On Wednesday, during the later of two sets with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Blue Note, Brian McKnight was in scholar mode, tackling classics from the Ellington catalog and happily turning them into McKnight songs.

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A selected guide to classical music performances in New York.

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The fourth Brooklyn Folk Festival comes to downtown Brooklyn this weekend, and it features sounds of the South, and of Eastern Europe and Central America.

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Donna Summer, the gospel-raised singer who bridged 1970s disco and the pop music that followed with hits such as “Love to Love You Baby,” “Last Dance” and “She Works Hard for the Money,” has died. She was 63.

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The 10 titles on the short-list for the Scottish Album of the Year award are announced.

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The American Ballet Theater opened its run at the Metropolitan Opera House with Kevin McKenzie’s staging of “Giselle.”

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PEOPLE are urged to squeeze into a theatre show.

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On Monday evening the American Ballet Theater offered exhilarating sections amid a largely predictable series of bedroom pas de deux and fouetté turns.

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Rare picture shows Fab Four walking over pedestrian crossing opposite way to image used on famous album cover A rare photograph showing the Beatles walking the and #34;wrong way and #34; across the Abbey Road pedestrian crossing is expected to fetch up to £9,000 at auction. The version that found its way on to the 1969 Abbey Road album has the band walking from the photographer and #39;s left to right. In the version …

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and #34; Antiques Roadshow and #34; (Mon., 8 p.m. ET on PBS) was in Minneapolis Monday night, and one of the standout items brought in to be appraised was a cardboard cutout, or standee, of The King himself, Elvis Presley.

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As the season winds down, the New York City Ballet offers an impressive array of repertory works.

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A MUSIC teacher has released his debut album as a way of marking a landmark birthday – and he is hoping to reach one million downloads.

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PageBreak — OPERA NEW YORK CITY OPERA To round out City Opera’s first season away from Lincoln Center, George Steel has come up with a true novelty—“Orpheus,” a work by the Baroque master Georg Philipp Telemann, staged at a new venue . . .

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Rock band Keane go straight to number one with their fifth album, Strangeland, giving them an unbroken run of chart-toppers.

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Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo in “Under African Skies,” a documentary about his 1986 album, “Graceland.”

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To those who dared to stand in his way, Peter Grant, the legendary manager of Led Zeppelin, conducted his business with a mixture of verbal aggression, physical intimidation and judicious use of a baseball bat.

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A selected guide to classical music performances in New York.

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Ballet is perfect; dancers are not. And thank goodness! A blunder now and then is just enough to remind the audience that what looks easy is actually brutally difficult, and it reminds us that we are not the gods and goddesses we sometimes think we are.

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The Alonzo King Lines Ballet, at the Joyce, presents two very different pieces that are marked by Mr. King’s particular techniques.

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Nikolaj Lund is trying to change the face of classical music one photograph at a time. Lund and #39;s portraits of classical musicians display the lesser-shown, quirkier side of the stereotypically conservative genre.

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The ska-poppers and #39; long-awaited sixth studio album will feature reggae and #34;from the future and #34;

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ANDY Warhol’s portrait of Elvis Presley as a cowboy is to be sold at auction in the US.

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The 21-year-old singer cancels Snow Patrol support gigs in North America for and #34;personal reasons and #34; but denies reports about enterting rehab.

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Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi is to be celebrated in a newly commissioned piece of classical music, BBC Radio 3 announces.

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Mort Lindsey, the orchestra leader and composer celebrated in the US for his work with Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, dies in California at the age of 89.

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Singer Marina and the Diamonds, from Abergavenny, south Wales, tops the UK album charts with her second album.

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and #39;Samaagam and #39; is Sanskrit for and #39;flowing together and #39; the title of sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and #39;s recording of ragas with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Read all responses to this article

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The boss of a classical music label has told how Spotify helped increased album sales, rather than cannibalising them.

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PageBreak — OPERA METROPOLITAN OPERA The Met wraps up its “Ring” cycle, and its season, this week. “Siegfried,” which earned some of the best reviews of Robert Lepage’s four productions, features a strong cast (including Deborah Voigt, Stephen Gould, and Bryn . . .

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New York City Ballet’s season, which began on Tuesday, brought 12 ballets into repertory by Saturday night, going back to 1934 and up to 2006.

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The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, the symphony behind Disney’s “Fantasia,” will hold a special fundraising drive this summer with a unique goal: collect enough money to get out of bankruptcy.

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No built-in apps or Android version for now, but does promise of a and #39;unique experience and #39; hold true’ Spotify finally has an iPad app. The streaming music service has launched a native app for Apple and #39;s tablet, following in the footsteps of rivals Rdio, Mog and Deezer. Journalists and subscribers alike have been asking Spotify about its iPad plans for some time, with the topic even overshadowing the …

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A promotion at The Wave Centre in Maryport should leave blues fans tickled pink this month.

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The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra’s concert on Tuesday night at Alice Tully Hall featured a varied approach to ornamentation, as it did in its most recent release, a disc of Bach’s four orchestral suites.

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A selected guide to classical music performances in New York.

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A property development company belonging to the Westlife singer Shane Filan has been placed in receivership in the Republic of Ireland.

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City Ballet opened its spring season on Tuesday with three works by George Balanchine, “Serenade,” “Kammermusik No. 2” and the “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet.”

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Mark Radcliffe is one of the icons of the British music scene, star of BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 and 6 Music he will be appearing at the Burnley Rock and Blues Festival Guest Stage on Sunday 5th May.

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On Monday the Australian Chamber Orchestra played works by Webern, Crumb and others at Zankel Hall, joined by Dawn Upshaw.

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Carrie Underwood’s fourth album, “Blown Away,” is a one-two punch of brutality.

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The idea of combining two opposing cultural expressions was to create a musical traffic jam and in doing so, invent a new and unique identity.

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Rapper singer Azealia Banks has cancelled some of her appearances in the UK after label bosses told her to spend more time on her debut album.

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PageBreak — OPERA METROPOLITAN OPERA Natalie Dessay has enchanted sold-out crowds in bel-canto vehicles by Donizetti, but Verdi’s “La Traviata” is another challenge entirely. The role of Violetta requires a bigger, warmer voice and more dramatic inflection than this petite coloratura . . .

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Mutual admiration appeared to be the sentiment as Simon Rattle conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

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The Californian house where it is believed that Marilyn Monroe and President Kennedy conducted their illicit affair has gone on the market for $12 million.

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Rapper singer Azealia Banks has cancelled some of her appearances in the UK after label bosses told her to spend more time on her debut album.

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Mr. Fiorato was a former child prodigy who would go on to become the conductor of the New York City Ballet and one of its most enduring influences.

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Santigold will release her new album, “Master of My Make-Believe,” on May 1.

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A selected guide to classical music performances in New York.

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Spotify founder Daniel Ek has earned £190 million in just six years from a 10-million-user music service some predict is poised to overtake Apple and #39;s iTunes.

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