It will also co-fund, with the PRS for Music Foundation, visits for the best new British artists to attend and play at four annual showcase festivals across the United States. Both developments extend the successful BBC Introducing scheme, which dates from 2007, and allows artists to upload their work to the BBC Introducing website.
The BBC has also launched Ten Pieces, described as an "ambitious new initiative for primary schools". It aims to inspire a generation of children to get creative with classical music and begins in October with a week of special screenings for schools in cinemas across the UK of a film introducing ten pieces of classical music.
Additionally, the BBC has also announced new programming, including BBC4 and BBC Radio 6 Music working together to celebrate the concert halls, dance-halls and clubs that have "sat at the heart of some of the greatest revolutions in music and popular culture". It will include the Roundhouse in Camden. In December, the BBC will stage the BBC Music Awards, at Earls Court, with categories including British artist of the year, international artist of the year and song of the year.
Monkey King - A £35m production based on Chinese fable Journey to the West is to embark on a world tour from 2016. Staged in a purpose-built 2,500-seat portable theatre, the show - called Monkey King - will premiere in Canada before visiting Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. It will visit London in spring 2016. The family show will include 80 members of cast and the hard-walled venue will be set up in open spaces, rather than requiring an arena venue which many tented portable theatres require. Composer Howard Shore will create the score, which he will also conduct and will be performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra for recording. The team behind the show includes creative producers Elyse Jewel and Kerry Jewel, producer Danny Pelchat, director Pierre Boileau and writers Barry Eaton and Deborah Vines.
Not Fit For Purpose - Ambassador Theatre Group chief executive Howard Panter has said that most West End theatres are "not fit for purpose" and should be replaced. Speaking at the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference in London, Panter, who owns 11 West End theatres, said that theatres upwards of 100 years old were not built to last this long, and as such are ill-equipped to cater for modern-day audiences.
"The trouble is, there will never be enough room in those buildings for enough leg space, enough bar space, enough showers for artists, whatever it might be. There simply won't," he said. As a model, he referred to Broadway, where a number of theatres have been demolished and rebuilt "without any diminution of values or standards". He concluded, "This is not about taking away theatre, it's about making theatres better in the theatre capital of the world."
Character Acting - Auditions have been held to find the star of a new musical about Toronto mayor Rob Ford's rocky year. Dozens of larger men with close-cropped, blonde hair - and a few women - attended the open curtain call for Rob Ford the Musical: Birth Of A Ford Nation at a downtown theatre school in the city. Ford, who has entered rehab for substance abuse, is currently taking a break from his re-election campaign.
