Sibelius 2 now available. (Music Marketplace).

Sibelius USA, Inc., 1407 Oakland Blvd., Ste. 300, Walnut Creek, CA 94596; [phone]; Fax [phone]; [e-mail]; www.sibelius.com. $299/education market; $899/five-user lab pack. Site licenses available for educational institutions.

Sibelius Software Ltd. recently announced that Sibelius 2 for Windows, the revolutionary new version of the world's fastest-selling notation software program, is now available in the United States.

"Sibelius 2 integrates more than 200 new features and robust feature enhancements, making it one of the significant upgrades of any software ever," says Sibelius Software Ltd. CEO Ben Finn. "Because Sibelius is used by everyone from professional composers and publishers to students, improvements have been made to every aspect of the program, from notation and playback to Internet publishing."

Among its new product features is the use of artificial intelligence to arrange and orchestrate music automatically, the first-ever commercial program capable of this function. Sibelius 2's Arrange feature dramatically reduces the time it takes to produce arrangements and orchestrations for any ensemble. Sibelius 2 offers a myriad of advanced features for publishers and power users, and eleven new plug-ins are provided, including one that instantly adds string and brass fingerings.

Also, Sibelius has signed an agreement with Macmillan's Reference and Grove's Dictionaries, Inc. to give Sibelius 2 users a free period of access to the new 2001 online edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

The Macintosh OS X version is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2002, making Sibelius 2 one of the first music programs to take full advantage of the OS X platform.

For more information contact Sibelius USA.