The incoming music director of the Concertgebouworkest has been named Artistic Advisor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for the next three years.

The orchestra is an Abbado creation.

gatti

We regret to share news of the sudden death of Joel Hastings, winner of the 1993 International Bach Competition in Washington DC.

Canadian born, Joel toured internationally as a soloist and taught at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Our thoughts are with his family.

joel hastings

It’s 2016 and we no longer get excited about a music director turning out to be non-male. Every few months, it seems, another young woman conductor rises to a position of authority.

Yet, when we survey the current field, we find no more than half a dozen women near the top of the profession and barely 20 in contention for real leadership.

It’s 2016. Way to go.

Here’s the Slipped Disc power list. Who have we forgotten?

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1 Marin Alsop, 59, broke the glass ceiling at Baltimore Symphony.

2 Simone Young, former Generalmusikdirector, Hamburg.

3 Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, 29, incoming music director at Birmingham, UK

Grazinyte-Tyla_Mirga_hl_600_300_c1_center_center_0_-0_1

4 Susanna Mälkki, 47, chief conductor Helsinki Philharmonic; principal guest, LA Phil

5 Emmanuelle Haim, 54, founder Le Concert d’Astrée, France

6 Xian Zhang, 43, music director New Jersey Symphony

7 Han-na Chang, 33, ex-Qatar Philharmonic, now Trondheim Symphony

8 Ewa Strusińska, 39, music director Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra, Poland

9 Gemma New, 28, Hamilton Philharmonic, Canada, and resident conductor, St Louis Symphony

10 Anu Tali, 43, music director Sarasota Orchestra

11 Alondra de la Parra, 35, music director Queesland Symphony, Australia.

12 Elim Chan, 29, music director at NorrlandsOperan in Umeå, Sweden

elim chan

13 Jo-Ann Falletta, 62, Buffalo Philharmonic

14 Tania Miller, 47, Victoria Symphony, Canada

15 Julia Jones, 55, Generalmusikdirektor, Wuppertal, Germany

16 Karen Kamensek, 46, ex-music director Hannover State Opera

17 Karina Cannelakis, 34, Solti prize winner

18 Sarah Ioannides, 44, music director, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra.

19 Joana Carneiro, 39,  principal conductor, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa

20 Kristiina Poska, 37, first kapellmeister at the Komische Oper, Berlin

kristiina poska

Readers’ additions:

21. Nicole Paiement, principal guest conductor, Dallas Opera.

22. Anna-Maria Helsing, 44, ex-chief conductor of Oulu Symphony, the first woman to head a Finnish orch

23. Speranza Scappucci, 42, former Muti assistant now working at the Met and Concertgebouw.

24. Mei-Ann Chen, music director of Memphis Symphony and Chicago Sinfonietta

25. Laurence Equilbey, 54, Chief Conductor of the Insula Orchestra (Paris)

26. Joana Mallwitz, 29, GMD at Erfurt, youngest in Germany.

 

 

Classical Music magazine has an interview with Labour’s shadow culture minister Thangam Debbonaire who, it turns out, studied cello at Chetham’s and later privately with Raphael Wallfisch.

She’s wondering if there are two violinists and viola players in the Commons or the Lords who might like to join her in a string quartet.

Here’s her website if you want to get in touch.

thangam

After 34 years in the #2 seat, Yoko Moore has called time on the orchestra.

Appointed by Lorin Maazel, she was ordered to upgrade her instrument to Cleveland standard.

She supported just two concertmasters over a third of a century, Daniel Majeske and William Preucil.

Now, says Yoko, ‘I can’t do too much anymore. Physically, it’s enough for me.’

Cleveland’s front row won’t be the same without her.

yoko moore

This is Peter Gelb’s speech to the Opera America conference, starting at 6:00.

He insists that Live from the Met has made singers perform better. He goes on to claim victory in union wage negotiations, the first in Met history. Some may find his claims questionable.

 

GelbTV

Tomorrow is Costa Pilavachi’s last day as Senior Vice President, Classical Artists and Repertoire, at Universal Music.

Costa, who has been head of Philips and Decca, with a further spell as president of EMI Classics, is one of the last labels chiefs still standing from the golden era, and always the nicest.

He will take a slow boat around the Mediterranean for the next couple of months, returning later this year as a consultant and talent scout for Universal.

Here’s the staff memo that has just gone the rounds:

 

costa with luciano

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to let you know that the inimitable Costa Pilavachi, our much admired Senior Vice President, Classical Artists and Repertoire is stepping down from the role at the end of this week.

Taking some well-deserved down time, Costa will be embarking on an incredible journey for the next two months, sailing his boat from England to Greece.

Although Costa is moving on from his full-time role with us I am glad to say that from September he will return in an advisory capacity, working directly with me in addition to continuing his efforts with artists, labels and other projects including talent scouting.

As well as his continued work at Universal Music, Costa is a member of several advisory boards, most notably the International Mozart Society of the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Istanbul Festival, the Birmingham Conservatoire, the Verbier Festival Academy and the Toronto Symphony’s committee for the forthcoming Canadian Sesquicentennial. 

Costa’s career has been nothing short of phenomenal. His wealth of experience in classical music takes in over four decades of high profile positions the world over, including at Toronto Arts Productions, Canada’s National Arts Centre, the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood Festival. Prior to his most recent role, he served as worldwide president of three major classical music labels: Philips Classics, Decca and EMI Classics.

In 1999 Costa played an integral role in the merger of the Philips and Decca labels, leading the combined Universal Music owned group until 2006.

Costa has been central to the signing and, or, the success of a great many classical artists at Universal Music including Valery Gergiev, Andrea Bocelli, Seiji Ozawa, Mitzuko Uchida, Hayley Westenra, Sir Neville Marriner and many others.

His knowledge and input have been invaluable and imperative to Universal Music’s continued success with classical music and we have been lucky to have such a passionate and invigorating person on our side.

I look forward to working with Costa in the future and I’m sure you will join me in wishing him all the very best for his next adventure.

Thank you Costa for all your hard work and achievement at Universal Music.

Dickon Stainer

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF GLOBAL CLASSICS

Seiji Ozawa, 80, has been forced to cancel his Tanglewood appearance this summer,his first for ten years.

BSO statement: ‘At the end of Maestro Ozawa’s month-long stay in Europe (where he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin and the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in Paris) this past April, due to overwork Ozawa developed a fever which resulted in weight loss. Upon his return to Japan, Ozawa continued with another demanding period of work, which further weakened his immune system. After thorough discussions with his doctors, family, and all concerned, Maestro Ozawa has decided to follow his doctors’ advice and during the next few months primarily focus on recovering his physical strength.’

Seiji says: ‘”I am very very sad and sorry that I will have to miss this summer’s Tanglewood. I miss the Ground of Tanglewood and all my old colleagues and friends. Missing being in our house in West Stockbridge and playing tennis there. I am concentrating on eating and I am gaining more body strength now. I am so much looking forward to returning to Tanglewood SOON. My young colleagues, music students of Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland will be there with you. They are so concentrated on playing Chamber music and Ensemble. I hope you will all enjoy their music-making as much as I enjoy!’

ozawa tokyo afp

In my monthly essay in Standpoint, I bring some new information on the depths of the Metropolitan Opera’s decline, and some analysis of the causes.

Example:

Almost anywhere in America and most countries around the world you can now watch live opera from the Met in a local multiplex for the price of a family pizza. The Met, globally branded by (Peter) Gelb, has never been so popular.

The downside is that it has consumed its own audience. Many of the couples going to watch opera in movie houses — especially in the New York commuter belt — are former Met-goers who have got used to watching opera in closeup, popcorn in hand, sitting in Long Island, surrounded by friends and neighbours in jeans and loafers.

There is no easy way to get them to dress up and come back. The sensible course would be for Gelb to cancel Live from the Met in New York area cinemas but he cannot do so without facing financial claims from distributors and complaints from opera houses across America that he has eaten up their audience as well his own. Gelb’s medicine has worked. The patient is now on life-support.

What’s to be done? Read the full essay here.

 

elster gelb

Third or fourth, we’re losing count.

Beatrice Rancea (pictured) was introduced to staff yesterday as interim manager of Bucharest National Opera, presented by the new minister of culture, Corina Șuteu.

Șuteu announced structural reforms and promised to negotiate the return of Johan Kobborg to the ONB.

Dissatisfied staff will protest today in front of the presidential palace.

beatrice rancea

Demos and seminars are being held in Stockholm today about what one newspaper headlines as an ‘Emergency to act against the marginalization of classical music’.

Music tuition is being cut in multicultural schools where students and their parents reject western civilisation and values. Fewer than 30 percent of Stockholm school pupils show an interest in learning to play an instrument.

The nation’s deep music traditions have fallen off the city’s agenda.

UPDATE: Composer attacks Swedish concert hall.

The multicultural busstop

Stockholm bus stop. © Stockholm photoblog | Street photography

Stéphane Lissner has written to staff at the Opéra de Paris, telling them that the company is €2 million in the red since January as a result of strikes and work stoppages. Seven nights have gone dark at the Opéra.

Earlier in the season, low box-office returns were blamed on the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks. Staff bonuses have been cancelled. The end-of-year results are awaited with concern.

ForumOpera has obtained a copy of Lissner’s letter here.

lissner