Marc Minkowski has fallen sick.
He’s replaced tomorrow night by a young Swiss, Lorenzo Viotti, in an odd concert of Rodrigo and Turina.
Lorenzo, who won last year’s Salzburg Conducting contest, is son of the late conductor Marcello Viotti.
She covered Deborah Kerr’s singing voice in The King and I and Audrey Hepburn’s in My Fair Lady.
But here’s how good Marni really was: bareback Webern with Robert Craft at the piano. So beautiful.
Marni Nixon died on Sunday, aged 86.
Her first husband was Ernest Gold, composer of the Exodus theme.
In a new interview with ForumOpera, the reborn baritone says he’s eyeing up Parsifal (he’s just missed his chance at Bayreuth).
Je voudrais chanter Amfortas. Je vais examiner Mandryka dans Arabella de Strauss. Peut-être d’autres rôles d’autres compositeurs…
More here.
Hired by Fritz Reiner in 1954, the violinist Edgar Muenzer played 47 years in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra until his retirement in 2001.
He liked to conduct and, with his wife Nancy, founded the award-winning Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, where his son, Victor, is the present music director.
Edgar Muenzer, Chicago stalwart, died on Friday at the age of 88.
Genia Kühmeier has dropped out of tonight’s Beethoven 9.
Regula Mühlemann gets the call.
Nathan Cole, associate concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is one of the most upfront violinists to be found on social media.
He writes with flair and candour about surviving auditions, preserving your voice in an orchestra and, now, getting rid of your shoulder rest.
One day, when nobody was looking, I left the rest in the case and walked on stage for a rehearsal.
At that time I was with the Chicago Symphony. For those who are curious, orchestra rehearsals and concerts are perfect for experimenting with just about any change: hours and hours of playing, day after day, without the chance to second-guess your technique. In fact, check out this 360-degree video of me rehearsing Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin with Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: use your mouse or mobile device to “look around” the video and you’ll see me in my usual spot, sans shoulder rest!
For thirty years, I’ve had you pressed against me. I’m sorry to say that the joy is gone.
Read on here.
Hours before the opening of the annual Three Choirs Festival on Saturday, the tenor James Oxley, soloist in Edward Elgar’s The Kingdom, lost his voice.
In the heart of the English countryside, at Gloucester, artistic director Adrian Partington was faced with an urgent dilemma. No time to call anyone in from London. The soloist had to be local.
Casting a knowing eye over his own cathedral choir, he called on one of his youngest singers to step up.
Magnus Walker, who is 18, carried off the solos with aplomb.
Adrian said afterwards: ‘I have five absolutely splendid tenors in Gloucester Cathedral choir, but after consideration I decided to ask Magnus to sing the role … primarily because his ambition is to be an operatic soloist, with a voice that as it develops will be big and dramatic; he is a natural performer who has no shyness and no fear… I rang him at 12.45 and he came straight over for a run-through with the piano; he is a very quick learner and by 2pm he was ready for the rehearsal on stage in Gloucester Cathedral with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Three Choirs Festival Chorus – and fellow soloists Claire Rutter (soprano), Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano) and Ashley Riches (bass).’
The male prize in Placido Domingo’s Operalia last night went to Keonwoo Kim, winner of the 2015 the Montreal International Musical Competition.
The female prize went to Elsa Dreisig, runner-up in the 2015 Queen Sonja Competition and winner of other prizes.
Both are considerable talents, one Korean, the other French.
But there are simply too many competitions and the same faces and voices turn up again and again.
There ought to be a rule that past winners cannot enter further competitions.
However, like Russia at the Olympics, no-one has the guts to act on principle.
The former English National Opera boss has been named creative adviser to the Bolshoi Theatre, working with its general director Vladimir Urin with whom he has a lengthy record of collaborations and exchanges.
John Berry said tonight: ‘I know the general director and I trust him. There are exciting things happening at the Bolshoi Theatre and I am thrilled to be part of its future.’
The job will be part-time, enabling John to develop other projects, both as co-productions and stand-alones.
His engagement starts immediately.
Reaching 75 yesterday, Tom Battenberg announced he is stepping down as principal trumpet of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio. He just squeaks in to the Slippedisc list of longest-serving orchestral players.
Tom will be succeeded by Curtis grad George Goad, who is 25.
The German concert violinist, who is being sued for $12 million by his former girlfriend Ashley Youdan, has filed a countersuit of $10 million. She claimed physical and mental abuse.
Garrett claims that Youdan, professionally known as Kendall Karson, had been threatening him with extortion.
Case details in the New York Post.
The nub of his claim is that Youdan Karson ‘bilked Garrett out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by convincing him that she loved him and would leave her former life.’
The president of Bard College, 70 in December, has signed with Primavera Arts of Vienna for international management to further his conducting career.
Botstein was recently named Artistic Director of the Grafenegg Campus and Academy.
