This little zero-pay offer is going around town. Your views?
Dear strings
Might you be interested to play in the event detailed below?
Wed 15 April: Gershwin / Laura Mvula
The Angel Orchestra is looking for extra string players for a one-off rehearsal on Wednesday 15 April.
Venue: St Silas Church, Risinghill Street, N1 9UL (Angel tube)
Times: 7.30-9.30pm
Music: Gershwin songs (arr. Troy Miller)
Conductor: Troy Miller
Singer: Laura Mvula
Payment: We don’t pay you and you don’t pay us J
Laura Mvula is a well-known soul singer – I am waiting for confirmation that she is definitely coming, but it looks likely …
Troy Miller is an American composer and music producer who has worked with the likes of Amy Winehouse (he is Laura Mvula’s producer).
This rehearsal is in preparation for concerts they are doing with the Philharmonia and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Please feel free to forward this request to others who might be interested. Thanks.
Those estimable missionaries of the Nederlandse Bachvereniging have reached the book of Matthew in their quest to record the complete JS Bach on video.
The performers are the Netherlands Bach Society and the Kampen Boys Choir, conductor Jos van Veldhoven.
We ran this story over Christmas. Any further thoughts?
Many in the profession choose Germany. That’s where there’s the most work in the greatest number of opera houses.
It’s also convenient for the rest of Europe. (If a little dull, some say).
Russians migrate to Austria.
Switzerland is popular if you’re in the right tax bracket.
Britain is favoured for its centrality and connectivity (though not for its airports).
France for its fees, and its food.
The US has pluses and minuses. The Met overshadows the rest and you can’t jump in to Europe at 24 hours notice.
So where would you choose to live as an opera singer? And where would you avoid?
What’s the best (and worst) place for an artist to live in 2015?
This is one of the remarkable conclusions of a 1990s study of violin students in Berlin. Read here.
h/t: Zsolt Bognar
Dare you not to laugh at this Victor Borge classic.
Or this.
This is Grigory Sokolov at work. Check the fingerwork from 0:18.
It’s Joyce DiDonato in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust at 7pm, and she’s provided a free 48-hour pass.
Enter code BADENBADEN2015 when you visit the site here.
The headline quote belongs to Georg Solti.
Martha Argerich calls her ‘the female pianist I like the best’.
Sviatoslav Richter recognised her as ‘a great artist imbued with a spirit of greatness and genuine profundity.’
It is 20 years to the day since the death of Annie Fischer.
‘I never meant to start a war’
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra has announced it will honour its June concerts with Valentina Lisitsa, despite her cancellation by Toronto over her pro-Kremlin political views.
It has named a man of 29 as the next principal conductor of its symphony orchestra.
And it has shouted out that no Australian orchestra has dared to appoint a local chief in three decades.
Nicholas Carter has been assistant to music director Simone Young at the Hamburg State Opera and now lives in Berlin, where he is kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper.
He says: ‘I think my appointment comes at a really interesting time in the musical and cultural landscape in Australia and throughout the world, where orchestras and other cultural organisations are trying to redefine their relevance in the world in the 21st century.’
