Virtuoso!

Virtuoso! Cremona presents Winners of International String Instrument Competitions is an International Music Festival organised every year in Cremona (Italy) by the Fondazione Antonio Stradivari and the Accademia Italiana degli Archi (Italian Strings Society) in collaboration with ARCHI Magazine and the fair Mondomusica.

The "First Edition" will be held from 29 September – 2 October 2010.

Protagonists of the first edition will be:

External links

Virtuoso

A virtuoso (from Italian virtuoso [virˈtwoːzo] or [virtuˈoːso], "virtuous", Late Latin virtuosus, Latin virtus, "virtue", "excellence", "skill", or "manliness") is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, music, singing, playing a musical instrument or composition. This word also refers to a person who has cultivated appreciation of artistic excellence, either as a connoisseur or collector. Virtuoso's plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine forms are virtuosa and virtuose.

Virtuosity defined

Music in the Western civilization by Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin gives the following definition of virtuoso:

The defining element of virtuosity is the performance ability of the musician in question, who is capable of displaying feats of skill well above the average performer.

Especially in music, both critics and musicians have mixed opinions on virtuosity. While the skill implied is clearly positive, musicians focused on virtuosity have been criticized for overlooking substance and emotion in favor of raw technical prowess.

Virtuoso (David Garrett album)

Virtuoso is a 2007 album by violinist David Garrett, released in Europe. Its tracks, listed below, are mostly borrowed from his earlier album, Free:

Track listing

Personnel

Body piercing

Body piercing, a form of body modification, is the practice of puncturing or cutting a part of the human body, creating an opening in which jewellery may be worn. The word piercing can refer to the act or practice of body piercing, or to an opening in the body created by this act or practice. Although the history of body piercing is obscured by popular misinformation and by a lack of scholarly reference, ample evidence exists to document that it has been practiced in various forms by both sexes since ancient times throughout the world.

Ear piercing and nose piercing have been particularly widespread and are well represented in historical records and among grave goods. The oldest mummified remains ever discovered were sporting earrings, attesting to the existence of the practice more than 5,000 years ago. Nose piercing is documented as far back as 1500 BC. Piercings of these types have been documented globally, while lip and tongue piercings were historically found in African and American tribal cultures. Nipple and genital piercing have also been practiced by various cultures, with nipple piercing dating back at least to Ancient Rome while genital piercing is described in Ancient India c. 320 to 550 CE. The history of navel piercing is less clear. The practice of body piercing has waxed and waned in Western culture, but it has experienced an increase of popularity since World War II, with sites other than the ears gaining subcultural popularity in the 1970s and spreading to mainstream in the 1990s.

Piercing (novel)

Piercing is a novel by Ryu Murakami. Originally published in Japanese in 1994, it was translated and published in English by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2008.

Overview

Piercing is set in Tokyo and follows Kawashima Masayuki trying to come to terms with his overwhelming desire to stab his infant child with an ice pick. He resolves to divert the impulse into an unsuspecting prostitute. However, as he begins to execute his meticulous crime everything, including his past, begins to unravel.

Critical reception

"...a haunting Japanese version of a David Lynch nightmare" - Chris Petit, Guardian Book Review.

"Far from being a cheap gorefest, ‘Piercing’ handles its violence with controlled aplomb, making it seem a natural by-product of Tokyo’s economic dominance. The result is a brief and convincing narrative of a crime and its motivations. With simple language and vividly evoked images, the novel looks at a single moment of horror from every angle." - Ed King, Time Out Book Review.

References

Piercing (disambiguation)

Piercing most commonly refers to body piercing.

It may also refer to: