The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – one of Britain's longest-established musical institutions – will perform for the first time in Abu Dhabi next month as part of the revamped Abu Dhabi Classics international concert series. The orchestra will give two performances, including one on a floating stage at the Corniche Breakwater on December 15 as part of the celebrations for the Abu Dhabi stop on the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race fleet. The following night, the orchestra will perform at the historic Al Jahili Fort, a Unesco World Heritage Site in Abu Dhabi's Oasis City of Al Ain. The first concert will include Elgar's Enigma Variations and Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, one of the most difficult violin pieces ever written, played by Canadian soloist James Ehnes, one of the finest violinists of his generation. The Al Jahili Fort show will feature extracts from Gustav Holst's The Planets, music by film composer John Williams, including themes from ET, Superman and Star Wars, and work by prominent the Indian film composer A R Rahman. CBSO was founded in 1920 and its first conductor was the celebrated English composer Sir Edward Elgar. For more information visit www.cbso.co.uk or www.abudhabievents.ae. Tickets, starting from Dh200 for adults and just Dh30 for children are available from www.ticketmaster.ae. – The National staff
Emirati up for $100k film award
An Emirati director is one of three regional filmmakers shortlisted for a prestigious US$100,000 (Dh367,000) prize as part of next month's Dubai International Film Festival. Saeed Salmeen Al Murry is in the running for the third annual IWC Filmmaker Award, presented in association with Swiss luxury watch maker IWC Schaffhausen, for his film Going to Heaven, the story of an 11-year-old boy who longs for the tenderness of his late yet ever-present grandmother while dealing with loneliness and thesuffering inflicted on him by his stepmother. Al Murry, a graduate of the New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi, has directed a number of acclaimed films, including Bint Mariam (2008), which won him the Best Emirati Filmmaker award at Diff. The other shortlisted projects are Saudi filmmaker Ahd Kamel's The Sand Fish and Kuwaiti director Abdullah Boushahri's Heaven's The Water. The winner of the award, which aims to help talented Middle East filmmakers transfer their visions from script to screen, will be announced at a gala event on December 11. – The National staff
Divergent star leads awards race
Actress Shailene Woodley and singer Sam Smith are the leading nominees for the 2015 People's Choice Awards, with four nods apiece. Woodley is up for Dramatic Actress, Action-Movie Actress and was twice nominated for Favourite Movie Duo, for Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars. The Favourite Film Actor nominees are Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr, Channing Tatum, Hugh Jackman and Mark Wahlberg, while up for Favourite Actress are Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone and Melissa McCarthy. The Favourite Movie Nominees are 22 Jump Street, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Maleficent and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Voting will continue until December 4. The winners will be announced during a ceremony on January 7. – AP
Jolie open to political career
As Americans went to the polls for midterm elections on Tuesday, actress Angelina Jolie revealed that she is open to a possible role in politics. Already known for her humanitarian work, she said she wondered whether she would better achieve her aims as an actress or in another role. "When you work as a humanitarian, you are conscious that politics have to be considered," she told Vanity Fair. "Because if you really want to make an extreme change, then you have a responsibility. But I honestly don't know in what role I would be more useful – I am conscious of what I do for a living, and that [could] make it less possible." Asked directly whether she might pursue a life in politics, diplomacy or public service, she replied: "I am open." – AFP
Astronaut's music video back online
The first music video recorded in space – a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield – is back online after a public outcry over its removal from YouTube. Hadfield, who made the video in zero gravity during a five-month mission last year to the International Space Station, said on his website it would be available online for free for two years. It was originally on YouTube for a year, during which it was watched 23,489,187 times. An outcry followed its removal when the rights expired in May. Hadfield said its removal "wasn't anyone's fault", just part of the agreement with Bowie and his publisher. Now he has revealed that a new two-year licensing agreement has been reached. – AFP
Paul Simon to turn author
After decades of telling his story through music, Paul Simon is ready to rely on words alone. The celebrated singer-songwriter has agreed to cooperate with author and longtime music critic Robert Hilburn for a planned biography. Simon & Schuster, winner of a recent six-publisher auction, announced the acquisition on November 4 and announced that the book was currently untitled and did not yet have a release date. Hilburn's previous books include the memoir Corn Flakes With John Lennon and Other Tales from a Rock `n' Roll Life and a biography of Johnny Cash. He has known Simon since the 1970s. Simon's many classics include Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Sound of Silence and Loves Me Like a Rock. – AP
Lena Dunham postpones appearances in Europe until early December
In a statement issued on Tuesday, November 4 through her publisher, Random House, Dunham said stops in Belgium and Germany originally planned for this week will instead take place between December 3 and December 9. "Details to come" she added. Dunham toured the United States and Canada throughout October to promote her best-selling essay collection Not That Kind of Girl. She first announced her postponements over the weekend on Twitter, soon after she had posted a self-described "rage spiral" of tweets denouncing allegations that as a child she had sexually abused her younger sister, Grace. The conservative National Review Online had cited passages from her book in which Dunham recalled kissing and touching her sister. On Tuesday, Dunham released a statement to Time magazine in which she said "she did not condone any kind of abuse under any circumstances." "Childhood sexual abuse is a life-shattering event for so many, and I have been vocal about the rights of survivors," she said. "If the situations described in my book have been painful or triggering for people to read, I am sorry, as that was never my intention." "As for my sibling, Grace," she added, "she is my best friend, and anything I have written about her has been published with her approval."
Earlier this year, Dunham supported Dylan Farrow's decision to write an open letter detailing allegations that her father, Woody Allen, had sexually abused her. The letter was published in The New York Times. "To share in this way is courageous, powerful and generous," Dunham tweeted at the time, adding a link to Dylan Farrow's letter. – AP
Beyonce announces extended release of namesake album
Beyonce on Tuesday announced an expanded boxed-set of her multimillion-selling self-titled album after speculation that she would drop another surprise release of new material.
The pop sensation said that the platinum edition of Beyoncé, with two CDs and two DVDs, would feature two new songs, four new remixes with star collaborators and a concert video.
The edition – which goes on sale on November 24 ahead of the holiday shopping season – also includes the full album Beyoncé, which she released unexpectedly in December 2013 on iTunes with no prior publicity. The announcement will temper speculation that Beyonce is planning another surprise album of new material. Since the weekend, social media have been abuzz with an image of what appeared to be a record company memo describing an upcoming Beyoncé release, raising hopes among her fans. The purported memo said that a four-disc set would be physically released on "Monday, November 25" – with an iTunes-only release on November 14. Beyonce's announcement made no mention of an iTunes version.
Beyonce enraged some major retailers by releasing the self-titled album last year first on iTunes, brushing aside the usual practice of timing digital and physical sales together.
Beyoncé sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide, broke the iTunes record for debut sales and spawned hit singles including XO and Drunk In Love, performed with her husband Jay Z. – AFP
Maureen O'Hara to receive Honorary Academy Award
Maureen O'Hara's most recent film credit was more than a dozen years ago, but the 94-year-old actress says she's ready for a role anytime. "I don't worry about going to movies," she said. "I worry about acting in movies."
O'Hara is among this year's recipients of honorary Academy Awards. She'll accept the Oscar statuette – her first – at the film academy's Governors Awards ceremony Saturday night, November 8, alongside fellow honorees Hayao Miyazaki, Jean-Claude Carriére and Harry Belafonte.
O'Hara said she cried when she heard the news, then cried again when discussing the honour during a recent interview.
"It's just absolutely wonderful," she said. "I keep thinking, 'Oh, this is a league of baloney. They're not telling me the truth.'"
The Irish actress has made more than 60 films since her big-screen debut in 1938, including John Ford's 1941 Best Picture winner, How Green Was My Valley. She starred opposite John Wayne in several films, including Rio Grande, The Wings of Eagles, and one of her favourites, The Quiet Man. Other credits include Miracle on 34th Street and Sentimental Journey.
"Making movies is a wonderful experience," she said. "It's wonderful the stories that you fall in love with and you make and they wind up being very successful, and it breaks your heart almost. I don't mean with sadness. It breaks your heart with joy."
What else did she love about her early acting days?
"As kids – and anybody who says they don't love this, they're fibbers – we loved making the money," she said.
While dieting and exercising in preparation for Saturday's ceremony, O'Hara is thinking about how to express her gratitude for the award.
"It's hard to know how you're going to say thank you to all the people you should say thank you to," she said, "so it's going to be very difficult."
The easy part, she said, is finding a place to keep her shiny new Oscar. She's already cleared off a spot atop the fireplace – "and high enough so one of the kids can't knock it down!"
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established the Governors Awards in 2009 to recognise recipients of honorary Oscars. Highlights from Saturday's untelevised dinner ceremony will be included in the 2015 Academy Awards telecast. – AP
Woman accused of stabbing Mary J. Blige's father sentenced to jail
The Battle Creek Enquirer reports that Cheryl White of Battle Creek was sentenced on Monday, November 3 to a year in jail, but with 270 days already served.
She'll also serve five years of probation and pay more than $17,000 for Thomas Blige's nursing services.
White didn't address the court Monday.
White in September pleaded no contest to assault with intent to commit great bodily harm. A no contest plea isn't an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing.
Thomas Blige testified earlier that White attacked him with a knife on January 23 after he caught her slashing his tires. – AP
Vincent van Gogh work sold for Dh224 million at Sotheby's
The 1890 painting, Still Life, Vase With Daisies and Poppies, had expected to fetch between $30 million and $50 million at Sotheby's evening sale in Manhattan.
Vincent van Gogh painted the bouquet of wildflowers at the French home of his physician, Dr. Paul Gachet. It's one of the few works the Dutch artist sold during his lifetime.
One of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art, A Conger Goodyear, acquired it in 1928. It remained in the family for decades and was on permanent exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo for 30 years. The most recent owner bought it around 1990.
The auction record for a van Gogh is $82.5 million.
The big-ticket auction at Sotheby's also brought in $101 million for Chariot, a rare sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. The 1951 bronze sculpture features an elongated, goddess-like figure perched atop a wheeled chariot. The price almost broke the $104.3 million record for the Swiss artist.
The 1951 piece, embellished with paint to enrich the textural quality of the bronze, has been in the same collection for over 40 years. Giacometti made six casts of the Chariot during his lifetime. The one sold on Movember 4 is one of only two painted examples.
Another important sculpture sold at the auction was Amedeo Modigliani's Tete. It fetched $70.7 million, just topping the previous auction record for the artist at $69 million.
The elongated head was carved in 1911 and 1912 from a block of limestone scavenged from a Paris construction site. It had a presale estimate of $45 million.
The auction house Bonhams, which is selling more than 700 items from the homes of Lauren Bacall, offered two Henry Moore sculptures from her collection on Tuesday.
Maquette for Mother and Child: Arms sold for US$281,000 (Dh1,032,141), just over its pre-sale estimate high of $200,000, and Working Model for Reclining Figure: Bone Skirt, sold for over $1 million, topping its presale estimate of $600,000 to $800,000.
The major fall sales continue on Wednesday, November 5 at Christie's. Among the highlights is a celebrated portrait of a Parisian actress by Edouard Manet. Spring has a presale estimate of $25 million to $35 million. – AP
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to perform in Abu Dhabi next month
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