Today is German violinist and pedagogue Kolja Blacher's 56th birthday. A student of Dorothy DeLay and Sandor Vegh, he is a former Concertmaster of the Berlin

The Guildhall School of Music, in London has today announced the appointment of Hungarian violinist and pedagogue Andras Keller - to the position of ‘Violin Professor of Music’. A former leader of the Budapest Festival Orchestra and founder of the Keller String Quartet, Professor Keller has served senior faculty positions at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.   ‘I’m extremely pleased to join Guildhall, where I will do my best to build up a great violin class,’ the 55 year old has said, ‘…I can’t wait to pass on to them what I have learned from my great masters - Sándor Végh, György Kurtág and Ferenc Rados.’

American violinist and pedagogue Lynn Blakeslee has passed away. A student of Efrem Zimhalist, Ricardo Odnoposoff, Franz Samobyl and Sandor Vegh, she served as 1st violinist with the Streichquintet Mozarteum for 15 years – and on faculty as Professor Emerita of Violin at the Eastman School of Music from 1987 until her retirement in 2013.

The Swiss-based Belenus Quartet have been awarded 1st prize, in the string quartet category of the 2015 International Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition, in Graz, Austria. 2nd Prize was awarded to the Lyskamm Quartet, from Italy – and 3rd prize presented to the Quartet Berlin-Tokyo, from Japan-Israel.