Good arts news in Stirling and Manchester

How cheering to have some good news to impart. There's a nice debate going on in the comments stream on my piece on the story so far with Sistema Scotland ; and today Manchester international festival announced an eclectic and ambitious line-up for its festival this summer with artists ranging from Björk to Tino Seghal to Sir Mark Elder to Victoria Wood to Snoop Dogg – my story is on the site now . And, the last (I promise) piece I did in Berlin has been published as part of our New Europe special , on British artists who choose to live and work in the German capital.