Its leading lights include Sir Michael Tippett, a composer, Yehudi Menuhin, a virtuoso violinist, and Kathleen Raine, a poet and scholar.

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He played at Woodstock and the 1967 Monterey Pop festival, and also collaborated with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

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Conducts Yehudi Menuhin in a recording of the violin concerto.

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However for Lloyd Webber, who has worked with a range of top musicians from Yehudi Menuhin to Elton John, the purpose of the UK project is not to create a new batch of professional musicians.

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There has been a surge of support for a new ultra-nationalist religious party, Bayit Yehudi, which calls for the annexation of large parts of the West Bank and is likely to form part of ruling coalition.

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