
Returning from his customary morning walk, an exhilarated Sibelius told his wife that he could see a flock of cranes approaching. "There they come, the birds of my youth,"he exclaimed. Suddenly, one of the birds broke away from the formation and circled once above them before rejoining the flock to continue its journey. Two days afterwards the great Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius, died of a brain haemorrhage. September 20, 2007, marks the 50th anniversary of his death.
September, 4, 2007, marks the 100th anniversary of the death of great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Grieg drew inspiration from Norwegian folk music and is renowned as a nationalist composer; at his funeral over 30,000 lined the streets of his home town. Likewise, the music of Sibelius played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. Both composers left behind some of the world's most lyrical and romantic music. Many concerts of their works are being organized to mark the anniversaries.
Scotland's Edinburgh in August is unique and at its centre is the Edinburgh International Festival of classical music, theatre, opera and dance. This year it celebrates its 60th year and runs from the 10 August to 2 September, 2007.
A central theme of the 2007 festival is Renaissance and earlier music, spearheaded by a performance of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo which itself celebrates 400 years since its first performance, regarded as the birth of Opera.
There are a large number of Music Holidays to be found in our database.
At Wimbledon, the Women's final is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and rain permitting, the Men's final will start at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Tour de France begins on Saturday with a prologue in London, before proceeding across the Chanel for a three week race around France which end in Paris on July 29. And at 1pm Sunday, all eyes will be on Lewis Hamilton, competing in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Incredibly, after the wettest June in the UK for 150 years, the weather is forecast to be dry and sunny, which gives me a nice link to climate in crisis and a note that Saturday's activities will be held against a background of 24 hours of music on 7 continents, courtesy of the Live Earth concerts.
Ravello, a small town on the Italian, Amalfi Coast, enjoys a geography that simultaneously excites and repels tourists. Clinging to the cliff-face, high above above the Gulf of Salerno, the unspoilt hamlet has played host to many a creative genius over the years, including Richard Wagner, Arturo Toscanini, D.H. Lawrence, Joan Miró and M. C. Escher. Every summer, the town is host to a festival celebrating its artistic connections, the Ravello Festival. Ravello Festival is the oldest of the Italian arts festivals after the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and is particularly famous for open-air concerts in the Villa Rufolo, with its wonderful Mediterranean backdrop.
The festival is notable for the concert program but features other events such as the visual arts section; this is dedicated to Maurits Escher, who acknowledged the influence that Ravello and the Amalfi Coast had on his work.
This year's festival runs 30 June to 30 September 2007.
27 May - 3 June 2007 is the period of the World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague, Czech Republic. The city also has a puppetry museum, which is situated in a beautiful old 16th century building next to the Charles Bridge, one of Prague's main tourist attractions.
The last WOMAD festival of 2007 is again in the 
