Alvin Mills founded the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles in 1955. Now, at 94, he is getting ready to hand over the baton on May 15.

His role model – his, and so many others, in conducting and longevity – was Pierre Monteux.

pierre-monteux-en-pistes-3-5-r

 

‘I’ll be very sorry it’s over,’ Mills tells an LA Times reporter. ‘It’s as simple as that.’

Read the full feature here.

 

 

Bridge records reports the death this morning of Ursula Mamlok, at the age of 93. She had returned ten years ago to live in her birthplace, Berlin, which she fled after Kristallnacht in 1938.

Ursula studied at Mannes with Georg Szell and Ralph Shapey and went on to teach at NYU, CUNY, Temple and Manhattan School of Music.

Her output, moderately modernist, is for small chamber groups.

 

ursula Mamlok

Not much, apparently, beneath the sheer side panels of her concert dress.

Nice compliment for a man of 80.

khatia zubin 80

The impact on our conservatoires and orchestras will be devastating, decimating. Quite apart from the issues we have raised already about border controls.

Today, the Guidhall School of Music and Drama points out that 42 of the 109 students in its orchestra come from countries in the European Union. They pay the same £9,000 fee as UK students to study at the conservatoire.

A Brexit vote in the June 23 referendum on 23 June could jeopardise this happy arrangement. EU students at conservatoires and universities across the UK may be required to pay as much as other foreign entrants, at least £30,000. EU students would stop coming to Britain. Professors and teachers would be laid off. Departments and whole universities will shut.

guidhall Orchestral-Artistry-2015

 

Professor Barry Ife, Principal of the Guildhall School, says; ‘The Guildhall School has over 200 students from the EU and we benefit greatly from their talent and enthusiasm. Brexit would deprive them of access to the student loans scheme and their ability to study here would be put at risk. We need talented young international students to keep our world-leading provision fresh and vibrant. And we need to stay connected in an interconnected world.’

There are approximately 125,000 EU students studying at UK universities, making up 5% of the student population. At conservatoires the figure is generally much higher – at the Guildhall School, 19% of the total student body come from the EU. According to analysis by Universities UK, EU students in London also generated £798.9m for the regional economy and 7,580 jobs.

 

 

 

The new culture minister, Corina Suteu, previously headed the New York office of the Romanian Cultural Institute.

Here’s a t-shirt issued under her patronage.

I love romania

Back home, it was taken to mean I screw Romania.

corina steu

We hear there is worse to come.

 

Artslink Queensland in Australia, formerly known as the Queensland Arts Council, has gone into voluntary administration.

The outcome is still unclear.

Read here. It could happen elsewhere.

queensland

Happy birthday, Gennady.

gennady rozhdestvensky

New guidelines from fly.be. H/t: Sarah Watts. Print this link.

 

 

fly.be

1 Violins, clarinets and other small instruments may be permitted on board Flybe-operated flights as cabin baggage.  Theinstrument, including its case, must not exceed 100cm x 30cm x 23cm.  Carriage as cabin baggage is subject to available space in the overhead lockers.

Please note: The instrument will be classed as your one piece of cabin baggage.  Flybe recommends you have adequate insurance to cover such items.

2 Cellos can be carried in the cabin if an additional seat is purchased, as they can be secured safely in an aircraft seat unlike other items.  There are restrictions on doing so as follows:

  • Cellos are limited to 1 per person
  • A passenger must accompany the cello on the same flight
  • The cello must not be on a seat in an emergency exit row or next to a window
  • A seat must be dedicated for that item only and cannot be shared with a passenger
  • The cello must not exceed 75kg in weight
  • The cello must be properly secured into the seat by aircraft safety lap strap
  • The centre of mass must not be more than 30cm above seat cushion

This is Michael Volle, singing Wolfram’s Song to the Evening Star from Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser.

He was dared to go into the scanner by Professor Matthias Echternach, senior physician at the Freiburg University Hospital, who sings in the Stuttgart Chamber Choir.

The results are, well, revealing.

 

The Austrian Georg Haas has been named composer in residence at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

The blurb says: ‘A daringly innovative composer of rich imaginative power, a homo politicus aware of his responsibilities as a citizen, Georg Friedrich Haas is one of Europe’s leading composers.’

georg-friedrich-haas-ausgezeichnet-41-45666934

 

Mr Haas says: ‘I found an answer in the Robert Mapplethorpe saying, “S&M means sex and magic.” It’s the magic of voluntary submission. As the composer, I was the “master,” and the interpreters were my “slaves.” They had submitted themselves voluntarily to my score. They had to do things that were completely meaningless, but they did them with absolute precision. It’s like a sadomasochistic ritual, where the submissive partner has to do something without knowing the reason why. The emotional effect comes from the naked act of submission, which contains an almost spiritual energy.’

Read on here and here.

UPDATE: A colleague draws attention to the Festival’s acronym: 

Matt Albert, co-founder of the Grammy winning Eighth Blackbird sextet, has been named chair of a new department of chamber music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

matt-albert-joins-u-m-as-first-chair-of-new-department-of-chamber-music-orig-20160503

 

Latest from the seething cauldron of Bucharest National Opera.

Vasile Dâncu, the deputy prime minister, has flown in Beatrice Rancea as the new interim manager of BNO.

Rancea, a former ballet dancer, is general manager of Iași National Opera, which she has greatly upgraded by getting the film director Andrei Șerban to stage Lucia di Lammermoor, Les Indes galantes and Les Troyens.

On the other hand, Rancea also published on the Iasi Facebook site a xenophobic statement by choreographer Ileana Iliescu attacking Bucharest’s Danish ballet chief, Johan Kobborg. (The post has since been deleted.)

Deputy PM Dancu issued a statement denying any xenophobia in Bucharest: ‘De exemplu, un singur om se pare că a strigat, despre plecarea străinilor, dar a devenit o imagine care, pe nedrept, s-a repercutat asupra întregului colectiv’ (“For instance, one single person shouted about foreigners leaving, but it become an image which, unfairly, has reflected  on the whole team.’)

The prime minister, meanwhile has fired culture minister Alexandrescu and replaced him with Corina Suteu from the New York office of the Romanian Cultural Institute.
beatrice rancea