A virtuosic violin display, including the national anthem, at the Pittsburgh Pirates game by Pittsburgh leader Noah Bendix-Balgley on Memorial Day.

LIVERPOOL begins an exciting new chapter in its maritime history next week, as the first ever turnaround cruise sets sail from the city.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ Ocean Countess arrives at Liverpool’s cruise liner terminal, from Holyhead, at 7am on Tuesday 29 May. The 16,800 tonne, 541-foot vessel, will remain berthed at the facility until 4pm, when she will be given a huge civic send-off as she departs for the Norwegian Fjords, via Lerwick in Scotland, with 740 passengers on-board.

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Australia National University backs down on plan to sack all music teachers
by Norman Lebrecht
Denounced in Parliament, demonstrated against by students and derided across the music world, the ANU has withdrawn its plans to get rid of 32 music teachers. Professor Adrian Walter, whose idea it was, has disappeared off the face of the hemisphere to take a bigger post in Hong Kong.

The University may need to look at more of his decisions over the past year to make sure Professor Walter had his mind on the day job, not the one across the sea. Here’s more in the Canberra Times.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-1ymfy

Arts Council ‘to cut 150 jobs’ – but they are still recruiting

This week the winner of pseudo talent contest, Britain’s got talent, walked away with a cheque for £500,000. The prize that this performing dog ‘picked up,’ dwarfs the cheque for £2,000 the winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year won a day later. Not one UK paper printed RCM Junior Department cellist Laura Van Der Heijden success, either. Shameful!