VivaSync

Barbican, LondonFranois-Xavier Roth led an exhilarating and illuminating programme that moved through 80 years of French music, from Berlioz to Boulanger There are symphony orchestras and there are period instrument bands, and then there is Les Sicles. Founded in 2003, Franois-Xavier Roths crack French ensemble pulls off the remarkable feat of finessing a dizzying array

Married to Gustav Mahler at 22, Alma Schindlers composing career was cut short at her husbands insistence. But this extraordinary woman was far from a tragic victim of misogyny Music is music whether composed by angels or monsters. Alma Mahler was a monster, no doubt, but she was a very intriguing monster. She outlived Gustav

On 25 March 2006, the photographer Bob Carlos Clarke checked himself out of the Priory Hospital in Barnes, southwest London, walked a short distance to a railway track, and jumped in front of a train. He was 55, and it was a terrible end to a complex life. But, as endings go, it was not

25 April 1986: Her death yesterday came two months short of her 90th birthday and only eight months before the 50th anniversary of King Edward VIIIs abdication to marry her The Duchess of Windsor, who shook the British monarchy and inspired the childrens playground song, Hark the herald angels sing, Mrs Simpsons pinched our king,

TV made him a star, but activism turned him into a hero. Now 85 and still going strong, the actor remembers his friendships and feuds, and his shameful treatment in the second world war George Takei is on a mission. But this time the Star Trek actor is not boldly going where no man has