19 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - The third annual "VH1 Rock Honors" event will celebrate The Who, with the music cable network hosting a tribute concert in Los Angeles on July 12.

The Who, led by guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey, will take the stage at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion; VH1 has not revealed the names of the participants.

The concert will air on VH1, VH1 Classic and hi-def network MHD on July 17 at 9 p.m.

Besides live performances, "VH1 Rock Honors" will include spoken tributes and video packages dedicated to the band.

Last year's "VH1 Rock Honors," held in Las Vegas, paid tribute to Genesis, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne and ZZ Top.

Reuters/Billboard

Tue Mar 25, 7:47 PM ET

NEW YORK - At the upcoming Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Mozart will share the spotlight with other old masters and living artists from Finland to the South Pacific.

Peter Sellars is to direct Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s new work, “Passion de Simone.” Soprano Dawn Upshaw has the title role as French philosopher Simone Weil, who died of tuberculosis in 1943 as a member of the anti-Nazi resistance.

The festival’s 42nd season, running July 29 to Aug. 23, encompasses 60 events, including orchestral and chamber concerts, recitals, dance, film, lectures and video art installations.

The July 29 opening concert is to be conducted by the festival’s music director, Louis Langree, featuring Mostly Mozart’s first Mahler, “Das Lied von der Erde” (”The Song of the Earth”) for two singers and orchestra, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor.

Langree also will lead the Aug. 23 performance of Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen” for 23 solo strings and Mozart’s Mass in C minor.

Another Saariaho work, “Terra Memoria,” is to be performed by the Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet as part of the festival’s Finnish focus, which also will feature music by Jan Sibelius and Fredrik Lithander played by Finnish musicians.

The South Pacific is represented by choreographer Lemi Ponifasio, a native of the island of Samoa who has reinterpreted Mozart’s “Requiem” as a dance incorporating the ancient rituals of a Samoan tribal chief. The work is to receive its U.S. premiere at the festival Aug. 6.

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On the Net:

http://www.lincolncenter.org/

By Gary Graff 49 minutes ago

DETROIT (Billboard) - Sheryl Crow's recent claim that she would be working with Fleetwood Mac surprised a lot of people — including the members of the classic rock group.

Crow, 46, who's friendly with Mac's Stevie Nicks, told the AOL music website Spinner.com earlier this month that she and the band "definitely have plans for collaborating in the future, and we'll see what happens."

"I think we were all a little surprised (Crow) was announcing that to the world with such certainty," Fleetwood Mac principal Lindsey Buckingham, 58, told Billboard.com with a laugh.

"We have talked about the possibility of bringing another woman into the scene to kind of give Stevie a sort of foil and shake it up a little bit. (Crow) was certainly a name that has come up. We'll have to see."

Nicks, 59, has been the group's sole female member since Christine McVie, now 64, retired from the band in the late '90s.

Buckingham said the group, which last toured in 2004, is considering returning to the road in the first half of 2009, possibly with some new material. He said that he has "a ton of new stuff" that could be used for a new Fleetwood Mac album, its first since 2003's "Say You Will."

Buckingham — who's just released a new concert DVD, "Live at the Bass Performance Hall," from his 2006-07 solo tour — is also planning another solo album for this summer.

Recorded with members of his touring band as well as Fleetwood Mac co-founders Mick Fleetwood, 60, and John McVie, 62, he said it "has a little more of a rock feel to it" than his most recent effort, 2006's "Under the Skin."

"It's just another group of tunes that hopefully will translate to stage, and hopefully we can get some more (solo) dates this summer."

Reuters/Billboard