28Aug

How opera singers can help you get a new job

Terrific article on Forbes magazine by an HR executive, Liz Ryan, who doubles as a professional opera singer. After years of auditions, it occurred to her that opera singers are uniquely equipped to teach the rest of us how to go about improving our job prospects. Sample text: My beautiful and brilliant teacher Winifred told […]

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28Aug

Peter Sellars: ‘We need music in business and in politics. Please.’

The director’s acceptance speech of the Polar Prize last night:

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28Aug

Were you moved by Addicts Symphony?

The Channel 4 documentary on classical musicians who were derailed by drink or drugs went out last night at 11pm. The underlying story was familiar – a picture of intolerable pressures of high performance – and some of the personal accounts plumbed a deep well of human sympathy. But the persistent intrusiveness of the medium, […]

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28Aug

Everything’s for sale: Have your music played by the Vienna Philharmonic

Package offer from that high-class establishment, the Imperial Hotel, Vienna: Maestro in the Making, Hotel Imperial (Vienna, Austria) Ivory tinklers can channel their inner Mozart (or at least try) during this two-night Maestro in the Making package at Vienna’s Hotel Imperial. Music lovers join forces with a Viennese composer to create their own piece of […]

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28Aug

Body is found of missing Philharmonic conductor

The body of Brian Webb, a New Zealander who conducted the Vermont Philharmonic since 1976, has been found half a mile out at sea after his wife reported him missing. Brian, 65, had spent the night out on his sailboat. He was an experienced sailor and a faculty member of Union Institute and University.   […]

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28Aug

Nike Wagner: Why do all summer festivals have to be the same?

The Bayreuth exile, now running the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, has been sounding off about the problem with festivals. Much of what she says can be applied equally to the Met, or to any other large cultural institution in the early 21st century. Here’s the quote:   All festivals today are striving desperately for a […]

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28Aug

Go, Jamie! Cardiff winner gets unexpected role

Mezzo Jamie Barton, popular winner of BBC’s Cardiff Singer of the World, is a late jump-in for San Francisco’s Norma. Daveda Karanas has withdrawn in mid-rehearsals ‘for personal reasons’. Jamie will sing Adalgisa from September 5 opposite Sondra Radvanovsky’s Norma.  

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27Aug

Most cultured city in the USA?

Property Shark has drawn up a list of 20 cities that have the most cultural amenities* for head of population. The highest has to be New York, right? Wrong. New York City comes 13th. Los Angeles, then? Wrong again. LA checks in at #17. Chicago? Forget it. Number 20. So where then, where? Check here. […]

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27Aug

Just in: Composer assaulted, opera cancelled in St Petersburg

Ilya Demutsky, whose opera on the Pussy Riot protesters won an award in Italy last year, has been physically attacked in St Petersburg after being lured to a public location for a supposed television interview. Dumtsky claims his latest opera, about a paedophile hunter who resembles a Russian nationalist, has been cancelled by several venues […]

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27Aug

What did this German composer get up to in Paris?

In an eight-month stay in Paris in 1737-8, Georg Philipp Telemann changed his style, his mood, the very character of his music. What on earth was going on in his life? A selection of Telemann’s Paris music is my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com.  

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27Aug

Poor attendances and late replacements at Edinburgh Festival

Our man in the stalls reports: Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony faced large swathes of empty seats. The attendance at Guglielmo Tell was slightly increased but still very far from full. Four principals were replaced at short notice without explanation. Seats are available at all prices for Gergiev’s Les Troyens with another unexplained replacement – Mlada Khudoley (pictured) for Ekaterina Gubanova.  

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