David Danzmayr, fast-rising music director of the Illinois Philharmonic has been named chief of the Zagreb Phil in Croatia.
The Seattle Symphony, ‘fastest rising US orch of 2014‘, has received six Grammy nominations for two own-label releases, including Producer of the Year for Dmitri Lipay and best contemporary for John Luther Adams’ Become Ocean.
No other US orch label apparently comes close.
Stephen Jay Carlton, 46, has been convicted of stealing $272,000 from a California orchestra. But it appears he has a prior conviction for manslaughter over strangling his wife, possibly in a sexual accident. So they’re throwing awat the key.
Read here.
Norman Schoer played viola in the 1943 Broadway premiere of Oklahoma. He went on to serve the Lyric for 25 years, retiring at 84.
Whatever became of his beautiful Amati?
Tribute here.
Information received:
The Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez is the founder of a social project in Peru, trying to improve the life of children and youngsters through music. Following the philosophy of the Venezuelan “El Sistema”, Flórez has founded “Sinfonia por el Peru”, a project, that currently reaches out to 9 of the most difficult regions of Peru and to about 2000 children, who attend music schools and, by learning together in the orchestras and choirs, learn about societal values like respect, consequence and diligence, they experience growing self-esteem and are able to develop their skills as musicians and singers.
To create awareness for his own as well as for other projects of the same kind, Juan Diego Flórez has decided to put together an orchestra – The Harmonia Symphony – consisting of young musicians from different music projects. This orchestra will accompany Flórez and his singer colleagues Fatma Said (Egypt), Pretty Yende (South Africa) and Sergey Artamonov (Russia) in a concert on Human Rights Day in Geneva on December 10, 2014. Youngsters from South America, South Africa, Asia and Europe will play together, conducted by Spanish conductor Pablo Mielgo. For many of the musicians it is the first international concert.
Projects involved:
- Academia Filarmonica de Medellin (AFMED, Colombia)
- The National System of Youth and Children Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela
- Superar (Austria, Switzerland)
- MusicEnsemble (Geneva, Switzerland)
- The New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy (USA)
- The Mangaung String Program (Bloemfontein, South Africa)
- Bravura Musical Foundation (Cochabamba, Bolivia)
- Sinfonía por el Perú (Peru)
- Verbier Festival Orchestras (Switzerland)
- The “Sistema Orchestre e Cori Giovanili e Infantili in Italia” (Italy)
The concert will broadcasted live to over 63 countries.
Dr Judith Schlesinger asks: What useful purpose does it serve to insist that our greatest creative minds must be somehow damaged and disturbed, particularly when there is no real evidence for it?
Read the full article here.
They wouldn’t have done this to Albert Schweizer. Would they?
We’ve reported the immigration crackdown in Basle. More than 50 foreign musicians are going to be put on a train out of the country.
If enough people sign this petition – here – we might prevent that.
Andreas Scholl, Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb are among the foreign signatories.
(The form is in German. You need to scroll down the page and click on ‘Unterschreiben’)
Not a Chelski supporter.
Taken in the 1940s.
h/t DSCH Shostakovich Journal
Name five composers who were fanatical soccer fans. Go on.
The Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory has announced the death of Professor Alexei Nasedkin. He was 72.
A Neuhaus student, Nasedkin came sixth at the second Tchaikovsky competition in 1962 and won third place at the 1966 Leeds Competition, behind Rafael Orozco (1st) and Viktoria Postnikova and Semyon Kruchin (joint 2nd).
He was president of the Russian Schubert Society.
h/t: Mark Stephenson and Zoe Martlew for the discovery
We need to hear more from Dr Dawn Batson
The last-placed Olympic violinist is appealing against her four-year ban from competitive skiing. She had nothing to do, she claims, with fixing the results of qualifying rounds.
