Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra have called a public meeting next Monday at which they will outline a new mission ‘that they will work to fulfill in the years going forward, with or without the Minnesota Orchestral Association.’ The musicians have raised more than $300,000 since August.
The Minnesota Orchestra has been a musician-free zone for the past 14 months. Its own mission statement is being scrutinised by the public authorities for false promises and accounting.
I took part a couple of months back in a round-table on music education at the Royal Academy of Music, published this week in the Guardian. Although the conversation was conducted under Chatham House rules, meaning that views expressed were unattributable, I am happy to claim ownership of the following quote:
“People in music know what highly skilled music students can do, and what music adds to the lives of people, but we keep saying society does not understand,” added another. “Why? Either because we can’t articulate our own value, or because we refuse to engage with society.”
Discuss.
We’ve been informed this morning that two of our recent campaigns have forced a rethink on the future of important slices of heritage.
Denmark’s media reports today that the decision to suspend the flute and clarinet elements in the Nielsen competition has been revoked. The competitions were originally scrapped, then there was talke of them being suspended for one year. Now they are fully reinstated.
And we are delighted to report that the Romanian Government has agreed, at last, to recognise the childhood home of Georges Enescu as a national monument. Thanks to so many readers for raising their voices in support.
Simon Webb appointed General Manager of the BBC Philharmonic
It has been announced today that Simon Webb will become the General Manager of the BBC Philharmonic. Webb will join the orchestra in March 2014 as the orchestra completes its survey of Strauss’ work in collaboration with the Hallé, Manchester Camerata and The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, celebrating 150 years since the composer’s birth.
Taking over from Richard Wigley who has been at the helm of the orchestra for the past 10 years, Webb comes to Salford from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where he has been the Director of Orchestral Management since 2008. A former cellist, he was a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996 to 2005 before joining Sheffield’s Music in the Round as Administrative Director and establishing its in-house Ensemble 360.
Passionate about music education, Webb played a leading role in the outreach work at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, worked with Arts Council England to develop orchestral provision in Yorkshire and the Humber and is on the board of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain.
With experience both on and off the stage Webb’s thorough understanding of the orchestral sector complements the range of activities undertaken by the BBC Philharmonic from concerts throughout the North of England, regular recordings for BBC Radio 3, annual visits to the BBC Proms and a varied international touring schedule.
Announcing the appointment, Radio 3 Controller and Director of BBC Proms Roger Wright said: ‘I’m delighted to welcome Simon to the BBC Philharmonic and the wider BBC performing group family. The orchestra is an integral part of BBC Radio 3 with many concerts broadcast live to our audiences in the UK and internationally. I’m looking forward to working with Simon across the BBC Philharmonic’s output including the orchestra’s regular appearances at the BBC Proms.’
Welcoming the news, Peter Salmon, Director of BBC North said: ‘Simon’s artistic credentials speak for themselves but what is also impressive is his commitment to spreading the message about music to harder to reach communities and children. The BBC Philharmonic is an important ambassador for the BBC throughout the region, and particularly in its Salford home. We look forward to working with Simon in this crucial area of BBC activity.’
Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena, said: ‘I am so pleased to be working with Simon on new artistic ventures for the BBC Philharmonic. With his background as an orchestral player he truly understands the stimulation and challenges of orchestral life and I look forward to working together in this exciting next stage of the orchestra’s life.’
Simon Webb said: ‘I am delighted to be joining the BBC Philharmonic, an orchestra I have admired for some time and enjoyed hearing in Manchester and Sheffield in recent years. I am looking forward to continuing the impressive work of my predecessor, Richard Wigley, in developing the orchestra’s work across the region and particularly in its home city of Salford. The BBC Philharmonic has an important role to play within the BBC and on the international stage as one of the UK’s finest symphony orchestras; I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Juanjo Mena and this excellent orchestra.’
The BBC Philharmonic is supported by Salford City Council.
The Bulgarian soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow, who owed her career to a close working relationship with Herbert von Karajan is to make a Berlin comeback next March. It has been announced that she will appear in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride under Daniel Barenboim’s baton in Berlin and Milan at the age of 72.
We have received this translation of an important protest by a leading theatre St Petersburg director:
The theatre director Lev Dodin suggests strengthening the legally binding right to artistic freedom of creativity.
Speaking at the Petersburg International Cultural Forum, the artistic director of the Maly Theatre, the Theatre of Europe, Lev Dodin gave his opinion that the Year of Culture in Russia threatens to turn into a year of hooliganism and yobbery. In the middle of November, after a performance on the Maly stage of the German production of ‘Death in Venice’, an insulting piece of graffiti appeared on the walls of the theatre.
“All this madness, when people write on the walls of museums and theatres, in order to intimidate by throwing pigs’ heads at a show which doesn’t please them, and which they haven’t even seen, has to stop. It is possible legally and constitutionally to strengthen artistic law”, said Dodin. According to a report from Interfax, he gave as an example certain Western countries, where the law protects artistic and creative freedom. “The Year of Culture should not turn into a year of hooliganism and yobbery, of so-called patriotic and so-called religious xenophobic fundamentalism”, Dodin concluded.
As well as the Maly Theatre, in November the Youth Theatre on the Fontanka suffered vandalism. There also an insulting inscription was written on the wall, and a pig’s head left.
The appearances of graffiti have been connected to the performance of the show ‘Death in Venice’, after the novella by Thomas Mann. The director of the show Thomas Ostermeier said after the performance that he dedicated the show to the gay community.
Earlier the graffito “Paedophile” appeared on the walls of the Erarta Museum. And the Nabokov Museum in Petersburg has also been a victim of vandalism. At first a bottle was thrown in at a window of the Vladimir Nabokov Apartment-Museum containing a note with words from the Old Testament on the sin of fornication. And later vandals wrote on the walls of the museum the word “Paedophile”.
Vasily Sinaisky, who quit yesterday as chief conductor, tells Ria-Novosti that working with the Bolshoi general director, Vladimir Urin, was ‘uninteresting and intolerable’. My departure, he adds, ‘is the result of four months working with Mr Urin.’
Read here. We wonder what passes for normal at the Bolshoi.
Press Announcement – The Tallis Scholars delay their Tavener re-issue
Gimell has abandoned plans to re-issue The Tallis Scholars’ recording of John Tavener’s Ikon of Light on what would have been Sir John’s 70th birthday for fear of appearing opportunistic. The release has now been scheduled for April 2014. The album will also include Funeral Ikos, the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete and a performance of The Lamb conducted by the composer.Ikon of Light was commissioned by The Tallis Scholars and Sir John attended the recording sessions.
In his last recorded interview Sir John referred twice to The Tallis Scholars: the Ikon of Light was one of the pieces he most wanted to hear during his 70th year and when asked what music had most moved him in the previous year he mentioned The Tallis Scholars’ performance of the 16th-century John Taverner’s Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas at the BBC Proms.
Soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko was sentenced to six years for ordering the attack on Sergei Filin. The two attackers got nine and ten years. Court report here in Russian, here and here in English.
Pavel with girlfriend, Angelina Vorontsova, the reported cause of his attack on Filin.
Pascal Tabu Ley, known as Seigneur (Lord) Tabu Ley Rochereau, has died in Brussels, aged 73.
Professor William Adam, who taught at the Jacobs School of Music from 1946 to 1988, has died, at the venerable age of 96. In his performing career, William played first trumpet in the Denver Symphony Orchestra.
His students occupy chairs in many states of the union. Announcement here.
Peter Buck, cellist of the Melos Quartet, has announced that the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer he founded 21 years ago cannot take place in 2014. Press release here and below.
PRESSEMITTEILUNG
Stand: 22. November 2013
Pressestelle Mag. Rosalinde H. Brandner-Buck ~Public Relations & Medien~
Oberstdorfer Musiksommer Am Sonnenweg 63 * 70619 Stuttgart * Tel: 0711-4414645
Mail: r.h.brandner@t-online.de
KEIN OBERSTDORFER MUSIKSOMMER IN 2014
Nach 21 erfolgreichen Festivaljahren wird 2014 der Oberstdorfer Musiksommer nicht über die Bühne
gehen.
„Die Entscheidung ist uns wahrlich nicht leicht gefallen, obwohl der diesjährige Musiksommer
künstlerisch von einem großartigen Zuspruch und Erfolg gekrönt gewesen ist.“ teilt Prof. Peter Buck,
Festivalgründer und künstlerischer Leiter, in seiner Funktion als erster Vorsitzender der Vereinigung
der Freunde und Förderer des Oberstdorfer Musiksommers e.V. mit. Er begründet diesen
weitreichenden Schritt wie folgt: „Schlussendlich hat die nicht zu realisierende mittelfristige
Finanzsicherheit den Ausschlag gegeben, dass wir den Oberstdorfer Musiksommer 2014 nicht
durchführen können.“
Festivalleiterin Rosalinde Brandner-Buck zieht das Fazit: „Ein solides Fundament ist unabdingbar für
eine wegweisende Planungssicherheit, die das Rückgrat für eine gestaltende Kraft bildet. Nur mit
einer zuverlässigen Basis hätte der hervorragend etablierte Musiksommer als ein professionell
geführtes Kulturunternehmen den Erwartungen an hochwertigen Inhalten und an zuverlässiger
Partnerschaft weiterhin gerecht werden können.“
Zwei Jahrzehnte lang kombinierten die verantwortlichen Festivalmacher niedrige Etats mit hohem
ideellem Engagement und stellten ein das Allgäu bereicherndes Kultur- und Nachwuchsangebot auf
die Beine. Jahr für Jahr gelang es ihnen, in einem immer komplexer werdenden Umfeld aus
gesetzlichen Regelungen und steigenden Kosten mit den gleichbleibenden wenigen Ressourcen ein
attraktives und innovatives Festivalprogramm zu realisieren; in den Internationalen Meisterkursen
erlebten weit über 2000 Musikstudenten aus aller Welt eine exzellente sommerliche
Talenteschmiede.
Dass diesem Einsatz Grenzen gesetzt sind, ist dem Vorstand schon lange bewusst. Auch der mit
prominenten Vertretern aus Politik und Wirtschaft besetzte Workshop „ Oberstdorfer Musiksommer
2020“ kam zu der Erkenntnis, dass der jährliche finanzielle Spießrutenlauf durch die
Planungssicherheit fester Zuschüsse zu ersetzen sei, wenn das Festival eine Zukunft haben soll. An
den Freistaat Bayern, der den Oberstdorfer Musiksommer dankenswerter Weise von Beginn an,
jedoch im Laufe der Jahre mit einem immer niedriger werdenden Betrag unterstützte, wurde die
Bitte um Mithilfe für eine stabile Finanzierung begründet vorgetragen. Der Wunsch fand zwar viel
Gehör, jedoch keine konkrete dauerhafte Zusage, wie der Vorstand mit großem Bedauern feststellen
musste.
Prof. Peter Buck, Festivalleiterin Rosalinde Brandner-Buck und dem Vorstand ist es ein
Herzensanliegen, der Marktgemeinde Oberstdorf und dem Landkreis Oberallgäu für das Vertrauen
und die engagierte Kooperation zu danken. Sie binden in diesen Dank den Bezirk Schwaben sowie die
vielen treuen Wegbegleiter von Sponsoren, Förderern, Mitgliedern und last but not least die Künstler,
Dozenten und das Publikum der vergangen zwei Dekaden ein.
Foto: auf Seite 2
Prof. Peter Buck, Künstlerischer Leiter und Rosalinde Brandner-Buck, Festivalleiterin
des Oberstdorfer Musiksommers
PRESSEMITTEILUNG
Stand: 22. November 2013
Pressestelle Mag. Rosalinde H. Brandner-Buck ~Public Relations & Medien~
Oberstdorfer Musiksommer Am Sonnenweg 63 * 70619 Stuttgart * Tel: 0711-4414645
Mail: r.h.brandner@t-online.de
