#national arts centre orchestra

[damienkarras73]

Last night I went with my friend to the National Arts Centre to watch the NAC orchestra perform the full score to Jurassic Park alongside the movie. She had never seen it and was under the impression it was a kids movie. Her reaction to this bit was an all-timer.

[suchananewsblog]

Zubin Mehta is back in Mumbai to perform for the first time with the Symphony Orchestra of India

After arriving in Mumbai earlier this week, celebrated conductor Zubin Mehta has spent a good amount of time on stage. He has been rehearsing with the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), with whom he is performing for the first time. “I am quite impressed with the musicians I have interacted with,” he says. Zubin will conduct two shows at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on August 19 and 21. The line up…

[lboogie1906]

Measha Brueggergosman-Lee (born Measha Gosman; June 28, 1977) is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards. Her recordings of both classical and popular music have received awards.

She played the lead in the premiere of the opera Beatrice Chancy by James Rolfe and George Elliott Clarke.

She has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director Geoffrey Moull, National Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman, and at Roy Thomson Hall.

She has performed internationally, in the US, Germany, and other nations. She was in Elektra, Dead Man Walking, and Turandot with the Cincinnati Opera. She has performed the Verdi Requiem with Sir Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Helmuth Rilling at the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

She was a soloist in recording Songs of Innocence and Experience, which won three Grammy awards, including Best Classical Album.

She was a new performer at the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, singing in the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ medley and closing the show with “Ave Maria”.

She has performed in the US with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, in their performance of Michael Tippett’s oratorio A Child of Our Time.

She performed the role of Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Madrid’s Teatro Real.

She performed the Olympic Hymn at the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games. She performed an arrangement of the English-sung version of the hymn in English and French to reflect Canada’s official languages.

She married Markus Brügger (1999-2018). They have two sons. She married jazz guitarist Steve Lee (2021). #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[mariacallous]

At the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv recently, I watched a performance of an opera by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. The work, charming and comic and an escape from the grimness of Russian missile attacks, is called Natalka Poltavka, based on a play by Ivan Kotliarevsky, who pioneered Ukrainian-language literature in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Operas by Verdi, Puccini and Mozart, and ballets such as Giselle and La Sylphide, are on the playbill, despite the almost daily air raid sirens. But there is no Eugene Onegin in sight, nor a Queen of Spades, and not a whisper of those Tchaikovsky staples of ballet, Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake. Russian literature and music, Russian culture of all kinds, is off the menu in wartime Ukraine. It is almost a shock to return to the UK and hear Russian music blithely played on Radio 3.

This absence, some would say erasure, can be hard to comprehend outside Ukraine. When a symphony orchestra in Cardiff removed the 1812 Overture from a programme this spring, there was bafflement verging on an outcry: excising Tchaikovsky was allowing Vladimir Putin and his chums the satisfaction of “owning” Russian culture – it was censorship, it was playing into Russia’s hands. Tchaikovsky himself was not only long dead, but had been an outsider and an internationalist – so the various arguments went. It took some careful explanation to convey that a piece of music glorifying Russian military achievements, and involving actual cannons, might be somewhere beyond poor taste when Russia was at that moment shelling Ukrainian cities – particularly when the families of orchestra members were directly affected.

In fact, such moments have been rare in western Europe. Chekhov and Lermontov continue to be read and Mussorgsky to be performed. Russian culture has not been “cancelled” as Putin claims, and Russian-born musicians and dancers with international careers continue to perform in the west – assuming they have offered a minimum of public deprecation of the killing and destruction being visited on Ukraine. Only the most naive would decry the removal of Valery Gergiev from international concert programmes. The conductor, who is seen as close to Putin, backed the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 (unrecognised by most UN countries), has declined to condemn the current full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has a history of using his artistic profile in the service of the Russian state, such as conducting concerts in Russian-backed South Ossetia in 2008 in the wake of the Russo-Georgian war.

Inside Ukraine, though, things look very different. For many, the current war with Russia is being seen as a “war of decolonisation”, as Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk has put it – a moment in which Ukraine has the chance to free itself, at last, from being an object of Russian imperialism. This decolonisation involves a “total rejection of Russian content and Russian culture”, as the writer Oleksandr Mykhed told the Lviv BookForum recently. These are not words that are comfortable to hear – not if, like me, you spent your late teens immersed in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Chekhov stories; not if you have recently rekindled your love of Russian short fiction via George Saunders’ luminous book, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain; not if you adore Stravinsky and would certainly be taking a disc of The Rite of Spring to your desert island.

The context for this rejection has to be understood, though: Ukrainians are emerging from a history in which the Russian empire, and then the Soviet Union, actively and often violently suppressed Ukrainian art. This has worked in a number of different ways. It has included the absorption of numerous Ukrainian artists and writers into the Russian centre (such as Nikolai Gogol, or Mykola Hohol in Ukrainian), and the misclassifying of hundreds of artists as Russian when they could arguably be better described as Ukrainian (such as the painter Kazimir Malevich, who was Kyiv-born but Russian, according to the Tate). It has meant that writing in Ukrainian has at times been proscribed – Ukraine’s national poet, Taras Shevchenko, was banned from writing at all for a decade by Tsar Nicholas I. This silencing has encompassed the extermination of Ukrainian artists, like the killing, under Stalin, of hundreds of writers in 1937, known as “the executed renaissance”. Behind all of this stands horrific events such as the Holodomor, the starvation of about 4.5 million Ukrainians in 1932-33 in their forced effort to produce grain on Stalin’s orders.

This history places Ukraine in a very different position in relation to Russian culture than, say, Britain found itself in relation to German and Austrian art during the second world war, when Myra Hess programmed Mozart, Bach and Beethoven in her National Gallery concerts during the Blitz. “We have had cultural occupation, language occupation, art occupation and occupation with weapons. There’s not much difference between them,” the composer Igor Zavgorodniy tells me. In the Soviet period, Ukrainian culture was allowed to be harmlessly folksy – and Ukrainians, caricatured as drunken yokels dressed in Cossack trousers, were often the butt of belittling jokes. But Ukraine was not expected or allowed to carry a high culture of its own. At the same time, Russian artistic achievement was lauded as the very apex of human greatness. “We were raised in a certain piety towards the Russian literature,” explains the playwright Natalya Vorozhbit, who was educated in the Soviet period. “There wasn’t such piety towards any other literature.”

Putin himself has effectively doubled down on all this through his constant insistence, in his essays and often rambling speeches, that Ukraine has no separate existence from Russia – no identity, no culture at all, except as an adjunct of its neighbour. Indeed, his claim of Russia’s cultural inseparability from Ukraine is one of his key justifications for invasion. At the same time the Russian instrumentalisation of its artistic history is breathtakingly blatant. In occupied Kherson, billboards proclaiming it as a “city with Russian history”, show an image of Pushkin, who visited the city in 1820. Ukrainian artists also object to how, in a more general way, the projection of Russia as a great nation of artistic brilliance operates as a tool of soft power, a kind of ambient hum of positivity that, they would argue, softens the true brutality of today’s invasion. In Ukraine, there is a generalised cry of “bullshit” in relation to the myth of the “Russian soul”.

Some Ukrainians I speak to hope that one day, beyond the end of the war, there will be a way of consuming Russian literature and music – but first the work of decolonisation must be done, including the rereading and rethinking of classic authors, unravelling how they reflected and, at times, projected the values of the Russian empire. In the meantime, “My child will be perfectly all right growing up without Pushkin or Dostoevsky,” says Vorozhbit. “I don’t feel sorry.”

For many Ukrainians I encounter, the time for Russian literature will come again – when it can be critically understood as simply another branch of world culture, and as neither an unduly oppressive, nor overwhelming, force. At the National Opera House, I ask the choreographer Viktor Lytvynov when he thinks Tchaikovsky – a composer he loves – will be back on the programme. “When Russian stops being an aggressor,” he says. “When Russia stops being an evil empire.”

[white-cat-of-doom]

Essential 'This is not CATS' post.

Mozart & Shostakovich played by the NAC Orchestra, featuring Jessica Linnebach, and conducted by John Storgårds, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to be exact, back where I saw CATS for the very first (and second and third) time.

[dressupjohnnyk]

Tonight I’m going to hear the National Arts Centre Orchestra and baritone Joshua Hopkins perform the powerful song cycle “Song for Murdered Sisters” - composed by Jake Heggie based on original poetry by Margaret Atwood.

[whatsonmedia]

Music Monday 5 New Releases & Tour: Dua Lipa and more!

Music lovers, rejoice! This week brings a fresh wave of releases and tour announcements from a range of talented artists. From Michele Ducci's solo debut to ANOHNI and the Johnsons' North American tour, there's something for everyone. Dig in and discover your new favorite music! Former M+A & Santii member Michele Ducci release debut solo music album 'SIVE' via Monotreme Records! Listen  https://open.spotify.com/album/6yDhMQs8lW6iXnV4cRRrZJ?si=mhkMv7IpRh6OhAX4Rv9RKQ From successful duo to successful solo artist Michele Ducci is becoming a strong singer songwriter in his own right. For his debut record SIVE heralds a new era for him. Don't be fooled into guessing the rest of the album after the first song. Michele's voice creates a smooth musical landscape.  ANOHNI and the Johnsons Unveil New Song ‘Breaking’ via Rough Trade Records & North American Tour Dates added Watch https://youtu.be/9VOn8RLPUcM A video that, like the song, sounds like it just flows by softly and has an uplifting guitar tunes. I actually enjoy acoustic songs so this is definitely one for the playlist. Anohni has got that voice that not only tells a story but carries the emotion as well  ANOHNI and the Johnsons 2024 Tour Dates - Thursday, June 13 - Athens, GR @ The Acropolis - Saturday, June 15 - Ravenna, IT @ Pala De Andrea - Ravenna Festival - Tuesday, June 18 - Madrid, ESP @ Noches de Botanica - Thursday, June 20 - San Sebastian, ESP @ Kursaal Auditorium - Wednesday, June 26 - Paris, FR @ Philharmonie de Paris - Thursday, June 27 - Paris, FR @ Philharmonie de Paris - Saturday, June 29 - Manchester, UK @ The Hall, Aviva Studios - Monday, July 1 - London, UK @ The Barbican SOLD OUT - Tuesday, July 2 - London, UK @ The Barbican SOLD OUT - Saturday, July 6 - Ghent, BE @ Ghent Jazz Festival SOLD OUT - Tuesday, July 9 - Berlin, DE @ Citadel Music Festival - Friday, July 12 - Copenhagen, DK @ DR Koncerthuset - Copenhagen Jazz Festival - Saturday, July 13 - Copenhagen, DK @ DR Koncerthuset - Copenhagen Jazz Festival - Tuesday, September 24 - Mexico CIty, MX @ Teatro Metropolitan - Friday, September 27 - Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall - Saturday, September 28 - Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall - Tuesday, October 1 - Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre - Saturday, October 5 - Vancouver, BC @ Chan Centre for the Performing Arts - Monday, October 7 - Seattle, WA @ The Paramount - Saturday, October 12 - Chicago, IL @ Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center - Tuesday, October 15 - Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall - Friday, October 18 - Brooklyn, NY @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House - Saturday, October 19 - Brooklyn, NY @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House ANOHNI Online Instagram Website Twitter This Is The Kit announce 'Live At The Minack Theatre' album - out now + share video Watch the performance of 'Hotter Colder' Now if I had to say why I like performance videos where the artist does a gig before a live crowd it'd be for these reasons; it's intimate you get to see reactions from both the audience and the artist. I enjoy them because it shows just how far they've come since their earliest gigs  This Is The Kit Tour Dates: - Jun 25 - Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK - Jun 26-30 - Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, UK - Jul 02 - Eden Project, Cornwall, UK w/ the National - Jul 04 - Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, UK w/ The National - Jul 05 - Crystal Palace Park, London, UK w/ The National - Aug 05 - Scene Ella Fitzgerald Geneva, CH - Aug 10 - The Court House, Bangor NI, UK w/ Rozi Plain - Aug 11 - An Taibhdhearc, Galway, IE w/ Rozi Plain - Aug 12 - Levis Corner House, Balleydehob, IE w/ Rozi Plain - Aug 14 - Kilkenny Arts Festival, IE, Kilkenny - Aug 16 - Green Man Festival, UK Brecon Beacons - Aug 17 - Cheese & Grain, Frome, UK - Aug 18 - Beautiful Days, Devon, UK Instagram https://twitter.com/thisisthekit Facebook Lankum 'Live in Dublin' album to be released on June 21st via Rough Trade Records - UK, US and Europe Tour Dates - Listen to ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’ now Having been fortunate to have heard some Irish traditional music growing up this just hits all the boxes for me. Apart from the traditional instrumentals I enjoy how the songs are more like stories than songs as it persuades you to listen longer and know what happens  Hear 'The Rocky Road to Dublin' now https://youtu.be/JxdN41JfbfE?feature=shared Album 'Rocky Road to Dublin' Single Forthcoming Lankum Tour Dates - 18.05 – London, Hackney Empire (sold out) - 19.05 – London, Hackney Empire (sold out) - 25.05 – Utrecht, TivoliVredenburg (sold out) - 01.06 – Barcelona, Primavera Sound festival - 06.06 – Porto, Primavera Sound Festival - 08.06 - Dublin, In The Meadows - 29.06 - Pilton, Glastonbury Festival - 06.07 – Roskilde, Roskilde Festival - 28.07 – Henham Park, Latitude Festival - 25.08 - Bristol, The Downs w/ Massive Attack - 30.08.- Larmer Tree Gardens, End Of The Road Festival - 07.09 - Copenhagen, Store Vega - 14.09 - Brussels, Ancienne Belgique - 20.09 - Prague, Archa+ - 23.09 – Berlin, Theater des Westens - 28.09 – Barcelona, Sala Apolo - 26.10 – London, Eventim Apollo - 02.11 – Stockholm, Nalen Stora Salen - 08.11 – Brooklyn, New York - Warsaw - 09.11 – Brooklyn, New York – Warsaw (sold out) - 22.11 - Oslo – Rockefeller Lankum are Ian Lynch, Daragh Lynch, Radie Peat and Cormac MacDiarmada Dua Lipa - Houdini Let's be completely honest now, when has the British/Albanian talented music sensation ever released a bad record. Remember her earlier release, One Kiss with Calvin Harris? and anything since then has demonstrated that she's got what it takes to stay in the game. Even songs about trying to get an admirer to show they've got what it takes to satisfy their attention  Watch https://youtu.be/suAR1PYFNYA?si=MmWwQl4pj-kyaCpF Former M+A & Santii member Michele Ducci release debut solo music album 'SIVE' via Monotreme Records! ANOHNI and the Johnsons Unveil New Song ‘Breaking’ via Rough Trade Records & North American Tour Dates addedANOHNI and the Johnsons 2024 Tour Dates This Is The Kit announce 'Live At The Minack Theatre' album - out now + share videoThis Is The Kit Tour Dates: Dua Lipa - Houdini To get more latest updates on music visit WhatsOn Read the full article

[char1ottee]

London Culture🇬🇧

Music🎤

The Royal Albert Hall hosts concerts and musical events, including The Proms which are held every summer, as well as cinema screenings of films accompanied with live orchestral music.

London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and hosts major music corporations, such as Universal Music Group International and Warner Music Group, and countless bands, musicians and industry professionals. The city is also home to many orchestras and concert halls, such as the Barbican Arts Centre (principal base of the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus), the Southbank Centre (London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Royal Albert Hall (The Proms). The Proms, an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music first held in 1895, ends with the Last Night of the Proms. London's two main opera houses are the Royal Opera House and the London Coliseum (home to the English National Opera). The UK's largest pipe organ is at the Royal Albert Hall. Other significant instruments are in cathedrals and major churches—the church bells of St Clement Danes feature in the 1744 nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". Several conservatoires are within the city: Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity Laban. The record label EMI was formed in the city in 1931, and an early employee for the company, Alan Blumlein, created stereo sound that year.

Abbey Road Studios in Abbey Road

London has numerous venues for rock and pop concerts, including the world's busiest indoor venue, the O2 Arena, and Wembley Arena, as well as many mid-sized venues, such as Brixton Academy, the Hammersmith Apollo and the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Several music festivals, including the Wireless Festival, Lovebox and Hyde Park's British Summer Time, are held in London.

The city is home to the original Hard Rock Cafe and the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded many of their hits. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, musicians and groups like Elton John, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, Queen, Eric Clapton, the Who, Cliff Richard, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, T. Rex, the Police, Elvis Costello, Dire Straits, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, the Cure, Madness, Culture Club, Dusty Springfield, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Status Quo and Sade, derived their sound from the streets and rhythms of London.

London was instrumental in the development of punk music, with figures such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood all based in the city. Other artists to emerge from the London music scene include George Michael, Kate Bush, Seal, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bush, the Spice Girls, Jamiroquai, Blur, the Prodigy, Gorillaz, Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, Dido, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Leona Lewis, Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa and Florence and the Machine. Artists from London played a prominent role in the development of synth-pop, including Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, the Pet Shop Boys and Eurythmics; the latter's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was recorded in the attic of their north London home, heralding a trend for home recording methods. Artists from London with a Caribbean influence include Hot Chocolate, Billy Ocean, Soul II Soul and Eddy Grant, with the latter fusing reggae, soul and samba with rock and pop. London is also a centre for urban music. In particular the genres UK garage, drum and bass, dubstep and grime evolved in the city from the foreign genres of house, hip hop, and reggae, alongside local drum and bass. Music station BBC Radio 1Xtra was set up to support the rise of local urban contemporary music both in London and in the rest of the United Kingdom. The British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards, the Brit Awards, are held in London.

Leisure and entertainment🛍️

Leisure is a major part of the London economy. A 2003 report attributed a quarter of the entire UK leisure economy to London at 25.6 events per 1000 people. The city is one of the four fashion capitals of the world, and, according to official statistics, is the world's third-busiest film production centre, presents more live comedy than any other city, and has the biggest theatre audience of any city in the world.

Within the City of Westminster in London, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs, and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district (in Soho), and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops. The city is the home of Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose musicals have dominated West End theatre since the late 20th century. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play, has been performed in the West End since 1952. The Laurence Olivier Awards–named after Laurence Olivier–are given annually by the Society of London Theatre. The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Opera, and English National Opera are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, the London Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theatre, and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as touring the country.

Islington's 1 mile (1.6 km) long Upper Street, extending northwards from Angel, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK. Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long, making it the longest shopping street in the UK. It is home to vast numbers of retailers and department stores, including Selfridges flagship store. Knightsbridge, home to the equally renowned Harrods department store, lies to the south-west. Opened in 1760 with its flagship store on Regent Street since 1881, Hamleys is the oldest toy store in the world. Madame Tussauds wax museum opened in Baker Street in 1835, an era viewed as being when London's tourism industry began.

London is home to designers John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Manolo Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo, among others; its renowned art and fashion schools make it one of the four international centres of fashion. Mary Quant designed the miniskirt in her King's Road boutique in Swinging Sixties London. London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane and the Chinese restaurants of Chinatown. There are Chinese takeaways throughout London, as are Indian restaurants which provide Indian and Anglo-Indian cuisine. Around 1860, the first fish and chips shop in London was opened by Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant, in Bow. The full English breakfast dates from the Victorian era, and many cafes in London serve a full English breakfast throughout the day. London has five 3-Michelin star restaurants, including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. Many hotels in London provide a traditional afternoon tea service, such as the Oscar Wilde Lounge at the Hotel Café Royal in Piccadilly, and a themed tea service is also available, for example an Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea served at the Egerton House Hotel, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed afternoon tea at One Aldwych in Covent Garden. The nation's most popular biscuit to dunk in tea, chocolate digestives have been manufactured by McVitie's at their Harlesden factory in north-west London since 1925.

There is a variety of annual events, beginning with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, a fireworks display at the London Eye; the world's second largest street party, the Notting Hill Carnival, is held on the late August Bank Holiday each year. Traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the city, and June's Trooping the Colour, a formal military pageant performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and British armies to celebrate the King's Official Birthday. The Boishakhi Mela is a Bengali New Year festival celebrated by the British Bangladeshi community. It is the largest open-air Asian festival in Europe. After the Notting Hill Carnival, it is the second-largest street festival in the United Kingdom attracting over 80,000 visitors. First held in 1862, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (run by the Royal Horticultural Society) takes place in May every year.

LGBT scene🏳️‍🌈

The first gay bar in London in the modern sense was The Cave of the Golden Calf, established as a night club in an underground location at 9 Heddon Street, just off Regent Street, in 1912 and "which developed a reputation for sexual freedom and tolerance of same-sex relations."

While London has been an LGBT tourism destination, after homosexuality was decriminalised in England in 1967 gay bar culture became more visible, and from the early 1970s Soho (and in particular Old Compton Street) became the centre of the London LGBT community. G-A-Y, previously based at the Astoria, and now Heaven, is a long-running night club.

Wider British cultural movements have influenced LGBT culture: for example, the emergence of glam rock in the UK in the early 1970s, via Marc Bolan and David Bowie, saw a generation of teenagers begin playing with the idea of androgyny, and the West End musical The Rocky Horror Show, which debuted in London in 1973, is also widely said to have been an influence on countercultural and sexual liberation movements. The Blitz Kids (which included Boy George) frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, helping launch the New Romantic subcultural movement in the late 1970s. Today, the annual London Pride Parade and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival are held in the city.

Literature, film and television🎥

London has been the setting for many works of literature. The pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's late 14th-century Canterbury Tales set out for Canterbury from London. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based there, and some of his work, most notably his play The Alchemist, was set in the city. A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague.

The literary centres of London have traditionally been hilly Hampstead and (since the early 20th century) Bloomsbury. Writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, noted for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire; Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has influenced people's vision of early Victorian London; and Virginia Woolf, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th century. Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Robert Louis Stevenson mixed in London literary circles, and in 1886 he wrote the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a gothic novella set in Victorian London. In 1898, H. G. Wells' sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds sees London (and the south of England) invaded by Martians. Letitia Elizabeth Landon wrote Calendar of the London Seasons in 1834. Modern writers influenced by the city include Peter Ackroyd, author of a "biography" of London, and Iain Sinclair, who writes in the genre of psychogeography. In the 1940s, George Orwell wrote essays in the London Evening Standard, most notably "A Nice Cup of Tea" (method for making tea) and "The Moon Under Water" (an ideal pub). The WWII evacuation of children from London is depicted in C. S. Lewis' first Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950). On Christmas Eve 1925, Winnie-the-Pooh debuted in London's Evening News, with the character based on a stuffed toy A. A. Milne bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods. In 1958, author Michael Bond created Paddington Bear, a refugee found in London Paddington station. A screen adaptation, Paddington (2014), features the calypso song "London is the Place for Me".

London has played a significant role in the film industry. Major studios within or bordering London include Pinewood, Elstree, Ealing, Shepperton, Twickenham, and Leavesden, with the James Bond and Harry Potter series among many notable films produced here. Working Title Films has its headquarters in London. A post-production community is centred in Soho, and London houses six of the world's largest visual effects companies, such as Framestore. The Imaginarium, a digital performance-capture studio, was founded by Andy Serkis. London has been the setting for films including Oliver Twist (1948), Scrooge (1951), Peter Pan (1953), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), Mary Poppins (1964), Blowup (1966), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Long Good Friday (1980), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Notting Hill (1999), Love Actually (2003), V for Vendetta (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2008) and The King's Speech (2010). Notable actors and filmmakers from London include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Caine, Julie Andrews, Peter Sellers, David Lean, Julie Christie, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Guy Ritchie, Christopher Nolan, Alan Rickman, Jude Law, Helena Bonham Carter, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Daniel Radcliffe, Keira Knightley, Daniel Kaluuya and Daniel Day-Lewis. Post-war Ealing comedies featured Alec Guinness, from the 1950s Hammer Horrors starred Christopher Lee, films by Michael Powell included the London-set early slasher Peeping Tom (1960), the 1970s comedy troupe Monty Python had film editing suites in Covent Garden, while since the 1990s Richard Curtis's rom-coms have featured Hugh Grant. The largest cinema chain in the country, Odeon Cinemas was founded in London in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) have been held in London since 1949, with the BAFTA Fellowship the Academy's highest accolade. Founded in 1957, the BFI London Film Festival takes place over two weeks every October.

London is a major centre for television production, with studios including Television Centre, ITV Studios, Sky Campus and Fountain Studios; the latter hosted the original talent shows, Pop Idol, The X Factor, and Britain's Got Talent, before each format was exported around the world. Formerly a franchise of ITV, Thames Television featured comedians such as Benny Hill and Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean was first screened by Thames), while Talkback produced Da Ali G Show which featured Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G. Many television shows have been set in London, including the popular television soap opera EastEnders.

[classicalmin]

Arte Master Beethoven Masterclass

Arte 11:23am November 24th 2023 Ann McCaffert

We are happy to invite aspiring musician and music educator to join our annual “Master Beethoven” masterclass that will take place in London on January 10 2024. “Master Beethoven” masterclasses, a tradition of Arte, is dedicated exclusively to Beethoven’s music work and gives a superb opportunity to dive deep and give musician and music educators a week-long workshop to explore these timeless masterpieces.

We are very excited to join forces again with Arte friend and long time collaborator, Karen Karana Tse.

Karen Karana Tse was born on October 30 in Hong Kong, China and raised in Canada allowed Karen to pursue her education in piano music, and a Master in Music Therapy which eventually led her to an extensive career in children music education. Karen required brain surgery at a very young age to remove a blockage which was impeding blood flow. Concerned that these surgeries at such an young age would affect her brain development, her medical profession caregivers encouraged Karen to begin training in music and to learn different musical instruments to stimulate her brain development and assist in her recovery process. Karen returned to Hong Kong in 2004 and began her career in music education. In subsequent years, Karen organised numerous Student Concerts at the Hong Kong Arts Centre and Hong Kong City Hall venues in an effort to help increase her students’ discipline and help build their confidence through competitive stage performances.

Karen began her music education career in 2004 offering young children private piano lessons which later expanded to other instruments such as violin and harp.

In 2015, Karen created her U.K. registered signature String & Keyboard Musik Program ® developed for educational learning settings and specifically designed for children aged 2–8 years old. The program strived to stimulate young students towards a more eager and proactive approach to engaging in music.

From 2016 to 2018, Karen participated in judging various open music festivals and competitions in Beijing, China.

Karen founded Inspire Kids Orchestra[1] in 2018 for under-privileged children where young aspiring musicians who studied in her education programs can participate in Hong Kong’s music culture and showcase their on-stage performance techniques.

From 2018 to current, Karen is the representative and organiser in Hong Kong and Macau for the National Star and Torch Art Talent Competition of China. [2] Karen was the Art Director in the 2018’s 50th Anniversary of The Yellow River and 60th Anniversary of Butterfly Lovers celebratory music event in Hong Kong announced in an on-air interview in Hong Kong’s TVB channel exposé.

From 2019 to current, Karen is the representative in Hong Kong and Macau of China National Campus Health Action Event. [3]

Karen published Music Dynamics Story Book[4] in 2019 to help young children discover the power of music in their young lives.

In 2020, founded Children’s Music Fund Foundation China[5] in Foshan, China to offer under-privileged children in China an early music education environment, by providing them an enjoyable opportunity to build their confidence and allow them to express themselves through music.

In 2021, Karen participated in an online piano master class forum, Warum Musik für kinder wichtig ist[6] Berlin, Germany over the importance of music towards children. Karen’s String & Keyboard Musik Program also partnered with Music Australia Network during their Kindergarten Music Festival for Young Children®️ [7] where she held online seminars for parents to review the positive influence music can have on children of kindergarten age. In the U.K., Karen held an online seminar, The Understanding of Music Seminar for Festival of Music organisation[8], to teach music composition. She also had been invited by Toronto, Healing Voice Services[9] to represented a Music Therapy project and interviewed by CTV channel,Canada.

In 2022, Karen participated in a live stream performance at the Festival de Música Clásica de Nueva Creación[10] in Barcelona, Spain. Karen was a livestream instructor at Masterclass Di Musica 2022[11] organised by Concorso in Rome, Italy to share her experiences in piano skills. In France, Karen participated in an online class in conjunction with Magazine de l’éducation des enfants [12] to teach 3–6 years old, children musicals. In New York, New York, Karen was the organizer of The Music EDUCATOR Summit, [13] a 3-day virtual conference with nationally recognized educational leaders. In Germany, she was invited by German Music TV (Stingray Classica TV)[14] to shoot a music promotional video for the classical event in 2023. In the meantime, Karen has been performing a Beethoven Series Moonlight Sonata with candlelights at London Freemasons Hall[15].

In 2022 – 2023 she performed Beethoven Series Moonlight Sonata in several International Piano competitions and won the top 7 piano competitions in Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Singapore, the USA, and the U.K. Karen obtained an Australian Sydney Music educators Awards in January this year and in March she was interviewed by London BBC[16] introducing her new music composition.

From February to May 2023, Karen participated in Travel the World with Beethoven [17]event. She has performed recitals and Masterclasses in Poland, Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, Texas, New York, Barcelona, Seoul, Melbourne, and Sydney.

In June Karen participated in a live-stream performance in the Vancouver, Canada Beethoven of All[18] program and also performed Musica classica nel 2023［19］live-streamed in Rome, Italy.

From July to October, Karen participated in judging various open music festivals and competitions in Los Angeles, the United States at the Children Piano Competition［20], and in Warsaw, Poland at Miedzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny Power Music and perhaps she has performed in Johann Sebastian Bach Live-Streaming Solo Recital & Master Class[21] in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, China, Shanghai, China, Beijing, China, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore. She has organise 4 live-streamed school music programs for String & Keyboard Musik Program ® teachers, parents and students to share her experiences in music skills at Tokyo, Japan, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Frankfurt, Germany and Paris, France.

[independentartistbuzz]

 iskwē contemplates mortality and obsolescence on beat driven electronic pop single, “Sure To Come”

Montreal based artist iskwē | ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (short for waseskwan iskwew, meaning "blue sky woman") is a creator whose catalogue drips of a spectrum of emotions and is powered by resilience.

Her new release, “Sure To Come,” produced and mixed by 7x Grammy nominee Damian Taylor (Björk, Arcade Fire, The Killers, Bomba Estereo) is an assertively sung relinquishing of control.

The textured and beat driven electronic pop song speaks to the sense of calm which iskwē feels knowing that someday she’ll be forgotten. 

“We cancel each other at the push of a button, we crumble at the thought of being entirely alone. Whether it be our turn now or tomorrow, that day is sure to come,” explains the artist.

Feature iskwē’s propulsive new single, “Sure To Come,” over at OUTLET:

iskwē recently received the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Award (2022) and her video for “Little Star” won the Juno for Music Video of the Year (2020). Her 2018 album, The Fight Within was Juno-nominated for Indigenous Album of the Year and garnered her a spot on the Polaris Music Prize Long List. 

She has performed hundreds of shows in Canada and internationally, including Canadian highlights at Ottawa’s Parliament Hill on Canada Day and a triumphant performance with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in October 2019, in New York City at the Met and SummerStage in Central Park, and beyond for the King and Queen of Sweden, Reeperbahn in Germany, and Border Crossing’s Origins Festival in England. 

iskwē is an ambassador for the PRS Keychange initiative. Originally hailing from Treaty 1 territory, iskwē now calls Montreal, QC home.

[starfriday]

TEDXGATEWAY RETURNS TO MUMBAI WITH A LINEUP FEATURING ICONIC SPEAKERS AND REMARKABLE IDEAS TO INSPIRE THE FUTURE

The upcoming edition in association with the Aditya Birla Group will spotlight 24 speakers and will be hosted at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on 4th June 2023

Mumbai, 22nd May 2023: TEDXGateway, India’s largest platform for breakthrough ideas, and conversations presented in a radical format, is scheduled to take place in Mumbai on Sunday, 4th June at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA JBT).

Known to bring together an exceptional list of creators, thinkers and catalysts from across the world, this edition too will play host to individuals - on stage and in the audience, who through their work, have reimagined and revitalised the will to challenge the world we live in.

Attendees who have previously been witness to this exchange have described their time at the events as one that offers a glimpse into the future, in the company of those creating it. Accepted globally as a platform for the exchange of ideas, TEDXGateway 2023 will continue to give firsthand access to ideas and conversations that have potential to propel us into a better future.

For the first time, this year, the platform will present the Big Idea Scholarship Pass by the Aditya Birla Group. If you are a young innovator with on your way to build the next big thing or a truth teller in the early stages of your career or know of someone who is, the Big Idea Scholarship & Pass gives you the opportunity to be present at TEDXGateway 2023 in the same venue as some of the world’s most enterprising and creative minds. Apply here.

This edition will also feature 24 esteemed Indian/International speakers from diverse professional backgrounds, sitting at the intersection of science, technology, humanities, culture, environmentalism, activism and more:

NAME OF SPEAKER

TOPIC OF CONVERSATION

DOMAIN

Anirudh Krishna - Public Policy Expert, Duke University

Achieving Excellence by Investing in Talent Ladders

Policy

Robert Katzschmann - Robotics Expert, ETH Zurich

Why is it Necessary to Build Machines that Resemble Nature and Humans?

Soft Robotics

Alexander Macdonald - Chief Economist at NASA

A New NASA Project

Space

Smita Sharma - Independent Photojournalist

Trafficking Of Minor Girls - Photojournalistic Stories

Women’s Rights

Prof. Ramanan Laxminarayan - Epidemiologist, Princeton

5 Biggest Key Threats Likely for the Next Pandemic

Healthcare

Naheed Farid - Former Afghan Parliamentarian

Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Women’s Rights

Madhusudan Rapole - Clean Energy Innovator

Topic of conversation to be shared shortly

Climate Change

Agata Blasiak - Digital Healthcare Expert

The Power of Digital Therapeutics

Healthcare

Kelly Wanser - Climate Innovator & TED Speaker

Climate Intervention Technologies

Climate Change

Bharat Vatwani - Mental Health Activist

Social Work led by Emotion

Mental Health

Mohit Raj - Prison Reformer

Prison Reform with Prisoners as Leaders

Social Work

Arun Sundararajan - Economist

Should we own our AI?

Technology and Social Transformation

Aadeel Akhtar - Roboticist

Bionic Revolution of Affordable & Quality Prosthetic Devices

Innovation

Daniel Bögre Udell - Language Activist

Revitalization of Languages and why is it important

Language

Michelle Drouin

Overcoming the Intimacy Famine in the post- Covid era

Love and Intimacy

Moran Cerf - Neuroscientist

Critical Decision Making

Neuroscience

Piyachart Phiromswad - Economist

Unleashing the Power of Ageing Population

Policy and Academia

Marco Tempest - Creative Technologist, NASA

Creating Illusions using AI and Technology

AI And Technology

Rashid. K - Innovator

Innovation for Social Good

Innovation

Radhika Batra

Preventing Permanent Blindness in Children

Healthcare

Deepa Unnikrishnan Aka Dee Mc - Artist

Performance

Khatija Rahman + Sunshine Orchestra

Performance

Sahil Vasudeva - Pianist

Performance

Tharanga Goonetilleke - Soprano

Performance

“TED has always been the cornerstone of innovation, insight, and storytelling. It has built a worldwide community committed to lifelong learning and to sparking positive change. As an extension of this thought in India, TEDXGateway addresses the curiosity, creativity, and enterprise of our audience. We have always passionately believed in the power of ideas that will change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. The upcoming edition this June in Mumbai, will be bold and brilliant — without apology. At TEDXGateway 2023, we’re shining a spotlight on 24 dazzling ideas from some of the world’s most extraordinary risk-takers and innovators. Attendees can expect a fast paced and curated daylong conference that will explore the most pressing questions of our time. The mainstage sessions will celebrate pioneers making power moves, and those who tirelessly show up as allies and advocates, setting in motion a community that is driven by curiosity, connecting both the speaker and listener.” said Yashraj Akashi, Curator of TEDXGateway and Senior Ambassador for the TEDX Program.

Speaking about the association, Percy Chowdhry, Director, Rustomjee Group, said: “Rustomjee is excited to partner with the upcoming edition of TEDxGateway and welcome the platform back in its physical form to Mumbai. Our philosophy at Rustomjee is to bring people together and form happy & healthy communities. And it is truly the power of ideas that have formed our blueprint for impactful change. Similarly, TED and TEDxGateway have been at the forefront of nurturing a global community - spanning domains, cultures, walks of life; and driven by curiosity. With this association, we look forward to an exchange of game-changing ideas that promises to set the foundation for our future.”

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Readers could: Book tickets here. Get more information on the speakers here.

To apply for the Big Idea Scholarship & Pass, visit this link

For more press information, visit: Airtable Press View

About TEDXGateway:

TED has originally stood for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are collectively shaping our world. Today, it encompasses the full spectrum of human ingenuity. But a TEDXGateway conference goes beyond, showcasing important research and ideas from all disciplines and exploring how they connect. The goal is to expand the imagination, make unexpected connections, inspire conversation and set the ball in motion for meaningful learning and change. Its signature blend of innovation, insight, and storytelling has ignited a worldwide community committed to lifelong learning and to sparking positive change.

[inapat16]

Overview of the preservation of the audiovisual sector in Tunisia 

Ever since I was a little girl, I remember walking to school every day in front of this big wasteland in construction at the centre of Tunis. Once I asked my mother, "What is this thing?" she said, "It's another Ben Ali construction site... God knows if it will ever be finished". I believed her but against all odds, after decades of nothingness, the giant ball of the city of culture in Tunis was finally constructed/erected.  

Inaugurated in 2018, مدينة الثقافة also known as La cité de la Culture is a building that offers Tunisian citizens a place where all components of Tunisian culture gather. There you can find different institutions as the National Centre for Puppetry Arts, The Tunisian Institute of Translation, The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Opera Theatre, the Tunis Opera Ballet, the Tunisian Symphony Orchestra, the National Music Troupe, the National Popular Arts Troupe and the Malouf House, the Maison du roman AND the National Centre for Cinema and Image with it film library.

A lot for one place, isn't it? 

Well, that's what this article is about. In my country, which I love so much, there are many good intentions, but they are often poorly implemented, especially in terms of sustainability. 

The Tunisian Cinematheque was originally the idea of Chiraz Latiri, a woman who directed this innovative and promising place at its very beginning. So many good intentions. According to her  views this place should be a place of transmission, resistance and memory, a Cinematheque that aims to enhance the values of heritage films by making them available to the audiences of today and tomorrow. It thus prevents the erosion of memory.

It therefore assumes an historical role, on the one hand, by participating in the democratic transition with the ambition of making cinema a tool for popular education, and on the other hand, by establishing reference points and instilling values. This form of contribution to the writing of history can only be a participatory project aiming to propagate civic-mindedness and citizenship through knowledge of the cinema. But... There is always a "but" since for the past two years, nothing is moving forward and no one is working to develop the project further.

First of all, the cinematheque is a small room of 15 square meters with only books. Ironic for a cinema venue not to have a cinema. No DVDs, no VHS, no film reels... 

As I asked to consult the collection and particularly the cataloguing/indexing of it, I was told that it was in the process of being transferred between Gammarth and Tunis, or that the films had to be requested by letter to the director general of the national film centre.  This is proof that there are many complications before accessing the information. The objective is far from being reached and with the rise of Kais Saied's government it is not about to accelerate or even evolve in the right direction. The project is not taking off and the place remains empty. Few are those who work to feed this cinematheque and this transfer of archives may take as much time and energy as the place that will host it..... La cité de la culture, 15 years of work for unsatisfying results.

Maya Labiadh

[musiqueclassiquefrance]

Musicien de musique classique Karen Karana Tse

Karen Karana Tse est professeur de musique et artiste Steinway

• Son parcours personnel pour devenir ce qui s'est avéré être le pouvoir de la musique.

• Elle invite la fac de musique de Paris le 19 février pour un concert exclusif. Au programme

:Beethoven

Karen Karana Tse, 39 ans, née à Hong Kong et élevée au Canada à un âge précoce, a permis à Karen de poursuivre et de développer ses études en musique pour piano à un jeune âge. Cela l'a guidée vers la musicothérapie, lui offrant une longue carrière dans l'éducation musicale des enfants et a ensuite élargi sa formation musicale à d'autres instruments. Elle étudie également actuellement pour un doctorat en philosophie de la musique. De retour à Hong Kong en 2004, elle est devenue professeur de musique à Hong Kong pendant la décennie suivante et a commencé divers concerts d'étudiants au Hong Kong Arts Centre et à l'hôtel de ville de Hong Kong avec ses étudiants. En 2015, Karen a créé le programme String & Keyboard Musik où elle a développé sa signature. Ce programme, créé pour les environnements d'apprentissage éducatifs, est exploité à l'échelle mondiale dans 100 établissements d'enseignement dans 52 villes à travers 11 pays, dont la France, l'Allemagne, l'Italie, le Canada, les États-Unis, la Grande Chine, Singapour, le Japon, Taïwan, la Malaisie et ainsi que deux sites au Royaume-Uni. à Liverpool et Manchester. En 2018, le programme a remporté des prix au Royaume-Uni. et aux États-Unis en 2019. En plus de s'impliquer personnellement dans son programme qui est actuellement enseigné dans 43 établissements d'enseignement à Hong Kong, Karen s'implique également dans des tâches philanthropiques en offrant son programme éducatif et en enseignant la musique sans frais aux enfants défavorisés comme ainsi que d'autres organismes culturels et caritatifs à but non lucratif. En 2015, elle a organisé divers concours et événements musicaux tout en étant invitée à juger d'autres concours musicaux internationaux, tels que le concours Top 3 de Chine et le concours Glamour China Series. En 2018, Karen a fondé Inspire Kids Orchestra. Un orchestre qu'elle a créé pour les enfants défavorisés pour ses élèves où les jeunes musiciens en herbe peuvent participer à la culture musicale de Hong Kong et présenter leurs performances sur scène. Plus récemment, Karen a été impliquée en tant que directrice artistique dans l'événement musical de célébration du 50e anniversaire du fleuve Jaune et du 60e anniversaire des amoureux des papillons à Hong Kong annoncé dans une interview en direct sur la chaîne TVB de Hong Kong. Karen est également devenue directrice du comité de la culture et de l'art de la jeunesse de l'administration chinoise et de l'association du palais national de Chine en 2018 et 2019. Parallèlement, elle est devenue la représentante et l'organisatrice à Hong Kong et à Macao du concours national Star and Torch Art Talent de Événement d'action pour la santé sur les campus nationaux en Chine et en Chine. En 2020, Karen a créé une fondation Children's Music Fund en Chine. Cette fondation a offert une opportunité d'éducation musicale précoce aux enfants défavorisés en Chine, leur offrant des expériences agréables pour renforcer la confiance des enfants, renforcer leur caractère et leur permettre de s'exprimer à travers la musique. Elle a également publié son nouveau livre d'histoires musicales Music Dynamics Story Book pour aider les jeunes enfants à découvrir le pouvoir de la musique dans leur jeune vie. En 2021-2022, Karen a également participé à un projet de musicothérapie aux États-Unis et au Canada, annoncé dans une entrevue avec CTVNEWS Canada.

[nurhanarman]

And the winner is.....Sinfonia Toronto announces the appointment of Québec violinist Daphné Bourbonnais to the orchestra's first violin section. At auditions on Monday Ms. Bourbonnais won the position from among nine invitees selected from more than a dozen applicants. In making the announcement Music Director Nurhan Arman commented that "Daphné Bourbonnais possesses a highly developed technique, a marvellously expressive bow arm and innate musicianship. She is a sensitive player and will be a great fit with our performing style. I am absolutely delighted to welcome her to Sinfonia Toronto." Born in Rimouski, Québec, Daphné completed her master’s degree at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, where she also obtained a Chamber Music Diploma. Daphné has played with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Orchestre de la Francophonie and l'Orchestre Symphonique de l’Estuaire. She has toured across Canada, Spain and South Korea. A new music enthusiast, Daphné loves to work with contemporary composers. She enjoys exploring different facets of the impact that music can have on everyone.  Daphné's first performance with Sinfonia Toronto will take place on Saturday, March 4 in the orchestra's "Mozart & Shostakovich" concert in George Weston Recital Hall at the Meridian Arts Centre. https://www.instagram.com/p/CoIQr84goI3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dan6085]

Here is a revised 7-day travel plan for Melbourne that does not include museums or the zoo:

Day 1: Arrival and exploration

Start by exploring Melbourne's city center, including the iconic Federation Square and the Melbourne Central shopping center

Take a walk along the Yarra River and visit the Southbank Promenade

Day 2: Melbourne's art and culture

Spend the day exploring Melbourne's art scene, starting with a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria

Check out the street art in the Hosier Lane and ACDC Lane

In the evening, catch a performance at the Melbourne Arts Centre or the Malthouse Theatre

Day 3: Day trip to the Yarra Valley

Take a day trip to the Yarra Valley, one of Melbourne's premier wine regions

Visit wineries and tasting rooms, and enjoy a scenic drive through the valley

Consider taking a hot air balloon ride for a unique perspective on the region

Day 4: Outdoor adventures

Spend the day exploring the great outdoors in Melbourne

Go hiking in the Dandenong Ranges, or visit the Yarra Bend Park for a leisurely walk or bike ride

For a more adrenaline-filled experience, try rock climbing or abseiling in the Grampians National Park

Day 5: Melbourne's food and drink scene

Explore Melbourne's vibrant food and drink scene

Visit the Queen Victoria Market for fresh produce and local specialties

Head to one of Melbourne's many breweries or bars for a drink, or dine at a top-rated restaurant

Day 6: Beach day

Head to one of Melbourne's beaches for a day of sun and sand

Consider visiting St. Kilda Beach, Brighton Beach, or the Mornington Peninsula

Day 7: Departure

Spend your final day in Melbourne shopping and sightseeing

Head to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a tour, or visit the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel for panoramic views of the city

In the evening, catch a performance at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra or Melbourne Opera before departing Melbourne.