An august mezzo from the golden age has been added to the 2017 jury for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, it was announed today. Amazing Grace will be 80 next year.
The rest of the panel is made up of conductor Xian Zhang, baritone Thomas Quasthoff, soprano Sumi Jo and Chair David Pountney.
The British pop musician has cancelled his Heinz Hall gig with this message:
I regret to inform you that our ‘Imperial Bedroom & Other Chambers’ concert at Heinz Hall cannot go ahead, as I am unwilling to cross an AFofM picket line during the current strike by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
I hope that the dispute will soon be settled honorably and amicably and that The Imposters and I will have the opportunity to perform at Heinz Hall before too long.
We send our apologies to ticket holders and all our friends in Pittsburgh with thanks for your understanding and support of live music wherever it is heard. Respectfully. Elvis Costello
The hall’s losses are mounting as a result of multiple cancellations.
The Heath Quartet, recent winners of a Gramophone chamber music award, have called off next month’s US tour for what are described as ‘personal reasons’.
The announcement was made last night by Carnegie Hall, not by the quartet or its management, AskonasHolt, which seems unusual.
The quartet have a college residency in Vermont and were due to play Seattle, Washington and Toronto.
Claudia Rosenthal was down to sing Annina in Pittsburgh Opera’s Traviata.
Then she got a call that Violetta was sick, could she step up to the lead? She sure could.
But Pittsburgh did not have an understudy for Annina so Claudia had to sing both roles – some of which involved sung conversations with herself.
Ever seen that before?
Either way, well done Claudia.
Read here.
Remember Azeem Ward?
He’s the California college student whose Senior Flute Recital in May 2015 drew 100,000 requests from the UK, where he was completely unknown, and many more from around the world. It was an early instance of Facebook viral transmission.
So how did that explosion change Azeem’s life?
Not at all.
He has moved to Iowa and is taking a masters in flute performance.
More here.
Some way beyond crossover, the former R. E. M. rock group bassist Mike Mills is going on tour with violinist Robert McDuffie and the chamber orchestra Fifth House Ensemble.
The musicians are boyhood friends whose tastes are converging. Mills is reaching back to his symphony-going childhood while McDuffie says he’s bored of playing the circuit of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky concertos.
There’s a very nice feature on them in Rolling Stone.
Meantime, here’s a taster.
For those in the biz, it’s a CAMI tour.
The Royal Opera House of Mumbai is back in business.
Doors will open tomorrow (Friday) for a recital by Patricia Rozario and the Maharajah of Gondal, who owns the building, is in the market for programming that will revive the city’s faded engagement with western culture.
“We want to give event organisers the time to come see the space, experience the magnitude of opportunities, and then dive in to scheduling,” says Asad Lalljee, CEO of art and culture programming and educational platform Avid Learning, who will curate performing arts events here. “The idea is to have an affordable, accessible cultural venue that revives the arts scene in Mumbai.”
More here.
The epic mezzo, now 77, has announced she is stepping down as head of the Richard Strauss festival at the composer’s Garmisch home next summer, her last official role.
But she has put together a farewell programme that includes such Strauss luminaries as Gundula Janowitz, Marlis Petersen, Christiane Karg, Angelika Kirchschlager, Krassimira Stoyanova, Michelle Breedt and Juliane Banse.
No-one says no to Brigitte.
Details here.
The opera house in Donetsk was commandeered today for the funeral of Arseny ‘Motorola’ Pavlov, a Russian-backed warlord in the illegally occupied territory.
Motorola, 33, was killed on Sunday by a bomb in his apartment block.
The Ukrainians have accused him of war crimes.
A message from Clean Bandit, one of the most interesting current groups, about its departing violinist, Neil Milan:
It is with great sadness that we must announce that our performances of Tears over the Summer were Neil’s last shows with Clean Bandit. He told us recently that he has decided to leave. We have had a wonderful ride together and we are extremely excited to see what he does next. We are also very much looking forward to our upcoming shows and to sharing our new music with you. Thank you all for your support during this time, and thank you Neil for being part of this amazing journey. We will miss you a lot on this next chapter and we wish you the best of luck for the future. Jack, Grace and Luke – CLEAN BANDIT
The group, which started out as a classical string quartet at university, has scored #1 hits in several countries.
It’s that time of year.
The Curtis Institute of Music has abolished its Board of Overseers, a group of clued-up citizens who advise and sometimes gently restrain the school president. We understand that Roberto Diaz, head of the school, became frustrated with their role and a new chairman agreed to sack the lot.
Here’s the deeply confused letter that has gone out to overseers:
Dear Members of the Board of Overseers,
As Lowell Noteboom indicated in his email from this summer, an ad hoc committee was formed earlier this year to examine the role and relationship of the Board of Overseers to Curtis. The committee included representatives from the Overseers, the Board of Trustees, and staff. In my capacity as chair of this committee, I spoke over this summer with past Board Chairs, Trustees, Overseers, and past members of the Overseers.
It was clear to me that over much of its 20-year existence, the Board of Overseers played an important role, bringing an outside perspective that helped develop Curtis and opening doors nationally and even internationally. As I’ve expressed to you before, Overseers represent an incredible resource for Curtis. The depth of your knowledge was especially clear to me in the External Trends report that Overseers provided to the Board, which so informed the present Strategic Direction.
However as the ad hoc committee examined the relationship between the Board of Overseers and Curtis, it became apparent that as Curtis’s needs had evolved, the collective role and purpose of the Overseers had become less clear. Gathering twice annually for two-day meetings did not seem to be the best use of the limited resources of Curtis—or of the valuable time and expertise of Overseers. It was agreed we needed to rethink how we engage directly with respected industry leaders who support the school.
In the end, after extremely careful consideration based on the committee’s report, the board decided to discontinue the Board of Overseers, while seeking other ways to keep individual Overseer involvement. New bylaws approved by the Board of Trustees are a step in that direction, encouraging greater participation of non-trustees—including constituents with an extensive knowledge of the field of classical music who bring a direct perspective of the field—on Committees with a full vote.
I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the entire Board of Overseers and particularly Lowell Noteboom for his tireless work, as well as Cathy French and Dick Neu as Vice Chairs, and Gabrielle Rinaldi, as Secretary. I’m sharing a resolution passed by the Board of Trustees that honors the 20 years of service by the Board of Overseers, and further expresses our deep, collective gratitude for the valuable time and energy you have invested in Curtis. You can view the resolution here.
With great thanks,
Mark E. Rubenstein
Chairman of the Board
Among the overseers who are receiving this letter at this moment are Allison Vulgamore and Anne Parsons, respectively heads of the Philadelphia and Detroit symphony orchestras; the violinist Pamela Frank; Bruce Coppock of the St Paul Chamber orch; Pamela Rosenberg, former boss of the Berlin Phil; the publicist Mary Lou Falcone, who will shortly be going into damage-limitation mode; the clarinet virtuoso Anthony McGill; and the forer NY Times journalist John Rockwell. Not a good bunch of people to affront.
