Fresh off a flight from Los Angeles, the irrepressible Deborah Borda told classical music today that it had a future.

It was not entirely the one the International Artists Managers Association wanted to hear, but then she’s got the Dude and they haven’t. So she speaks and they listen.
And what she says is that there is a new landscape out there for classical concerts and a hundred new ways to reach it. But you don’t need my summary.
Here is her speech.

 

21st
IAMA International Conference, London April 2011

 

April
13, MEDIA DAY: Artists and Media in a Changing Landscape: Keynote speech from

Deborah Borda, President and Chief Executive Office, LA
Phil:

 

 

 

MANY VOICES TO MANY EARS

 

Good morning. It is a pleasure to join you today. My
assignment this morning is to start us thinking about “artists and media in a
changing landscape”. I just flew in from California so it might be appropriate
to start with an overview from say 30,000 feet up to survey a constantly
shifting global phenomenon. Later on it might be stimulating to take a look at
some specific strategies we have used at the Los Angeles Philharmonic to gain
traction in this rapidly changing environment. After all, I come from a country
where my President, Barack Obama, tweets. And I can’t help noticing that Queen
Elizabeth now has a Facebook page.

 

No matter what segment of our industry you come from, I
hope that from the grand heights of policy to the very concrete there will be
something of use for you today — even if only to admit to a common emotion. May
we agree this is a rather scary time? Auden and Bernstein had their AGE OF
ANXIETY and now we have one of our very own. Remember “normal”? My supposition
is that that is a place to which we will never return. So we can either be
anxious or we can begin to think in adaptive, creative, and flexible ways.

 

We are in the midst of a far-reaching technological
revolution — one that is by turns either strangely underestimated or overblown.
The fallout from that change is redefining society — and the music profession,
which is having to redefine itself, is a microcosm of the larger world. The
problem is that we aren’t quite sure how best to adapt to this new world, and
to inhabit it vibrantly.

 

I realize that this is a music industry conference, so
please bear with me as I make a little detour into world politics. Only weeks
ago, we witnessed a stunning and swift populist revolution in Egypt. In a
highly repressive atmosphere, it was organized and implemented through social
media. In the “old days,” you fomented a revolution by sending in your troops
to take over a radio or TV station, rendering one voice to many ears. With the
advent of social media, this is no longer necessary. It is now many voices to
many ears. The internet connects hundreds of millions of people, and there is
no single controlling organization. As the author and social commentator
Malcolm Gladwell recently observed, “…hierarchies are sent askew and monopolies
are broken.”

 

Here’s a stunning fact: 1 in 13 people in the entire world
are now on Facebook, according to the source Online Schools. The individual can
broadcast to many, becoming the distributor and the broadcaster, via social
media and YouTube. This, along with changing distribution technologies, means
we are in a media landscape that offers the consumer almost limitless options
for information and content. It’s up to all of us to try to figure out how to
use new media successfully. Adaptability, as Darwin realized, is the key. We
must understand the importance of adapting to the changing landscape, and do it
with the greatest possible flexibility, because everything may change again by
the end of this year, or even the end of this speech.

 

Consumers no longer obtain information from a single
source, and they formulate their opinions via a tapestry of sources. Little
more than a decade ago, three major television networks ruled the airwaves in
the United States. Americans formed their worldview through them. Now even a
modest cable package offers 400 stations. A nation of viewers which defined
itself and the world by watching three channels is now flooded with
alternatives. Newspaper executives are frantically trying to capture audience
and dollars in an age when it is easier and often free to go online. The number
of paper books I have purchased in the past two years has diminished by 90%
because I have my trusty Kindle. And I am a hard-core reader who loves the feel
and look of an old-fashioned print book. Our descendants will laugh their
holographic heads off when they hear about us having driven back and forth to
video stores.

 

The rate of change in the world and our industry is
dizzying. Access to more information, more easily, is surely positive — but
there is a flip side: with it comes more “noise,” more competition for the
attention of our music lover, the consumer, our patron. Today’s consumer is
always connected, with many windows open on several devices. Our challenge is
to use new media to attract and hold these consumers, to “friend” them. The
trouble is many of the people who need to exploit new technology too often
stand in its way. Given the impact of Napster at the end of the 20th
century, why did we not all immediately understand the change in consumer
buying patterns and the importance of iTunes when it arrived in 2003? We missed
the boat, and we can’t do that again.

 

 

This leads me back to our art, our passion — the world of
music. There has truly been a “paradigm shift” in the landscape, both
technologically and in changing audience expectations. Let’s quick-scan a list
of a real-time progression of change.

 

The ’90s saw a boom in product demand as the world
transferred their musical archive to CDs. We have now made another Olympian
leap — to digital distribution. Immediate access and availability of product is
now both a reality and an expectation. Audiences can download a full album
within seconds of release, or sign on to YouTube to see video captured by fans
at a concert, or a TV show they may have missed. The fact that more than 2
billion videos are viewed daily on YouTube is a testament to current audience
appetite for content, and especially audio-visual content, which at one time
was much more expensive for the average individual to produce.

 

With access to so much content, a lot of it free, audiences
on average are less apt to pay as much as they once did for recordings. Sales
for a successful album have been readjusted in the last decade. When I was
Managing Director of the New York Philharmonic in the early ’90s, we counted on
close to one million dollars a year in recording royalties flowing to our
coffers. While I can’t reveal another orchestra’s secrets, the amount today is
a fraction of that and this holds true across the board for American
orchestras.

 

The same rise in social media which led to political
dethroning, has meant that our audience can provide us with immediate feedback.
Not long ago, we expected to get a few letters a couple of days after a
controversial program. Now, within minutes it’s on our Facebook page. This is a
mighty tool and our single most direct connection to our audience. The real
time interchange with audiences is so valuable that high-level marketing
professionals speculate that social media, properly used, may supplant current
audience research methods.

 

Audience expectation is a two-headed monster which demands
care and feeding — but a monster properly harnessed can be a very good friend.
Audiences now demand instant gratification. They want access to artists, top
notch artistic product; they have higher expectations and want it cheaper, free,
and with fewer barriers to gaining access. “Why can’t I get exactly the seat I
see on this chart for the concert?” or “Why can’t I have a freshly burned CD of
this concert as I walk out the door?” However, what sounds like doom and gloom
in terms of growing expectations is, in fact, positive, because never before
have we been able to get closer to our audience. So, let’s see how we can do
it.

 

I speak to you today through a rather specific lens — my
role as the executive leader of an American orchestra which in the past decade
has become the single largest symphonic institution in the US and second only
to the Metropolitan Opera in budget size. We have tried to re-imagine and
redesign ourselves as a broad-spectrum producer of music, media, and
educational initiatives. We guide our decision-making by our commitment to two
deeply held values — innovation and excellence. That may sound a bit
simplistic, but we have found that rigorous dedication to these principles has
resulted in vibrant and varied artistic production as well as fiscal stability.
That said, we have found the changing landscape of media very challenging to
navigate.

 

Might new media and the internet allow us to establish a
globalized brand, an opportunity to spread our mission and differentiate
ourselves in a crowded landscape? An opportunity to become a trusted partner,
curator, in providing the very best in musical content and experiences for our
consumers? We think so. Here are some concrete ways (which in real time may no
longer sound particularly innovative to you) in which the LA Phil has embraced
the changing media landscape.

 

When we began distributing concerts on iTunes in 2005, it
was a radical departure from commitment to physical product. As one of the
first orchestras to welcome digital distribution, we had to make fundamental
changes in approach and concept. First, a new financial arrangement with
orchestra members was necessary, one that treated new media differently from
traditional media. Basically, this meant not paying the musicians upfront but
using a profit-sharing model. Next, a much quicker turnaround of recordings for
release was critical. For us, the numbers might not have been as strong but we
decided that the promotional impact would be of high value because it was
crucial to our brand that we be “in the space”. It was and is particularly
important that the releases be representative of the organization’s and music
director’s artistic vision, including our commitment to new music, to better
define our brand.

 

One very successful way we have deepened the relationship
with our audience is with mobile apps — three in particular. With BRAVO GUSTAVO
— an engaging game with the phone as a baton — you can conduct excerpts from a
Mahler Symphony with Gustavo. Our LA Phil and Hollywood Bowl apps let you get
anything from tickets, program, and artists information, to a map of our
orchestra layout and individual musician photos, as well as a wealth of other
information. These apps are free, and enhance the patron experience. All three
have had more than 100,000 downloads.

 

The key benefit of this tool is that it opens up a two-way
conversation with consumers and increases our presence in the lives of our
audience so that we can stay relevant and “top of mind”. It is one of many
channels through which we communicate to our audience. The LA Phil’s Facebook
pages have a combined following of approximately 45,000 followers. We are also able
to speak to our digital family via Twitter, about virtually anything,
distribute exclusive content, and run promotions.

 

As we planned the introduction of our new Music Director
Gustavo Dudamel we wanted to send a strong message to a broad audience. This
message had to do with community, education, and music for all, and it was
critical that we leverage new media to deliver it. Dudamel’s first concert as
our Music Director was called “Bienvenido Gustavo,” a free 8-hour extravaganza
at the Hollywood Bowl that featured jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock, star
rock artists like Flea, and YOLA, our El Sistema-inspired youth orchestra, led
by Gustavo. The evening culminated in a performance of the Beethoven 9 with the
LA Phil and a mega community chorus. We streamed all 8 hours. Every artist on
the stage accepted no media compensation — a major change from the past. We
employed media to send a strong message — not for monetary gain. In turn, this
allowed us, and everyone involved in the day, a unique opportunity to connect
in LA and around the world with 40,000 viewers tuning in.

 

When the Metropolitan Opera launched their live HD
transmissions, many considered it a publicity stunt, a one-year wonder.
Surprise! It’s a hit. Soon after, the Berlin Philharmonic began HD transmissions
which are available online in the orchestra’s Digital Concert Hall. At the LA
Phil, we saw a unique opportunity to further establish our brand by utilizing
the singular assets of Gustavo Dudamel, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and our
orchestra. Here was a platform to bring music to more people in a live (key
word) and engaging way. These broadcasts let audiences see Gustavo and the
orchestra in new ways — literally being in Gustavo’s
dressing room just before the concert, in live interviews backstage, in
rehearsal clips and insightful pre-taped interviews — all of which allows each
viewer to be a fly on the wall as everyone prepares for the concert (and
recovers after). We are now playing in more than 500 theaters in the US and
Canada and our audience share has grown after just two concerts. This is an
investment in brand building and also keeps the band right on their
mettle.

 

Now a few summary thoughts as we kick off these meetings.
We are staring head on at a singular opportunity. Yes, it is about audience
access, changing expectations, and the allocation of resources to keep up. What
will be required to stay on top of the multi-channel 21st-century conversation
we may now hold with our audiences?

 

More importantly, it is about agility and action to stay
relevant. We require a long-term view, which is not so different from the past,
but access, tools, and revenue streams have surely changed. Finally, let’s return
to that 30,000-foot view where we began this morning to acknowledge something
else. Creating impact in this new media landscape is about alignment of
institutional values. It is dangerous to adapt values to a new technology or
system of delivery; this is how organizations or individual artists could lose
sight of their mission, identity, and central purpose. It is about the concept
that we are building brands, not only producing recordings as an end unto
themselves. In the end, innovation and excellence must be our guides.

 

In closing, I would simply like to observe that since I
began this talk, 34 million videos have been watched on You Tube. It is a time
of many voices to many ears. Thank you very much.

 

The International Artists Managers Association opened its meeting this morning at Kings Place to the blast of two fine trumpeters from the Royal College of Music.

I guess they’ll never find and agents but the agents enjoyed their stuff all the more for knowing it came free and without obligation.
Not so the neighbours.
Upstairs at Kings Place live The Guardian and The Observer.
At the second trumpet fanfare, a protest was received. Shut that noise, said the editors, there are poor journalists up here trying to think.
Diddums.
The trumpets had to retreat into the bowels of the building before they could blow again.
Coming up: Deborah Borda’s keynote.

I am chairing a session for IAMA, the international artist managers association, later today.

This is where agents big and small get together to fix artist careers for the next year or few.
Musicians are strictly barred. A major competition winner asked if I could get him in. The answer was, No. Like you don’t invite a calf to the annual convention of abbatoir owners.
I shall try to have fun keeping the peace among my panellists who include:
– Bogdan Roscic, head of Sony Classical
– Jasper Parrott, who tried to merge his business with Universal
– Jessica Lustig, who does stuf with virtual orchestras and
– John Minch, head of Boosey & Hawkes
Security permitting, I might even blog and tweet a few secrets. Do watch slipped disc.
Oh, and there’s a keynote from Deborah Borda. I’ll try to send that over, too.

The start of Lorin Maazel’s Mahler cycle with the Philharmonia Orchestra was as awful as it gets. The conductor, for reasons perverse or exhibitionist, reduced the Gesellen songs to half the prescribed tempo, draining them of sense and beauty.

www.philharmonia.co.uk/mahler
The poor mezzo, Michelle deYoung, was left wobbling on a high rope between one note and the next, with audience members checking her vibrato on the Richter scale. You could have driven a small car, or ten tweets, through the holes in this performance.
Gone was the irony Mahler intended. In its place we heard pathos, self-pity and third-rate Wagner. So slow was the unfolding that Maazel conducted with Teletubby jerks and by the end stressed Michelle was edgy and harsh. Even Maazel seemed a bit put out, clutching the podium rail now and then for support, as I have not seen him do before.
The first symphony, by the mercy of Mahler, was an improvement. Tempi were mid-range and if the pace was prosaic the narrative flowed coherently and with moments of breath-catching beauty, especially from the guest #1 flute Emer McDonough and the upper strings. Absent, though, was any sense of wonderment. The crisp entries and whip-crack endings were gym-perfect, sounding as if they had been worked out to the limits of musical endurance.
There were faults, too. The double-bass smudged two notes in the pivotal opening of the third movement, possibly out of nerves. The brass were not always together.
The finale was brilliantly done, all ebbs and flows and tiny anticipations of resurrection, yielding the desired ovation. But it was not a night to remember. The Philharmonia played anonymously, as if they were any old orchestra located between Munich and Pittsburgh, and some of the key players were substitutes – the principal flute, clarinet and double-bass (these observations are disputed below by orchestra members). There was none of the usual esprit de corps. Only the new principal viola, Catherine Bullock, looked as if she was having a good night.
As a Mahler experience, this was close to nullity. Uplift, revelation, insight and enjoyment were in short supply. I hope the series improves. 
Why Mahler?
tp://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/04/do_you_tweet_in_concerts.html

Roberto Minczuk, embattled music director of the Brazil Symphony Orchestra half of whose players he has sacked, has cancelled next week’s concerts in Salt Lake City. 

The official word from Rio (below) is that he is detained there by the crisis. Privately, there are suspicions that he fears protests from musicians in other orchestras. Whether he turns up for a concert at Liverpool, where players have notably strong opinions, remains to be seen. Likewise, for the auditions he is planning in London.
Here’s the word from Utah:

Roberto Minczuk, Conductor and Artistic Director of the Brazilian

Symphony Orchestra, formally canceled his engagement as guest conductor for the Utah Symphony Monday. American Maestro Gerard Schwartz, Music Director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, will take his place as conductor of the Utah Symphony this weekend, April 15 and 16.

 

Minczuk has canceled his engagement this week in order to take care of pressing matters with his own orchestra in Brazil.

 

“The Board and the President of the Orquestra Simfonica Brasileira have requested that Roberto Minczuk remain in Brazil this week to attend to urgent matters related to the crisis with the musicians of the orchestra,” said Minczuk’s manager in a statement to the Utah Symphony and its supporters. “I hope that you graciously understand the urgency of this matter for Roberto and can accept his very last-minute cancelation for his concerts with you this week.”


Roger Beardsley, who swept the dust of ages off hundreds of classical recordings, has passed away. Here’s the announcement on Music Preserved website:

Roger Beardsley

08/04/11

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we report the sudden death of Roger Beardsley on 7 April. His loss will be felt keenly wherever good music and old recordings are treasured, but our condolences go first to his family. Roger was the transfer engineer responsible for remsatering all of Music Preserved’s archive of historic recordings: a mammoth task he undertook with the love, enthusiasm and expertise that made him acknowledged worldwide as foremost in a highly specialised field. His care and expertise were second to none. Roger took a leading role in the work and growth of Music Preserved. He leaves a huge legacy of music, of living experiences that would otherwise have been lost to the ravages of time, and that may now be absorbed, studied and most of all enjoyed for as long as there are ears to listen. He also leaves a wide circle of friends who counted themselves lucky indeed to enjoy the company of a warm, witty and affable man who was never short of a good joke or a sharply observed apercu. A fuller tribute to Roger’s life and work will appear here in the coming days.



Roger Beardsley


And here’s a fuller c.v

Roger Beardsley began his professional music and recording career at BBC Radio Leeds, where he was a presenter/producer of a weekly music programme (1974-1983). He then became a freelance recording engineer, producing first LP, then CD releases for a variety of organisations including the BBC, following the basic premise that too many microphones cloud the sound. As a second-generation 78 collector, Roger felt that historical re-issues were a travesty of the originals, hence changed his focus from ‘live’ recording to audio restoration. He has produced 400+ CDs to date, covering every sphere of ‘serious’ musical endeavour recorded over the last 110 years – from Vess L. Ossman in 1895 to Kiri Te Kanawa in 2005. He has received various awards for his work, including ‘Classic Record Collector’ for Bartók Quartets (Pearl, 2003) and Kathleen Ferrier and Friends (Pearl GEM0229, 2005), and a ‘Diapason d’Or’ for Gerard Souzay (Pearl, 2002).

Roger is Director of Historic Masters Ltd, which produces limited editions (in the form of direct pressings from original metal masters) of important 78 rpm material from the EMI Archive. He is also a Trustee of Historic Singers Trust, working with the EMI Archive Trust to catalogue their holdings of historic material. So far he has identified 24,000 original metal masters (1900-early 1950s) and located over 1,000 important masters thought destroyed in Germany during World War II. He has produced ‘Fonotipia Ledgers 1904-1939’ (CD-ROM, Historic Masters, 3rd ed.), a database-format discography detailing over 10,000 recordings made by this highly important Italian company.

Roger was a member of the Academic Advisory Board of CHARM and is Technical Consultant (audio restoration) to the Music Department of Ki
ngs College London
. He i
s also a member of the Music Preserved Council, an organisation dedicated to conserving, restoring and making available unique recordings of broadcast performances from the 1930 onwards that would otherwise have been lost.

At the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, the tenor James Gilchrist suffered an alarming loss of sight in one eye during Bach’s St Matthew Passion and was rushed off to hospital.

St Matthew Passion

The performance continued, with much of the second half cut as no substitute tenor had been rehearsed. It was a messy option but the best in the circumstances and the audience seemed to respond sympathetically.
What astonished the  performers when they emerged into fresh air was that all their friends, lovers, neighbours and tradesmen knew about Gilchrist’s mishap as members of the audience had tweeted about it enthusiastically during the actual concert. 
One singer who contacted me seemed a little discomposed by the notion that what he was doing in the privacy of a concert hall was instant public knowledge.
This set me wondering about the etiquette – not to say netiquette – of tweeting during a
concert. My view is that so long as the clicks can’t be heard and the motions are discfeet there is no reason why a ticket holder should not share the experience with others.
But what’s your opinion? To tweet, or not to tweet? I’m at Maazel’s Mahler 1 tonight. Should I?
LATE ADD: James Gilchrist is fine. Here’s what he posted on his website:
I had a bit of a problem during this concert. Unfortunately, I became ill during the performance and had to leave the stage. I am glad to say that about half an hour or so later things were back to normal but it was, as you can imagine, not a pleasant experience. I would like to apologise enormously to all my colleagues on stage – the Bach Choir, Florilegium, the other soloists and David Hill – and also to the audience whose St Matthew became shortened because of my absence. And I would also like to thank people for their hugely kind messages of support.

The eminent Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre has published an open letter to the conductor of the national symphony orchestra, refusing him permission to perform his works in protest at the sacking of half its musicians. The gesture is the more poignant since, as Nobre specifies, he has known the conductor since he was a child and presented him with his first professional instrument. I publish the letter verbatim, as received.

Marlos Nobre with his daughter, Karina
photo: http://marlosnobre.sites.uol.com.br/

Open letter to Roberto Minczuk


Roberto, I am anxious to write this letter seeing how you got involved in this embarrassing and sad situation. 


Did you, Roberto, have no one close to open your eyes to the immense folly that was the whole situation created in the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra?

I write you as a conductor and composer who knew a Roberto still 10 to 12 years old participating in the “Young Instrumentalists Competition” I organized back in 1974 on the “Concert for Youth” on Globo and Radio MEC. In this competition, you emerged as a young talent, promising enough that I gave you as a gift a brand new horn (yours at that time was impracticable). I remember years later, in your concert debut as conductor of the OSB in Rio, I was approached by your old and honored father, in tears, telling me that the horn was kept in a glass enclosure, framing the living room of your paternal home. It was extremely moving see your father so visibly happy watching your debut as conductor of the large and prestigious Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Among other works, you conducted the Symphony “Eroica” by Beethoven. And our OSB responded to your gestures, giving at the occasion a memorable Interpretation of the work. These same musicians who are now beeing, with absolutely incomprehensible anger, relentless harassed for you as director of OSB.


Well, Robert, like your father, an old and honored musician, I learned that you can only make music with the light spirit open, connected only with the higher duty that the interpreter have that is to reveal the great message of love, universal understanding and mutual respect that emanates from every major musical work. It’s not possible to the musicians yield the most of their qualities, against the arrogance, the disrespect, t
he imposition, the inhumanit
y, human ineptitude of those who are imposing and are not giving them the conditions to create the wonderful message of music.

Roberto, that boy I gave a horn is now a source of major disappointment I ever had in my life. A deep and irreversible disappointment. You and only you alone are responsible for an unprecedented situation in the symphonic music of Brazil, to submit a full orchestra at a public embarrassment by dismissing with cruelty and disrespect for their past more than half of its components through the most unacceptable excuses possible. Neither the excuse of higher musical quality would be justification for such a high degree of human, artistic and personal aggression that you impose our OSB musicians. You do not respect age, services provided, idealism nor humanity. All these core values in human relations and art disappear in your hands at this sad moment in music history in Brazil.

The ideals that have always been the great strength of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Roberto, you cannot destroy. Moreover, I see with sadness that you’re getting a way to destroy yourself so perfectly, so definitely, so vehemently as his greatest enemy ever could, nor would have such a degree of destructive imagination.

Your selfdestruction shocks me because it seems that you, Roberto, came into this negative process, without returns or detours, unaware that anywhere in the world where you go up on stage to direct anorchestra you will have an answer of contempt and disapproval from the public and the musical world.

As a composer, it’s not my desire to see my work performed by this leftover Symphony Orchestra directed by you (which I refuse to call the OSB because it was irresponsibly destroyed by you).


I do not consent to have my work performed unless for the real BRAZILIAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA that we have learned to love, to revere and protect from any desperation passenger abuses, aggressionand moral disrespect.

Marlos Nobre

This just in from G. Schirmer, his publisher:

gs-catan-DOE-b-oct10.jpg

Composer Daniel Catán dies. 

 

Acclaimed and beloved composer
Daniel Catán passed away suddenly on
Saturday April 9 at the age of 62. He was in Austin, TX at the time where he was
teaching for a semester at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas.
Cause of death is still to be determined.

 

Catán
is known best for his lyrical romantic
style and especially his operas, the most recent of which, Il Postino premiered with great success at
Los Angeles Opera in September 2010, starring Placido Domingo. His second opera
Florencia en el Amazonas was frequently performed and garnered great
acclaim when it premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 1996.  Florencia en
el Amazonas
 has the distinction of being the first opera in Spanish
commissioned by a major American company. The success of that opera led to the
commission of
 Salsipuedes for Houston
Grand Opera. Catán had recently created a new chamber version of his first opera
La Hija de Rappaccini and was currently at work on his fifth
opera
 Meet John Doe which was due to premiere in October
2012.

 

Born
in Mexico, and later an American citizen, Catán studied philosophy at the
University of Sussex in England before enrolling in Princeton as a PhD student
in composition
. Following his
studies he served as music administrator at Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts
(1983-89).

 

Catán’s death is a
great loss to the music world and to the many friends and fans who knew him to
be a very talented, kind, erudite and generous person. He lived in Pasadena,
California and was on the faculty of College of the Canyons. He is survived by
his wife Andrea Puente, three children Chloe, Tom, and Alan, and four
grandchildren.

 

Daniel Catan, a Mexican composer whose greatest success was the opera, Il Postino, that he wrote for Placido Domingo, has died at the age of 62.

Il Postino was premiered by Los Angeles Opera last September and is due to be staged in Houston this month.
Catan, who had been in good health, was found at his home in Austin, Texas, where he was teaching a semester at UT Austin Butler School of Music. He attended rehearsals of Il Postino last week in Houston and was delighted by them.
More as I hear it.

Decca has just announced the signing of a young pianist. His name is Benjamin Grosvenor, he’s 18 years old and there has been an unmistakable buzz about him ever since he came out as top pianist in the BBC Young Musican of the Year contest, aged just 11.

Anyway, he now has a label.
But more remarkable is the realisation that he is the first British pianist Decca have signed for half a century. Not since Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany and Peter Katin has a Brit got to play on home label. Where has Decca been all this time?
Mostly abroad, on expenses. 
Latterly defunct. Good to have them back.
And another thing. I seem to remember Grosvenor signed an artists development deal with EMI. Nothing came of it. I wonder why?
Press release below.

 

DECCA CLASSICS
SIGNS EXCLUSIVE RECORDING CONTRACT

WITH
BENJAMIN GROSVENOR

 

 

YOUNG BRITISH
TALENT SIGNS RECORD-BREAKING DEAL:

–           First British pianist to
be signed to Decca Classics in nearly 60 years

–           Youngest British artist
ever to sign to Decca Classics

 

 

(Credit: Laurie
Lewis. High-res photo available upon request)

 

 

London, Monday 11
April 2011

 

Decca Classics is delighted to
announce the signing of an exclusive contract with 18-year-old British pianist
Benjamin Grosvenor, who has been described by Jessica Duchen in The Independent
as “one in a million – several million” and “a keyboard visionary who knows no
bounds” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).

 

In doing so, Benjamin becomes the
first British pianist to sign with Decca Classics since Clifford Curzon, Moura
Lympany and Peter Katin first graced the label in the 1940s and 50s, and the
youngest British musician ever to sign to the legendary British imprint. 

 

At the age of 11 Grosvenor was the
youngest ever finalist in the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year competition.
Having been carefully nurtured since the age of 13 by his management Hazard
Chase, he has since achieved critical acclaim worldwide and has now secured a
contract with the major label. This makes him the first British musician to sign
with Decca Classics since it recently stated its intention to bring homegrown
classical talent back to the forefront of its roster.

 

Paul Moseley,
Managing Director of Decca Classics says:

‘This is an enormously significant
moment for Decca. As a British company proud of its heritage what could be more
satisfying than making this agreement with the most exceptional British pianist
to emerge in decades?  Benjamin has evolved from a child prodigy to become an
artist of extraordinary imagination and flair. Above all, he has a sound that is
all his own.  The time is now right for this major new step in what will
certainly be a long and very successful career. We are thrilled to be part of
that and look forward to many landmark projects
together.’

 

Benjamin
Grosvenor says:

‘I am very pleased and excited to
sign this deal with Decca. It is a great honour to be asked to record for a
company with such an illustrious history and which has recorded so many of the
musicians that I admire. I am very much looking forward to getting into the
studio to record such wonderful repertoire.’

 

Benjamin’s first recording of
Chopin’s Four Scherzi, Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit and shorter pieces by Chopin
and Liszt will be recorded later this month and released in July. Chopin is one
of Benjamin’s greatest passions and his recent all-Chopin recital at LSO St
Luke’s received much acclaim … “he has built up a glittering career as both
recitalist and concerto performer…the impression we were left with was of the
sweetest physical symbiosis between this player and his instrument” (Michael
Church, The Independent).

 

Benjamin first rose to prominence
when he won the piano section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004 at the
age of 11. Shortly after, he made his debuts at the Royal Albert Hall, London and Carnegie Hall, New
York
.  He has continued to develop an international
presence in Europe, Asia and the USA with performances alongside
renowned orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Tokyo
Symphony and North Carolina Symphony, with esteemed conductors including
Alexander Lazarev and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Benjamin’s debut sell-out performance
with the Philharmonia was hailed as “a performance that took its expressive and
dramatic cues from the very heart of the music, and in so doing crafted an
interpretation of palpable character and astute panache” (Daily
Telegraph).

 

In addition to his extensive
concerto schedule, Benjamin is an accomplished recitalist and is a regular at
Wigmore Hall and has enjoyed chamber music collaborations with members of the
English Chamber Orchestra.

 

Benjamin is currently in his third
year of studies with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music in
London and has
recently been chosen to join the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme,
which provides regular opportunities with BBC orchestras plus many recital and
festival appearances. 2011 highlights for Benjamin include performances at the
Wigmore Hall, London, Birmingham Symphony Hall,
Snape Maltings, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels,
Gstaad Winter Festival, Brescia and Bergamo Festival and Dvorak Prague
Festival, with major additional plans to be announced shortly.

 

 

 

For further
information please contact:

Louise.Ringrose@umusic.com


Placido Domingo has made good his pledge to return to Japan as soon as viable. He was singing in Tokyo this weekend with a new partner, Virginia Tola.

But local reports say the Metropolitan Opera is refusing to confirm whether it will fulfil a Japan tour in June. Understandable amid aftershocks – another one struck today – and general devastation, but a solidarity gesture would not come amiss.
Visits by Domingo and Zubin Mehta are said to be invaluable to the national morale.
.

The Vienna State Opera has announced that it will donateto Japan relief all proceeds from a concert of Mahler’s 9th symphony on the centenary of his death, May 18, 2011