Brazilian Conductor Beaten By Spanish Police In Alleged Racial Incident

Israel de França, a violinist in Granada’s main orchestra and a local conductor, alleges that he and a (white) friend were sitting in a Granada bar on Dec. 23 when he was detained by city police and beaten. The police department maintains that the bar’s owner called them about two patrons arguing noisily and that they addressed the situation without violence.

Dutch Broadcasting’s Jazz Orchestra Saved From Oblivion

Just last week, the Metropole Orchestra, a hybrid pops-orchestra-and-jazz-big-band, had been told that its state funding was to be eliminated and it would have to shut down by next August. But the new coalition government has provided a €7 million grant to support the Metropole to 2017, though the ensemble will now have to earn or raise about half its budget on its own.

Daniel Barenboim Founds Music Academy For The Middle East

Following in the mold of his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based ensemble of young musicians from Israel and the Arab states, the conductor and Mideast peace activist is establishing a conservatory-cumacademic institution for up to 60 resident fellows from the Near East. The school will be housed in a former warehouse for the Berlin State Opera, where Barenboim is artistic director.