The uncontainable avant-gardist John Zorn will be fronting a benefit concert Sunday week at Columbia University’s Miller Theater on behalf of disaster victims in Japan.

His bill is topped by Yoko Ono and her son Sean Lennon, with chip-ins from Mike Patton and my Mahler mate Uri Caine. Tix for $50 or $100. Some gig. Wish I was there.

Great to see the wilder shores doing their bit while the classical old-timers maintain radio silence. Go raise ’em John Sebastian…. Gustav’s with you, Uri.

press release follows

MILLER THEATRE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

presents a benefit concert for Japan

hosted by JOHN ZORN and featuring

SONIC YOUTH, YOKO ONO, SEAN LENNON, CIBO MATTO

with Mike Patton, Mephista, Marc Ribot, Uri Caine, and Zorn’s Aleph Trio

100% of proceeds will be donated to support Japan earthquake relief efforts

Sunday, March 27, 8:00 PM

Tickets: $50, $100 · Students Tickets: $25

http://www.millertheatre.com/Events/EventDetails.aspx?nid=1447

Sunday, March 27, 8:00PM

Concert to Benefit Japan Earthquake Relief

More than a dozen innovative artists at the intersection of indie rock, contemporary jazz, and avant-garde performance will come together at Miller Theatre to present a benefit concert to support recovery efforts in Japan. “The tragedy and devastation is really overwhelming,” says John Zorn, who has organized and will host the evening. “I’ve always felt a strong personal connection to Japan, and I’m just glad to be able to do my part to help. It should be an amazing night.”

The lineup includes

feature performances by musician and artist Yoko Ono, and her son Sean Lennon; Japanese-American indie duo Cibo Matto; and the influential band Sonic Youth. Vocalist Mike Patton will appear as a special guest, and Mephista, Marc Ribot, Uri Caine, and John Zorn’s Aleph Trio will also play short sets.

Both the performers and the theater are donating their services, ensuring that 100% of proceeds from ticket sales will go to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit near Sendai on March 11. Funds will be donated to the Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.

ARTISTS: Sonic Youth

Yoko Ono

Sean Lennon

Cibo Matto (Yuka Honda & Miho Hatori)

Mike Patton, vocals

Mephista (Susie Ibarra, drums; Sylvie Courvoisier, piano; Ikue Mori, electronics)

Marc Ribot, guitar

Uri Caine, piano

Aleph Trio (John Zorn, saxophone; Trevor Dunn, bass; Kenny Wollesen, drums)

Here are some that have reached me from around the world:

From violinist Anne Akiko Meyers:

I cannot believe this news. But then again, I can’t believe all the
tragedy that has occurred this past week in Japan. Yakov and I worked
together in Germany, playing the Mendelssohn Concerto 3 times around
Christmas time.
He was bright, energetic and a young conductor very much on the rise.
His heart seemed to move in rhythm with the music…..
God bless and may he rest in peace.

From Sam Bergman, Minnesota Orchestra:

The orchestra was told about Yakov’s tragic passing this afternoon … he was a frequent guest in the early part of this decade, and really, he was more than a guest – he was a very serious candidate for our music directorship, and during the period between Eiji Oue’s departure and Osmo (Vanskaa’s entry, he conducted many weeks of concerts and virtually functioned as our principal guest conductor. We played a number of very good concerts under his baton, and he was a valued colleague and true professional.

From Johannes Neubert, executive director of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra:

Yakov Kreizberg was one of the most interesting conductors of his generation, with close ties to our orchestra. His death is not only an artistic loss but an immensely painful human loss.

From Tony Woodcock, manager of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra during Kreizberg’s time:

Yakov became our Music Director in 1995. He was then in his mid-30’s. Young but with an astonishing worldliness and musical maturity. He was driven. Driven by his own ambition but perhaps more, driven by his vision for music-making. His energy was boundless. His charm was Russian and therefore undeniable. His appetite for food was fathomless. Now that’s an important point. Yakov could eat more than anyone I have ever known. Before a concert . . . a time when most artists are so nervous and consumed by performance anxiety as to leave them without appetite . . . he was, conversely, consumed with hunger. Pre-concert, I have seen him devour an enormous pizza and then look around for anything you might have left on your plate. His engine was a blazing furnace and it needed a huge amount of fuel. (During his time with the orchestra I could easily pack on 10 additional pounds trying to keep up with him, what with pre-concert meals and post-concert dinners.) Despite all of this, Yakov remained an amazingly svelte 160 pounds, very athletic and totally healthy.
There began a golden time for the Bournemouth Symphony with Yakov at the helm. We undertook major national tours, gave London concerts, appeared at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and paraded our virtuosity on international tours in Europe and the US. The orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut with Yakov in 1997, and a picture of this with him in full flight during Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique has pride of place in my office at NEC.

My experiences with Yakov were among the happiest in my professional life. And the best times were on tour. He was enormously disciplined, never drank alcohol, studied scores voraciously, but had the twinkle, energy and sense of the absurd to make touring a party.

From Cristina Ortiz, concert pianist:

Dear Norman,

I’m deeply saddened by the news of the premature demise of my friend and colleague, Yakov Kreizberg.

He was such an inspirational musician, one could easily describe him as having “the Midas Touch”: whatever symphonic repertoire he approached was turned into GOLD: as fresh as if recreated then, by Yakov’s deep understanding of his main instrument, the Orchestra.

On the other hand only last summer though, I was astonished to hear him playing the piano in a small festival in France: a note perfect rendition of a Brahms Sonata with Julia Fischer, which he also played mostly by heart! Conductors are not supposed to plat THAT well anything else…

His cunning and humour were great assets for a companion at dinner table following a performance; lastly but not least his positive attitude to life — an inspiration to a realist Brazilian, like me!

The few concerts we did together — actually both in works by Rachmaninov with the BSO in Bournemouth & Amsterdam, and the Maggio Musicale in Firenze — were among the very best-ever musical ‘ententes’ that I ever experienced.

I have no words to explain how great a loss, that someone so talented and still so young has been taken from us that early: apart from his music making, I’ll never forget his warmth as a human being or his oh-so-tight hug each time we met: I SO need one now, dearest Yakov!

Cristina Ortiz

Dusseldorf has got in first.

It’s March 26, Beethoven 9th, conductor Yutaka Sado, at the Tonhalle.

The city apparently has the biggest expat Japanese community in Germany.

Here’s the source.

And here’s the orchestra’s website.

Dusseldorf has got in first.

It’s March 26, Beethoven 9th, conductor Yutaka Sado, at the Tonhalle.

The city apparently has the biggest expat Japanese community in Germany.

Here’s the source.

And here’s the orchestra’s website.

The Czech army sent two planes to airlift the Philharmonic out of Tokyo. The Maggio Musicale are straggling home to Florence. The BBC Philharmonic are back in Manchester.

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers has posted heartfelt regrets in cancelling her tour and the conductor Daniel Harding sent me a downcast tweet from Narita airport: He had worked as hard as anyone to keep music alive in disaster-stricken Japan.

Meanwhile, the NHK orchestra of Tokyo is performing in Montreal on Friday night. That should be an occasion for Canada to show solidarity with the suffering nation and maybe raise a few hundred grand for reconstruction. Local media are trying to give the event the highest possible profile and you would expect the conductor to take the lead in raising awareness.

But the conductor is Andre Previn.

The glory days when Previn hogged the media limelight are long gone and he is now picking up bits of cash work where he can. Previn, it appears, has nothing to say about the the plight of the country whose orchestra he is conducting. A colleague who requested a few words received this response from the Place des Arts press officer: I just spoke to Maestro Previn and I am afraid he does not wish to do any
interviews while on the tour….

A conductor’s job is to lead. If he cannot lead in the thick of disaster, he should not be conducting. Shame on him.

The Czech army sent two planes to airlift the Philharmonic out of Tokyo. The Maggio Musicale are straggling home to Florence. The BBC Philharmonic are back in Manchester.

But the conductor is Andre Previn.

A conductor’s job is to lead. If he cannot lead in the thick of disaster, he should not be conducting. Shame on him.

Print media has been slow to report the early death of conductor Yakov Kreizberg and no full appreciation has yet appeared, outside of Holland’s Volkskrant.

Youtube, though, is quick off the mark. Hilary Hahn has uploaded three segments of her video interview with Yakov, both clearly having fun, together with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, Florian Zwiauer. Yakov’s warmth and generosity comes over full blast.

There are also clips of him talking about various composers, including Mahler.

I have fond memories of him working in Berlin at the Komische Opera with the 90-odd but very sprightly Berthold Goldschmidt. You can hear sample clips from the Decca album here.

Desperately sad to have lost him.

Here’s a reminiscence from the former Bournemouth Symphony manager, Tony Woodcock:

‘I have adored this man for many years as a unique artist, musician, pianist, and wonderful conductor, but mostly as my great friend and collaborator.’

Print media has been slow to report the early death of conductor Yakov Kreizberg and no full appreciation has yet appeared, outside of Holland’s Volkskrant.

There are also clips of him talking about various composers, including Mahler.

I have fond memories of him working in Berlin at the Komische Opera with the 90-odd but very sprightly Berthold Goldschmidt. You can hear sample clips from the Decca album here.

Desperately sad to have lost him.

Here’s a reminiscence from the former Bournemouth Symphony manager, Tony Woodcock:

‘I have adored this man for many years as a unique artist, musician, pianist, and wonderful conductor, but mostly as my great friend and collaborator.’

Word has just been released of the death of Yakov Kreizberg after a long illness.

He was chief conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and the chamber orchestra. He last conducted them in Amsterdam on February 14.

I knew him at Glyndebourne and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, fill of vim and ambition, brilliant in Russian and Czech repertory. A courteous man with the sweetest smile, he came from a turbulent background and was on difficult terms with some family members, including his brother Semyon Bychkov. Their rivalry was a byword in the music business. Kreizberg took his mother’s surname to avoid confusion. I hope they settled their differences in time.

Yakov was married to the conductor Amy Andersson; they had two sons.

Here’s a tribute from his agent, Linda Marks.

And here’s Yakov’s website: http://www.yakovkreizberg.com/

Bloomberg reports that Leonard Leibowitz, the stone wall behind the Detroit Symphony strike, has been charged with theft from a ballet union.

Details here.

This appears to be the next step in the prosecution of charges first brought two years ago.

Bloomberg reports that Leonard Leibowitz, the stone wall behind the Detroit Symphony strike, has been charged with theft from a ballet union.

Details here.

This appears to be the next step in the prosecution of charges first brought two years ago.

The New National Theatre in Tokyo has cancelled its opera and ballet season, due to open this week. The opera was Manon Lescaut, the ballet (David) Bintley’s Choice. Foreign singers, mostly Italian, are on their way home.

The losses have yet to be assessed and the cinsequences for the music industry could be severe. The NNTT is acknowledged as the most important Japan-based opera company.

Here’s the website announcement.

All shows scheduled from March 15 to March 31 will be CANCELLED

We have to announce that all shows scheduled from March15 to March31 are cancelled and will not be rescheduled. The circumstances caused by aftershock sequence following the earthquake on March 11 make it very difficult for us to present the performances.

Shows & Events Cancelled:
March 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30 Opera Manon Lescaut
March 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 Ballet Bintley’s Choice
March 22 Ballet Event Rehearsal from Take Five and Talk by David Bintley

Refund information will be posted separately on this website.