The fast rising Jakub Hrusa has told the St Louis Symphony he can’t make a week of concerts next month because he needs to be around for the birth of his second child.
That’s what we like to hear from a thoroughly modern maestro.
But Jakub might be cutting it fine. The following week he’s due to conduct the Los Angeles Phil and he intends to make those dates. Let’s hope the baby comes in time.
Jakub with his first child, August 2013
Ian Maclay has been saying for years he’s ready to leave the challenging task of finding work for London’s fifth-ranked orchestra.
The RPO have now, finally, named his successor – a bloke from the Philharmonia.
That’s exciting.
Read here
And it leaves the Philharmonia still searching for some other bloke to succeed David Whelton, who is retiring in two months’ time.
El Universal reports: The body of Larry Salinas, director of the orchestra for special children in Ciudad Guayana, was found at dawn at kilometre 17. It had three gunshot wounds. His vehicle was missing.
According to a local report, the body was found by children as they walked to school.
Larry had spent 20 years teaching children, providing them with music opportunities.
He was 48 years old.
Lawlessness rules in Venezuela.
An Oxford study on ‘The psychological benefits of singing in a choir’ finds the following:
1 Choral singers report ‘significantly higher levels of well-being than solo singers.’
2 Choral singers ‘experience a greater sense of being part of a meaningful, or ‘real’ group, than team sports players.’
Discuss.
Just when you thought orchestras had run out of gimmicks, along comes a new gang with a recycled meal deal.
The Philharmonia Orchestra of New York, known as PONY, ‘has commissioned five of the area’s top chefs to create dishes inspired by symphonies being performed in a pair of concerts on March 29 and 30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater: Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.’
That’s what it says in the press release.
Among the dishes: Spanish Gamba Resurrected with New York’s First Taste of Spring
I’m going vegan.
Vesa Siren, critic of the Hensingin Sanomat, has just published rehearsal video of the Helsinki Philharmonic with young Klaus Mäkelä, who looks like the real deal.
Vesa writes:
Great expectations this evening at Helsinki Music Centre. Klaus decided to become a conductor when he was seven years old, rehearsing in children’s choir of Carmen at Finnish National Opera with Hannu Lintu. Already one of the best cellists in Finland of his generation, at 12 he started studying conducting, with Jorma Panula. 8 years later he has already conducted many Finnish orchestras. Next: debuts in Denmark, Tokyo. Panula says: “He is one of the best students I have ever had. He has ears, is quick-witted and of course with great musicality.”
Watch rehearsal video here.
We learn today that Violin Memory, the computer-data storage company, has sacked a quarter of its staff after poor results.
Opera, the popular browser, has developed an effective ad-blocking system online.
Symphony is a high-performance software system.
Orchestra develops could-based software solutions.
Maestro is a NASA program.
Conductor specialises in web presence management.
These people tell us classical music is obsolete.
As they steal our clothes.
The incoming conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic is having great difficulty fitting the orchestra into his busy schedule in the years ahead. Kirill Petrenko is music director at Bavarian State Opera and takes his responsibilities there very seriously.
He has no concerts scheduled yet, so far as we can see, on the Berlin Phil website.
However, he has managed to squeeze in one concert with the Berliners on Easter Saturday, April 8, 2017, at Baden-Baden, the festival has just announced.
It’s a start.
We have a soft spot for the Brussels opera house. It has a fantastic record for talent, innovation and counter-intuitive presentation over the past quarter-century and it’s always pushing out the envelope.
So when intendant Peter de Caluwe launches his season with seven new productions couched in quotations from the gloomiest philosopher since the Biblical Jeremiah, well…. maybe he’s onto something.
Read Peter’s thoughtful speech here.
A 1971 television ad for the Zastava (YUGO) 101.
Irresistible.
(Anyone recognise the cellist?)
In a sign that Andris Nelsons is breaking the Boston mould, the music director has just named Thomas Adès to the new position of artistic partner for the next three seasons.
The pair worked together in Birmingham, Andris’s previous job.
Andris said today: ‘It is incredibly exciting for me and my beloved BSO that the exceptional Thomas Adès will join us as Artistic Partner and work very closely with us to create fascinating programs for our devoted audiences here in Boston, at Tanglewood, and, through broadcasts and recordings, around the world. Universally regarded as one of the most creative souls in the world of classical music today, Thomas Adès and his accomplishments are extraordinary. As the BSO’s Artistic Partner, Thomas will be involved with the orchestra on every level of his outstanding talents as a composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher. There is no doubt that he will inspire all of us at the BSO to ever greater achievements, which we hope will become special gifts for all of those who so love listening to the musicians of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.’
photo (c) Chris Christodoulou/LebrechtM&A
The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced this year’s awards in music.
All-male judging panel. Five women out of 17 winners.
No minorities.
pictured: Hannah Lash
