January 6 – The annual Park Lane Group Young Artists festival of contemporary music opens with two concerts in the
Purcell Room at the
Southbank Centre, London. The first concert, given by the Gallimaufry Ensemble, includes the premiere of a new wind quintet by 23-year-old Benjamin Wallfisch; the second concert features solo bass clarinettist Sarah Watts, who premieres Marc Yeats Vox for solo
bass clarinet and Michael Smetanin's Ladder of Escape for bass clarinet with prerecorded ensemble of six bass and two
contrabass clarinets.[1]
January 9 – The
Vienna Philharmonic belatedly announce that violist Ursula Plaichinger has become the first official female member of the orchestra, 158 years after their founding and six years after they have been forced to allow women to audition, under threat of having their state subsidies stopped. At the same time, it is disclosed that orchestra boss
Clemens Hellsberg has formally banned Plaichinger from giving interviews to the press.[3]
Andrew Lack, former chief of NBC news, is named the new head of Sony's music division, to the surprise of the music industry, because he had no previous experience of the record industry.[4] He replaced
Tommy Mottola, who resigned the previous day amidst reports of friction with higher Sony executives over huge financial losses in the music division.[5]
Following an investigation by
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in the UK and the Netherlands recover 500 original
Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested. The tapes have been used for bootleg releases for years.[6]
January 13 –
The Who guitarist
Pete Townshend is arrested by British police on suspicion of possessing and making indecent images of children and of incitement to distribute them. Townshend claims in a statement that he did not download any such images and accessed Web sites advertising child pornography because he was researching material for his autobiography, which will include passages about his abusive childhood.[7]
The
Indian Air Force band, the Air Warriors, play a concert in the Homi Baba Auditorium in
Colaba (Mumbai), which included
Muthuswami Dikshitar's Vathapiganapathi in a version combining military band with traditional
Carnatic instruments.[8]
Police respond to a 911 phone call from one of
Phil Spector's neighbors and discover the body of actress
Lana Clarkson, with a gunshot wound, at Spector's his home in
Alhambra, California. Spector is arrested on suspicion of murder.[11]
The
Martin Bashir television film Living with Michael Jackson premieres on
ITV in the UK. It airs on
ABC in the US three days later.[12] A total of 53 million viewers in the two countries watch the special.
February 20 –
The Station nightclub fire: Fire engulfs a
Rhode Island nightclub during a fireworks display which was part of the performance by rock band
Great White. The fire quickly spreads across the ceiling, filling the building with thick, black smoke, killing 100 people and injuring 160 others as audience members rush for the exits. Many people are missing for some time, including Great White guitarist
Ty Longley, who is later confirmed to be dead.[13]
The Dixie Chicks unleash a firestorm of controversy at a concert in London when lead singer
Natalie Maines announces to the audience that "just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas". The group is dropped from radio playlists all over the United States and receives death threats as a result.[14]
April 1 – Dozens of fans walk out during a
Pearl Jam concert when lead singer
Eddie Vedder makes comments opposing the
Iraq war and derogatory remarks about U.S. President
George W. Bush. Other audience members boo and shout at Vedder telling him to "shut up." Vedder attempts to calm the crowd by adding "just to clarify... we support the troops."[15][16]
April 16 –
Luther Vandross suffers a severe stroke at his home in New York City.[18] He emerges from a coma seven weeks later.[19]
April 21 –
S Club announce live on stage at London's
Docklands Arena that they've decided to split up after five years together.[20] Their final single, "
Say Goodbye", enters the chart at #2 a month after the announcement.
Rachel Stevens from the group launched her successful solo career shortly afterwards with the song "
Sweet Dreams My LA Ex".
April 28 –
Apple Inc. opens the
iTunes Music Store, offering 200,000 songs for download at a cost of 99 cents each. More than 1 million songs are sold in the store's first week.[21]
May–June
May 7 –
Pete Townshend is cleared of the charges stemming from his arrest in January on suspicion of possessing child pornography, but is formally cautioned and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.[22]
May 19 – The former TV channel MuchMusic USA relaunches as
Fuse.
David Del Tredici's Wondrous the Merge for
string quartet and narrator, based on a homoerotic poem by
James Broughton, makes its controversial debut at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.
Alice Cooper begins production of his 26th album. It is a departure from the
heavy metal sound of previous albums and is more influenced by his albums of the 1970s.
Beyoncé releases her No.1 debut solo album Dangerously in Love, which would earn her 5 Grammys in a single night. It also spawned two No.1 singles in the US and has sold 11 million copies to date.
July 20 – An auto accident in Oregom, United States, kills three of the four members of
The Exploding Hearts, ending the band after just one album.[28]
David Bowie releases his twenty-third studio album Reality. The album would be Bowie's last for roughly a decade, with Bowie silently and gradually withdrawing into seclusion following an onstage heart attack the following year.
October – Indie/Rock band Conway wins the National "Battle of the Bands" Competition at the Fountain Pub in Tottenham, London, UK[citation needed]. The Norfolk, UK, band consists of Chris Burgoyne (vocals), Andrew Norman (lead guitar / vocals), Tristan McKelvey (guitar), Leon Chapman (bass) and Peter Rednall (drums).
October 15 – A two-week-long international conference, "Fuori tempo, dire, fare, sentire la musica oggi", opens in
Genoa, Italy, bringing together performers, composers, scholars and administrators from classical, folk and popular music, with a keynote address by
Charles Rosen. Featured participants include Nuria Schoenberg (daughter of
Arnold Schoenberg and widow of
Luigi Nono); musicologist James Harrison; opera conductor
Roberto Abbado; violinist
Ivry Gitlis; composers
Salvatore Sciarrino,
Lorenzo Ferrero and
Andrea Liberovici; poet
Edoardo Sanguineti; popular singer-songwriters
Teresa De Sio,
Gianna Nannini and
Gino Paoli; rock and jazz artists Peppe Servalo and Peppe D'Argenzio of the Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel; and administrators Anna Cammarano (director of classical music at RAI Trade), Gennaro di Benedetto (superintendent of the
Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa) and Joseph Hussek (director of the artistic programme at the
Salzburg Festival).[30]
October 16 –
Simon & Garfunkel begin their "Old Friends" U.S. reunion tour, twenty years after their 1983 world tour.
October 20 –
Britney Spears releases the first single, "
Me Against The Music", featuring American singer-songwriter
Madonna, from her upcoming album In the Zone, marketed as a comeback single in the US; it goes on to be an international success, reaching the top three in several countries.
October 29 – A legal version of the
Napster file sharing network relaunches as a pay service, offering song downloads for 99 cents apiece or $9.99 for unlimited listening.[31]
Blink-182 release their fifth studio album blink-182. This album was regarded as a change of musical style for
Blink-182 as the music has darkened and matured since their previous albums.
Britney Spears releases In the Zone. She breaks her own record as the first female artist to have 3 albums in #1 to become the first female artist to have 4 albums in #1 consecutively.
November 20 –
Michael Jackson is arrested on charges of child molestation. The singer faced similar charges in 1993 that were dropped after an out-of-court financial settlement was reached with the family of a boy. In light of the new accusations, the television network
CBS chooses to pull the scheduled November 26 airing of a one-hour television special intended to promote Jackson's new greatest hits album, Number Ones.[33]
December 8 –
Ozzy Osbourne is rushed into emergency surgery after having a serious accident riding an
all-terrain vehicle on the grounds of his English estate. Osbourne broke his collarbone, eight ribs and a vertebra in his neck.[35]
Avenue Q – Broadway production ran for 2534 performances (ranked 23rd on the list of all-time Broadway shows)
Belles belles belles, based on songs by Claude François, with music by Claude François, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre and Carolin Petit and lyrics by Claude François and Daniel Moyne; premiered at Olympia in Paris on November 21
Wicked – Broadway production opened at the
George Gershwin Theatre on October 30, starring
Joel Grey,[39] and is still running as of 2023. It is the fourth-longest-running show in the history of Broadway.[40]
October 28 – Beatrice Millie McCartney, daughter of
Paul McCartney and
Heather Mills. The McCartneys fooled the press into publishing misleading details about the birth
^Richard Morrison, "PLG Young Artists", The Times (Wednesday January 8, 2003): 15.
^John L Walters, "Philip on Film Live: Barbican, London", The Guardian (Thursday January 9, 2003); Geoff Brown,"Glass Shorts", The Times (January 9, 2003): 23.
^Irene Zoech, "Orchestra Falls Quiet over First Female", The Times (January 10, 2003): 15.
^Anon., "Sony Names Music Chief", The Times (January 11, 2003): 52.
^Anon., "Air Warriors Hit High Note with Concert", The Times of India (Tuesday January 21, 2003): 2.
^Ivan Hewett, "Momentum: The Music of Mark-Anthony Turnage: Barbican, London EC2, Jan 18–19", The Times (January 18, 2003): 10; Richard Morrison, "Blood on the Floor", The Times (January 20, 2003): 17.
^Andrew Pierce, "Conductor's Illness Robs London of the Voice of St Cecilia", The Times (January 22, 2003): 6.
January 6 – The annual Park Lane Group Young Artists festival of contemporary music opens with two concerts in the
Purcell Room at the
Southbank Centre, London. The first concert, given by the Gallimaufry Ensemble, includes the premiere of a new wind quintet by 23-year-old Benjamin Wallfisch; the second concert features solo bass clarinettist Sarah Watts, who premieres Marc Yeats Vox for solo
bass clarinet and Michael Smetanin's Ladder of Escape for bass clarinet with prerecorded ensemble of six bass and two
contrabass clarinets.[1]
January 9 – The
Vienna Philharmonic belatedly announce that violist Ursula Plaichinger has become the first official female member of the orchestra, 158 years after their founding and six years after they have been forced to allow women to audition, under threat of having their state subsidies stopped. At the same time, it is disclosed that orchestra boss
Clemens Hellsberg has formally banned Plaichinger from giving interviews to the press.[3]
Andrew Lack, former chief of NBC news, is named the new head of Sony's music division, to the surprise of the music industry, because he had no previous experience of the record industry.[4] He replaced
Tommy Mottola, who resigned the previous day amidst reports of friction with higher Sony executives over huge financial losses in the music division.[5]
Following an investigation by
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in the UK and the Netherlands recover 500 original
Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested. The tapes have been used for bootleg releases for years.[6]
January 13 –
The Who guitarist
Pete Townshend is arrested by British police on suspicion of possessing and making indecent images of children and of incitement to distribute them. Townshend claims in a statement that he did not download any such images and accessed Web sites advertising child pornography because he was researching material for his autobiography, which will include passages about his abusive childhood.[7]
The
Indian Air Force band, the Air Warriors, play a concert in the Homi Baba Auditorium in
Colaba (Mumbai), which included
Muthuswami Dikshitar's Vathapiganapathi in a version combining military band with traditional
Carnatic instruments.[8]
Police respond to a 911 phone call from one of
Phil Spector's neighbors and discover the body of actress
Lana Clarkson, with a gunshot wound, at Spector's his home in
Alhambra, California. Spector is arrested on suspicion of murder.[11]
The
Martin Bashir television film Living with Michael Jackson premieres on
ITV in the UK. It airs on
ABC in the US three days later.[12] A total of 53 million viewers in the two countries watch the special.
February 20 –
The Station nightclub fire: Fire engulfs a
Rhode Island nightclub during a fireworks display which was part of the performance by rock band
Great White. The fire quickly spreads across the ceiling, filling the building with thick, black smoke, killing 100 people and injuring 160 others as audience members rush for the exits. Many people are missing for some time, including Great White guitarist
Ty Longley, who is later confirmed to be dead.[13]
The Dixie Chicks unleash a firestorm of controversy at a concert in London when lead singer
Natalie Maines announces to the audience that "just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas". The group is dropped from radio playlists all over the United States and receives death threats as a result.[14]
April 1 – Dozens of fans walk out during a
Pearl Jam concert when lead singer
Eddie Vedder makes comments opposing the
Iraq war and derogatory remarks about U.S. President
George W. Bush. Other audience members boo and shout at Vedder telling him to "shut up." Vedder attempts to calm the crowd by adding "just to clarify... we support the troops."[15][16]
April 16 –
Luther Vandross suffers a severe stroke at his home in New York City.[18] He emerges from a coma seven weeks later.[19]
April 21 –
S Club announce live on stage at London's
Docklands Arena that they've decided to split up after five years together.[20] Their final single, "
Say Goodbye", enters the chart at #2 a month after the announcement.
Rachel Stevens from the group launched her successful solo career shortly afterwards with the song "
Sweet Dreams My LA Ex".
April 28 –
Apple Inc. opens the
iTunes Music Store, offering 200,000 songs for download at a cost of 99 cents each. More than 1 million songs are sold in the store's first week.[21]
May–June
May 7 –
Pete Townshend is cleared of the charges stemming from his arrest in January on suspicion of possessing child pornography, but is formally cautioned and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.[22]
May 19 – The former TV channel MuchMusic USA relaunches as
Fuse.
David Del Tredici's Wondrous the Merge for
string quartet and narrator, based on a homoerotic poem by
James Broughton, makes its controversial debut at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.
Alice Cooper begins production of his 26th album. It is a departure from the
heavy metal sound of previous albums and is more influenced by his albums of the 1970s.
Beyoncé releases her No.1 debut solo album Dangerously in Love, which would earn her 5 Grammys in a single night. It also spawned two No.1 singles in the US and has sold 11 million copies to date.
July 20 – An auto accident in Oregom, United States, kills three of the four members of
The Exploding Hearts, ending the band after just one album.[28]
David Bowie releases his twenty-third studio album Reality. The album would be Bowie's last for roughly a decade, with Bowie silently and gradually withdrawing into seclusion following an onstage heart attack the following year.
October – Indie/Rock band Conway wins the National "Battle of the Bands" Competition at the Fountain Pub in Tottenham, London, UK[citation needed]. The Norfolk, UK, band consists of Chris Burgoyne (vocals), Andrew Norman (lead guitar / vocals), Tristan McKelvey (guitar), Leon Chapman (bass) and Peter Rednall (drums).
October 15 – A two-week-long international conference, "Fuori tempo, dire, fare, sentire la musica oggi", opens in
Genoa, Italy, bringing together performers, composers, scholars and administrators from classical, folk and popular music, with a keynote address by
Charles Rosen. Featured participants include Nuria Schoenberg (daughter of
Arnold Schoenberg and widow of
Luigi Nono); musicologist James Harrison; opera conductor
Roberto Abbado; violinist
Ivry Gitlis; composers
Salvatore Sciarrino,
Lorenzo Ferrero and
Andrea Liberovici; poet
Edoardo Sanguineti; popular singer-songwriters
Teresa De Sio,
Gianna Nannini and
Gino Paoli; rock and jazz artists Peppe Servalo and Peppe D'Argenzio of the Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel; and administrators Anna Cammarano (director of classical music at RAI Trade), Gennaro di Benedetto (superintendent of the
Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa) and Joseph Hussek (director of the artistic programme at the
Salzburg Festival).[30]
October 16 –
Simon & Garfunkel begin their "Old Friends" U.S. reunion tour, twenty years after their 1983 world tour.
October 20 –
Britney Spears releases the first single, "
Me Against The Music", featuring American singer-songwriter
Madonna, from her upcoming album In the Zone, marketed as a comeback single in the US; it goes on to be an international success, reaching the top three in several countries.
October 29 – A legal version of the
Napster file sharing network relaunches as a pay service, offering song downloads for 99 cents apiece or $9.99 for unlimited listening.[31]
Blink-182 release their fifth studio album blink-182. This album was regarded as a change of musical style for
Blink-182 as the music has darkened and matured since their previous albums.
Britney Spears releases In the Zone. She breaks her own record as the first female artist to have 3 albums in #1 to become the first female artist to have 4 albums in #1 consecutively.
November 20 –
Michael Jackson is arrested on charges of child molestation. The singer faced similar charges in 1993 that were dropped after an out-of-court financial settlement was reached with the family of a boy. In light of the new accusations, the television network
CBS chooses to pull the scheduled November 26 airing of a one-hour television special intended to promote Jackson's new greatest hits album, Number Ones.[33]
December 8 –
Ozzy Osbourne is rushed into emergency surgery after having a serious accident riding an
all-terrain vehicle on the grounds of his English estate. Osbourne broke his collarbone, eight ribs and a vertebra in his neck.[35]
Avenue Q – Broadway production ran for 2534 performances (ranked 23rd on the list of all-time Broadway shows)
Belles belles belles, based on songs by Claude François, with music by Claude François, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre and Carolin Petit and lyrics by Claude François and Daniel Moyne; premiered at Olympia in Paris on November 21
Wicked – Broadway production opened at the
George Gershwin Theatre on October 30, starring
Joel Grey,[39] and is still running as of 2023. It is the fourth-longest-running show in the history of Broadway.[40]
October 28 – Beatrice Millie McCartney, daughter of
Paul McCartney and
Heather Mills. The McCartneys fooled the press into publishing misleading details about the birth
^Richard Morrison, "PLG Young Artists", The Times (Wednesday January 8, 2003): 15.
^John L Walters, "Philip on Film Live: Barbican, London", The Guardian (Thursday January 9, 2003); Geoff Brown,"Glass Shorts", The Times (January 9, 2003): 23.
^Irene Zoech, "Orchestra Falls Quiet over First Female", The Times (January 10, 2003): 15.
^Anon., "Sony Names Music Chief", The Times (January 11, 2003): 52.
^Anon., "Air Warriors Hit High Note with Concert", The Times of India (Tuesday January 21, 2003): 2.
^Ivan Hewett, "Momentum: The Music of Mark-Anthony Turnage: Barbican, London EC2, Jan 18–19", The Times (January 18, 2003): 10; Richard Morrison, "Blood on the Floor", The Times (January 20, 2003): 17.
^Andrew Pierce, "Conductor's Illness Robs London of the Voice of St Cecilia", The Times (January 22, 2003): 6.