Lisa Gasteen and Eric Whitacre interviews:

It’s on again! The world’s biggest music festival, the BBC Proms, will run for nearly 2 months in 2013 from July 12th to September 7th. Paganini and the sea feature in the famed opening night programme with Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony alongside Paganini inspired compositions by Rachmaninov and Lutoslawski….

Violinist Nicola Benedetti speaks out against the use of sex to sell classical albums. “Classical music can be prouder of its integrity than many industries. People are basically chosen for their ability – though I concede that we still lag behind when it comes to conductors” she says in The Times. Read the feature published in…

Did the ailments of composers influence the music they wrote?! Did Tavener’s life-threatening inherited disease Marfan’s Syndrome initiate the otherworldly sound of his music? Did Beethoven’s deafness cause him to focus on his physiological rhythms? Click here to read Tom Service’s feature in The Guardian.  

Arts Minister Simon Crean is to announce a funding increase of 30% which will benefit 6 arts organisations. Matthew Westwood reports in The Australian.