An awful lot of wishful thinking and amateur b-s gets written about music and the brain, resulting in such mass delusions as the Mozart Effect and feeding in to the mass hysteria of the X-Factor.

Very little scientific evidence is available on what music does to the brain and which kind of music might promote a beneficial effect. Every new piece of evidence is eagerly awaited, which explains why my day got off to a late start, watching neurosurgeon and musician Charles Limb on TED playing private games with his brain scanner. 
It’s compelling stuff, worth a quarter-hour of your lunch break, but the results are tentative and the conclusions elusive. This, for me, is science in action – at its most frustrating.
Can Mahler save your life? Hmmmm… 
Here’s the link:
http://blog.ted.com/2011/01/05/your-brain-on-improv-charles-limb-on-ted-com/

An awful lot of wishful thinking and amateur b-s gets written about music and the brain, resulting in such mass delusions as the Mozart Effect and feeding in to the mass hysteria of the X-Factor.

Very little scientific evidence is available on what music does to the brain and which kind of music might promote a beneficial effect. Every new piece of evidence is eagerly awaited, which explains why my day got off to a late start, watching neurosurgeon and musician Charles Limb on TED playing private games with his brain scanner. 
It’s compelling stuff, worth a quarter-hour of your lunch break, but the results are tentative and the conclusions elusive. This, for me, is science in action – at its most frustrating.
Can Mahler save your life? Hmmmm… 
Here’s the link:
http://blog.ted.com/2011/01/05/your-brain-on-improv-charles-limb-on-ted-com/

Music director, not managing director.

The London Medical Orchestra have put out search warrants for a new conductor. The incumbent, Mac Axtell, is coming up for retirement and there’s a vacancy come September.
If your dream is to stand before 80 pairs of clinical eyes, all watching your vital symptoms and waiting for you to drop (especially concertmasters, beware the ambitious concertmaster), your dream job is being advertised online, here.
The orch is also interested in hearing from willing string players and a clarinet.

                                                                                  photo credit: canada.com

Music director, not managing director.

The London Medical Orchestra have put out search warrants for a new conductor. The incumbent, Mac Axtell, is coming up for retirement and there’s a vacancy come September.
If your dream is to stand before 80 pairs of clinical eyes, all watching your vital symptoms and waiting for you to drop (especially concertmasters, beware the ambitious concertmaster), your dream job is being advertised online, here.
The orch is also interested in hearing from willing string players and a clarinet.

                                                                                  photo credit: canada.com

The late Herbert von Karajan, terrified of dying on the job, commissioned research at Salzburg University on the effects of stress on music making. His particular concern was that Felix Mottl and Joseph Keilberth had collapsed and died at exactly the same spot in the third act of Tristan und Isolde (see The Maestro Myth, 130-1).

In addition to these misfortunes, Dmitri Mitropoulos died while rehearsing Mahler’s third symphony at La Scala, Giuseppe Sinopoli died during Aida in Berlin and Mariss Jansons near-as died at the end of La Boheme in Oslo. Only the adjacency of a good hospital restored his heart function.
Further tragic instances of podium deaths can be found here. It will come as no consolation to the family and friends of poor M Cochereau, who died during  Beethoven’s Eroica last week, but history shows that he did not die alone.
The research that Karajan commissioned at Salzburg has not, to my knowledge, been published (if it has, please let me know). But there do seem to be sufficient instances connecting podium exertions and cardiac infarction to warrant further scientific study.

The late Herbert von Karajan, terrified of dying on the job, commissioned research at Salzburg University on the effects of stress on music making. His particular concern was that Felix Mottl and Joseph Keilberth had collapsed and died at exactly the same spot in the third act of Tristan und Isolde (see The Maestro Myth, 130-1).

In addition to these misfortunes, Dmitri Mitropoulos died while rehearsing Mahler’s third symphony at La Scala, Giuseppe Sinopoli died during Aida in Berlin and Mariss Jansons near-as died at the end of La Boheme in Oslo. Only the adjacency of a good hospital restored his heart function.
Further tragic instances of podium deaths can be found here. It will come as no consolation to the family and friends of poor M Cochereau, who died during  Beethoven’s Eroica last week, but history shows that he did not die alone.
The research that Karajan commissioned at Salzburg has not, to my knowledge, been published (if it has, please let me know). But there do seem to be sufficient instances connecting podium exertions and cardiac infarction to warrant further scientific study.

The French conductor Jean-Marc Cochereau collapsed and died yesterday in mid-rehearsal at Orléans. He was working on Beethoven’s Eroica and suffered cardiac arrest during the Marche funèbre. Cochereau, 61, had guest conducted in Italy, Canada and Los Angeles.


Here’s the AFP report, carried in Le Figaro.

Jean-Marc was the only son of the celebrated organist of Notre-Dame, Pierre Cochereau.

                                                            picture: classiquenews.com


short bio: 
Né en 1949, il commence ses études musicales à l’âge de 5 ans. À 16 ans, il remporte 2 grands prix de la ville de Nice en piano et direction d’orchestre. Admis au CNSM de Paris, il obtient un 1er prix d’harmonie et de direction d’orchestre à l’unanimité.
Parallèlement, il collabore pendant 6 ans au Festival de musique sacrée de Nice où il obtient en 1976 le Grand Prix du disque (Jeanne au bûcher d’Honegger).

Il a été l’invité régulier de l’orchestre de la RAI Italienne, de l’Opéra du Rhin et en 1984, de l’Orchestre de Los Angeles (concert inaugural du Grand Orgue de la Crystal Cathedral). Il a réalisé des enregistrements pour la Radiodiffusion française et dirigé de nombreuses productions lyriques (jusqu’au Canada) ainsi que la plupart des orchestres régionaux.

Titulaire du Certificat d’Aptitude de Directeur, il a dirigé les Conservatoires de St Raphael, Valence et Orléans. Depuis 1987, il est directeur musical de l’Orchestre d’Orléans qui a produit son premier enregistrement. Depuis 2001, il est directeur du Conservatoire National de Région de Tours. Directeur musical des Orchestrades de Brive et de l’Orchestre Régional des Jeunes du Centre, il est spécialisé dans la formation des orchestres de jeunes et avec eux présente de nombreuses productions (Pelléas, Faust, Fidelio …), et en 1993 a participé au printemps musical de Tunis.

Plusieurs fois invité par l’association des Orchestres de Jeunes du Québec, il est depuis 2001 en charge de la direction musicale de l’Orchestre des Jeunes du Centre.

The French conductor Jean-Marc Cochereau collapsed and died yesterday in mid-rehearsal at Orléans. He was working on Beethoven’s Eroica and suffered cardiac arrest during the Marche funèbre. Cochereau, 61, had guest conducted in Italy, Canada and Los Angeles.


Here’s the AFP report, carried in Le Figaro.

Jean-Marc was the only son of the celebrated organist of Notre-Dame, Pierre Cochereau.

                                                            picture: classiquenews.com


short bio: 
Né en 1949, il commence ses études musicales à l’âge de 5 ans. À 16 ans, il remporte 2 grands prix de la ville de Nice en piano et direction d’orchestre. Admis au CNSM de Paris, il obtient un 1er prix d’harmonie et de direction d’orchestre à l’unanimité.
Parallèlement, il collabore pendant 6 ans au Festival de musique sacrée de Nice où il obtient en 1976 le Grand Prix du disque (Jeanne au bûcher d’Honegger).

Il a été l’invité régulier de l’orchestre de la RAI Italienne, de l’Opéra du Rhin et en 1984, de l’Orchestre de Los Angeles (concert inaugural du Grand Orgue de la Crystal Cathedral). Il a réalisé des enregistrements pour la Radiodiffusion française et dirigé de nombreuses productions lyriques (jusqu’au Canada) ainsi que la plupart des orchestres régionaux.

Titulaire du Certificat d’Aptitude de Directeur, il a dirigé les Conservatoires de St Raphael, Valence et Orléans. Depuis 1987, il est directeur musical de l’Orchestre d’Orléans qui a produit son premier enregistrement. Depuis 2001, il est directeur du Conservatoire National de Région de Tours. Directeur musical des Orchestrades de Brive et de l’Orchestre Régional des Jeunes du Centre, il est spécialisé dans la formation des orchestres de jeunes et avec eux présente de nombreuses productions (Pelléas, Faust, Fidelio …), et en 1993 a participé au printemps musical de Tunis.

Plusieurs fois invité par l’association des Orchestres de Jeunes du Québec, il est depuis 2001 en charge de la direction musicale de l’Orchestre des Jeunes du Centre.

There’s a chance to sing your own aria next Tuesday at English National Opera, stand up there an melt 2,000 hearts.

The ctahc in the proposition is that it has to be an opera by Benjamin Britten, but at least you won;t have to break teeth in Italian or manage any tricky quarter-notes in Czech.
I might try it myself. Aschenbach, for starters?

Here’s the straight take on it:
We are delighted to invite you
to
Opera Preview on
Tuesday
18 January 2011
, at
the London Coliseum
from
7.00-10.00pm

 

Opera
Preview returns to provide an opportunity for audiences to experience opera and
familiarise themselves with ENO’s exciting Spring / Summer programme. Once again
ENO’s poet in residence Ian McMillan will read eight new poems commissioned to
celebrate each production, audiences can speed-date an opera character, and
receive an opera makeover from the ENO wigs, make-up and wardrobe department.
New to Opera Preview, audiences will be offered the opportunity to learn a
chorus, with ENO’s Assistant Chorus Master
Nicholas Chalmers, from Gilbert & Sullivan’s beloved opera The Mikado as well as the chance to be
the star in the Gilbert and Sullivan or Benjamin Britten Operaoke. Opera Preview will also provide the
very special chance to hear members of ENO’s orchestra perform repertoire
associated with the season, including Fugue and
Chanson
de Brander from Berlioz’s

The Damnation of Faust.

 
If you would like press
tickets please RSVP to presstickets@eno.org 


There’s a chance to sing your own aria next Tuesday at English National Opera, stand up there an melt 2,000 hearts.

The ctahc in the proposition is that it has to be an opera by Benjamin Britten, but at least you won;t have to break teeth in Italian or manage any tricky quarter-notes in Czech.
I might try it myself. Aschenbach, for starters?

Here’s the straight take on it:
We are delighted to invite you
to
Opera Preview on
Tuesday
18 January 2011
, at
the London Coliseum
from
7.00-10.00pm

 

Opera
Preview returns to provide an opportunity for audiences to experience opera and
familiarise themselves with ENO’s exciting Spring / Summer programme. Once again
ENO’s poet in residence Ian McMillan will read eight new poems commissioned to
celebrate each production, audiences can speed-date an opera character, and
receive an opera makeover from the ENO wigs, make-up and wardrobe department.
New to Opera Preview, audiences will be offered the opportunity to learn a
chorus, with ENO’s Assistant Chorus Master
Nicholas Chalmers, from Gilbert & Sullivan’s beloved opera The Mikado as well as the chance to be
the star in the Gilbert and Sullivan or Benjamin Britten Operaoke. Opera Preview will also provide the
very special chance to hear members of ENO’s orchestra perform repertoire
associated with the season, including Fugue and
Chanson
de Brander from Berlioz’s

The Damnation of Faust.

 
If you would like press
tickets please RSVP to presstickets@eno.org 


Last year’s turmoil in the classical music business is about to accelerate. One of the key managers in IMG Artists, the second largest agency, has walked out with most of her artists.

Shirley Thomson, deputy director of the vocal division, has joined HarrisonParrott, itself at the centre of corporate moves and upheavals. Thomson is responsible for such high performers as Anne-Sofie von Otter, Camilla Tilling, Kim Begley, Lawrence Zazzo, Olaf Bär and Patricia Bardon. All sides are staying very quiet until legal matters are resolved but it is expected that most if not all of Thomson’s clients will join her at HP.
Her defection, following Simon Goldstone’s walkout with Joyce DiDonato and 20 other singers, constitutes a massive blow to IMG’s aspiration to be a supermarket of classical talent. The agency has also lost senior v-p Maurice Whitaker, who looked after a range of instrumentalists. The ease (and contract loops) with which Goldstone took DiDonato has left IMG looking vulnerable to further raids, and HP were not slow to swoop.
Jasper Parrott had been trying to sell his agency last year to Universal Music, but his deal collapsed with a change of management at the record company (see Deal of the Century is Off). He faced a choice of bigging up or bowing out, and took the first course. Capturing Shirley Thomson and her artists is a considerable site forward in HP’s survival strategy.
Where that leaves beleaguered IMG is surrounded by question marks. Its owner, Barrett Wissman, removed himself from day-to-day running of the business after confessing to fraud in a high-profile US political prosecution two years ago. His ownership, however, has not been diminished, nor has his promotional interest in the career of his wife, the cellist Nina Kotova, and other artists.
In the past year, IMG’s only coup was to attract the conductor Semyon Bychkov after the sale of his former agency, Val Walsum. Several senior IMG managers have been seen whispering to their rivals, fostering rumours of further potential walkouts. The rot has not been stopped.
For other 2011 classical moves, see here.
Press release follows.
Anne-Sofie von Otter
 Camilla Tilling (IMG portraits)


www.lawrencezazzo.com


FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

13
January 2011, London

 

 

Shirley
Thomson joins HarrisonParrott as a Director to lead the expansion of the Vocal
Division

 

HarrisonParrott
is pleased to announce that Shirley Thomson will join the Board of Directors
from April 2011. Currently Deputy Director of IMG Artists Vocal Division,
Shirley will lead the expansion of HarrisonParrott’s vocal list alongside
Associate Director Ian Stones and Special Consultant Paola Quaglia. Iarlaith
Carter
, recently appointed an Associate Director, will also
contribute towards the new team.

 

Chairman and
Joint Managing Director Jasper Parrott commented: “Shirley’s approach to artist
management reflects our own commitment to realising the long term aspirations
and career development of our artists. We are delighted that she will help us
consolidate and further develop the high quality list which Ian Stones has built
in recent years into a distinctive roster commensurate with our list of
conductors and instrumentalists.”

 

Ian
Stones added: “Shirley’s experience and outstanding contribution to the careers
of those artists she represents is well known and respected within the
international classical music industry. I am thrilled to be working with her in
developing the Vocal Division.”

 

“I am
thoroughly looking forward to this new challenge with Harrison Parrott, working
again with some former colleagues and getting to know many new ones”, commented
Shirley Thomson. “It is exciting to be involved in the development of a
department and I feel confident that, together with the excellent and
experienced team already in place, we will be in a strong position to create new
opportunities for both existing and future
clients.”

 

During
her time at IMG Artists Shirley Thomson has helped shaped the careers of Stephen
Milling, Anne Sofie von Otter, Camilla Tilling, Juha Uusitalo and Jennifer
Wilson amongst many others. Her earlier work for the European Community Youth
Orchestra saw her work on tours with such celebrated artists as Claudio Abbado,
Carlo Maria Giulini and Mstislav Rostropovich.

 

HarrisonParrott’s
current vocal roster includes Paul Agnew, Barry Banks, Richard Berkeley-Steele,
Orla Boylan, Susan Bullock, Klara Ek, Bo Kristian Jensen, Helena Juntunen,
Juanita Lascarro, Simon Lim, Garry Magee, Georg Nigl, Lilli Paasikivi, Eliana
Pretorian, Ville Rusanen, Andreas Scholl, Mark Tucker and Angelica Voje. A full
list of HarrisonParrott artists can be found at www.harrisonparrott.com/artists 

 

Further
announcements regarding the expansion of HarrisonParrott’s Vocal Division will
be made in due course. 

 

 

For further information, contact:

 

Antonio
Orlando

Marketing and
PR Manager

HarrisonParrott

antonio.orlando@harrisonparrott.co.uk    

 

 

Last year’s turmoil in the classical music business is about to accelerate. One of the key managers in IMG Artists, the second largest agency, has walked out with most of her artists.

Shirley Thomson, deputy director of the vocal division, has joined HarrisonParrott, itself at the centre of corporate moves and upheavals. Thomson is responsible for such high performers as Anne-Sofie von Otter, Camilla Tilling, Kim Begley, Lawrence Zazzo, Olaf Bär and Patricia Bardon. All sides are staying very quiet until legal matters are resolved but it is expected that most if not all of Thomson’s clients will join her at HP.
Her defection, following Simon Goldstone’s walkout with Joyce DiDonato and 20 other singers, constitutes a massive blow to IMG’s aspiration to be a supermarket of classical talent. The agency has also lost senior v-p Maurice Whitaker, who looked after a range of instrumentalists. The ease (and contract loops) with which Goldstone took DiDonato has left IMG looking vulnerable to further raids, and HP were not slow to swoop.
Jasper Parrott had been trying to sell his agency last year to Universal Music, but his deal collapsed with a change of management at the record company (see Deal of the Century is Off). He faced a choice of bigging up or bowing out, and took the first course. Capturing Shirley Thomson and her artists is a considerable site forward in HP’s survival strategy.
Where that leaves beleaguered IMG is surrounded by question marks. Its owner, Barrett Wissman, removed himself from day-to-day running of the business after confessing to fraud in a high-profile US political prosecution two years ago. His ownership, however, has not been diminished, nor has his promotional interest in the career of his wife, the cellist Nina Kotova, and other artists.
In the past year, IMG’s only coup was to attract the conductor Semyon Bychkov after the sale of his former agency, Val Walsum. Several senior IMG managers have been seen whispering to their rivals, fostering rumours of further potential walkouts. The rot has not been stopped.
For other 2011 classical moves, see here.
Press release follows.
Anne-Sofie von Otter
 Camilla Tilling (IMG portraits)


www.lawrencezazzo.com


FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

13
January 2011, London

 

 

Shirley
Thomson joins HarrisonParrott as a Director to lead the expansion of the Vocal
Division

 

HarrisonParrott
is pleased to announce that Shirley Thomson will join the Board of Directors
from April 2011. Currently Deputy Director of IMG Artists Vocal Division,
Shirley will lead the expansion of HarrisonParrott’s vocal list alongside
Associate Director Ian Stones and Special Consultant Paola Quaglia. Iarlaith
Carter
, recently appointed an Associate Director, will also
contribute towards the new team.

 

Chairman and
Joint Managing Director Jasper Parrott commented: “Shirley’s approach to artist
management reflects our own commitment to realising the long term aspirations
and career development of our artists. We are delighted that she will help us
consolidate and further develop the high quality list which Ian Stones has built
in recent years into a distinctive roster commensurate with our list of
conductors and instrumentalists.”

 

Ian
Stones added: “Shirley’s experience and outstanding contribution to the careers
of those artists she represents is well known and respected within the
international classical music industry. I am thrilled to be working with her in
developing the Vocal Division.”

 

“I am
thoroughly looking forward to this new challenge with Harrison Parrott, working
again with some former colleagues and getting to know many new ones”, commented
Shirley Thomson. “It is exciting to be involved in the development of a
department and I feel confident that, together with the excellent and
experienced team already in place, we will be in a strong position to create new
opportunities for both existing and future
clients.”

 

During
her time at IMG Artists Shirley Thomson has helped shaped the careers of Stephen
Milling, Anne Sofie von Otter, Camilla Tilling, Juha Uusitalo and Jennifer
Wilson amongst many others. Her earlier work for the European Community Youth
Orchestra saw her work on tours with such celebrated artists as Claudio Abbado,
Carlo Maria Giulini and Mstislav Rostropovich.

 

HarrisonParrott’s
current vocal roster includes Paul Agnew, Barry Banks, Richard Berkeley-Steele,
Orla Boylan, Susan Bullock, Klara Ek, Bo Kristian Jensen, Helena Juntunen,
Juanita Lascarro, Simon Lim, Garry Magee, Georg Nigl, Lilli Paasikivi, Eliana
Pretorian, Ville Rusanen, Andreas Scholl, Mark Tucker and Angelica Voje. A full
list of HarrisonParrott artists can be found at www.harrisonparrott.com/artists 

 

Further
announcements regarding the expansion of HarrisonParrott’s Vocal Division will
be made in due course. 

 

 

For further information, contact:

 

Antonio
Orlando

Marketing and
PR Manager

HarrisonParrott

antonio.orlando@harrisonparrott.co.uk