Lorenzo Antonio Iosco, principal bass clarinet of the London Symphony Orhestra has announced he’s moving to Hong Kong in November as principal bass clarinet of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
Last week, principal viola Paul Silverthorne let it be known that he’s moving to China as professor of viola at Soochow University.
It’s starting to look like a trend.
Statement from Vienna Pil:
We mourn the loss of our dear co-principal cellist Friedrich Doležal, whom we will always remember as a very kind, cheerful and humorous colleague.
Fritz, as we use to call him, joined the orchestra in 1968 (first as member at the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, then in 1973 as member of the VPO) and retired only last year on September 1, 2014. May he rest in peace.
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra kicks off its season with the world premiere of Kalevi Aho’s Symphony No. 16, conducted by Hannu Lintu. Written for mezzosoprano, 60 strings and percussion, it sets poems by Gertrud Kolmar, who died in Auschwitz.
We don’t have the answer to that, but the evidence can be seen on this amateur video of two beluga whales disporting themselves last week to the sound of a solo cello.
Enjoy.
The video was taken by wildlife charity Explore.org on Manitoba’s Churchill River.
A sign of things to come: Sir Simon Rattle’s next record deal is with his next orchestra.
His debut release is Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri.
Sample here:
St Thomas Church in Leipzig has summoned four cantors to audition. They are:
Markus Teutschbein of Basle;
Clemens Flämig of Halle;
KMD Prof. Dr. h.c. Markus Johannes Langer of Rostock;
and Matthias Jung of the Dresden Boys’ choir.
Details here.
On Saturday, September 5, a radical Toronto goup will present a mass performance (#1000strings) of John Oswald’s piece, Spectre. They are looking for volunteers.
#1000strings is an accessible, participatory piece designed for all ages and levels. #1000strings is calling all Toronto string players to come and perform alongside a star studded lineup of violinists, violists, cellists, bassists.
You can register here.
At KUHA 91.7 FM, General Manager Lisa Shumate has told the University of Houston officials she wants to sell the frequency and transmitter for the station. Cassical broadcasting will continue online only.
This is part of an alarming trend. Read here.
Stephen Moss in the Guardian has a splendid interview with Jonas Kaufmann, who lets it be known that he’ll be the one singing ‘Rule, Britannia’ at the Last Night of the Proms. Stephen suggests he should try one verse in German.
Jonas is still thinking about that one.
Read here.
Anne Akiko Meyers has been the subject of a hate campaign after she posted a foolish response to the birth of a non-white orchestra. Her response: I wonder if you have to be black to solo with this orchestra? #reversediscrimination
The tweet was circulated on social media by a malign strings enterprise. Anne has now issued this contrite statement on violinist.com:
“Quickly, I realized the implications were just so horrible and dreadful that I took down the post almost immediately, about 20 minutes later,” Meyers told me this morning, speaking over the phone. “I am extremely sorry. It was a very big mistake and I in no way stand behind that question, in no way.”
End of non-story.
NMC Recordings announces:
MARTLAND REVEALED!
This double album anthology includes a booklet that features a foreword from Louis Andriessen along with many tributes and photos.
COMING SOON on NMC: You can pre-order the album (and hear extracts of it) at http://nmcrec.co.uk/
Steve Martland died in May 2013, aged 59. He is greatly missed.
We hear that IMG Artists co-owner Alexander Shustorovich has been going around the festival circuit saying that he’s negotiating to buy CAMI.
IMGA and CAMI are the world’s two largest classical agencies.
This may be happy-hour talk, or it may be Russian bluff. But CAMI is ripe for the plucking now that Ronald Wilford is no more and Jean-Jacques Cesbron has hived off the commercial bits into a separate company, CAMIMusic.
Whether fraudster-co-owned IMG is a fit and proper proprietor for CAMI, and whether any such deal would pass US anti-trust laws, is another matter altogether. But a deal is in the air. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Wissman (l), Shustorovich (r), rich pal inbetween
