Banchory's Woodend Barn launches another series of concerts for 2014, covering an eclectic range of music including live opera broadcast from New York to electronic compositions from Turriff.

The season begins on February 5 with the critically acclaimed film A Late Quartet, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken and Catherine Keener and goes on to feature nine separate events during the season, finishing on March 27 with the Chamber Philharmonic Europe.

Opera Bohemia will bring their production of Eugene Onegin to Banchory and the Britten Oboe Quartet will be performing a repertoire including work by Aberdeenshire composer Helen Grime and a new series showcasing experimental and new music curated by Ross Whyte.

l woodendbarn.co.uk

Benedetti joins SSO India tour

Nicola Benedetti and James MacMillan will join the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's tour of India to mark the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The SSO will embark on a three-city tour in March and April with concerts, educational workshops and exchange between students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the KM Music Conservatory of AR Rahman, the multi award-winning Bollywood composer and recording artist.

Benedetti and MacMillan will join the orchestra and students on the tour which includes concerts in Chennai (March 29), New Delhi (April 2) and Mumbai (April 6). In addition, they will join the BBC SSO and the RCS in each of the cities for workshops presented by the music education expert Paul Rissmann.

The visit, in partnership with the British Council, is the centrepiece of the orchestra's activities leading up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The BBC SSO's tour officially launched on October 11 with a free schools concert streamed live to pupils around the world on the Commonwealth Class website.

l bbc.co.uk/commonwealthclass

Jazzhus saved from closure

Jazzhus Montmartre, the club in Copenhagen with one of the greatest jazz legacies in Europe, has been saved from closure - for now - after five of Denmark's political parties got together to agree an aid plan to enable it to keep trading until the end of 2014.

Despite its small capacity - it seats fewer than 100 - the club has played host to giants of the music including Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie since it opened in 1959 and played a major role in Copenhagen's elevation to one of the capitals of the jazz world in the 1960s during which tenor saxophone legends Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Ben Webster all moved to Copenhagen. The political parties agreed Copenhagen needed a varied cultural life and Jazzhus Montmartre, situated in the Danish capital's cultural centre, was central to this.

l jazzhusmontmartre.dk