The Association of British Orchestras has named Kathryn Enticott its Artist Manager of the Year.

Actually, she deserves better.

Kathryn is a traliblazer. She led the flight out of big agencies into boutique management, leaving IMG and gathering up a handful of top artists – Bychkov, Welser-Möst, Znaider, Milos – whose careers she curates with individual care.

Artist Manager of the Decade would be more appropriate.

 

The German conductor Alexander Liebreich will take over as intendant of the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen from 2018, it was announced today.

He succeeds Brigitte Fassbaender who first put the festival on the map.

 

 

The Canadian baroque orchestra has elected Elisa Citterio to succeed the retiring Jeanne Lamon.

Citterio, an Italian violinist, is a member of the orchestra at La Scala, Milan.

Winner of the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize, the British conductor George Jackson today declared himself non-resident in the UK. He has relocated to Wiebaden, Germany, stating Article 50 as his reason for the move.

He won’t be the last to go.

About half of the musicians in Sweden’s Camerata Nordica have issued a public letter resigning from the orchestra, which was suspended by its former manager last month. The manager has walked away with a fat pension.

The players are outraged.

Here’s their letter:

With these words, the former freelance musicians of Camerata Nordica stand together one last time. Despite our best efforts, it has finally been deemed utterly impossible to work with the current board and administration of the orchestra. This winter, chairman Peter Högberg and his board cancelled two of our productions without warning, citing financial problems. This led to the resignation of our artistic director, Terje Tønnessen, followed shortly by the mass resignation of the freelance musicians who make up the orchestra. It was discovered that Mr Tønnessen’s contract had not been renewed and his emails had been ignored for six months. It was also discovered that the orchestra was running a deficit and that it would cost the county music organization a minimum of 3.5 million Kronor (nearly 370,000 Euros) to pay for the pension of outgoing Länsmusiken chief Kjell Lindström. Under massive pressure from the media, the board suddenly decided to pay the musicians for three cancelled projects, ultimately saving no money.

It has now come to light that the retirement cost of Kjell Lindström has somehow gone up to a minimum of 4.5 million Kronor. Högberg, while deflecting questions in the media proceeded to say he is not the slightest bit worried about the resignation of musicians stating: “I’m not a bit worried. Europe is full of professional musicians!”. We must publically voice our outrage at this disrespect. If one of Sweden’s beloved sports franchises were to magically lose 4.5 million Kronor and have all of its players resign amidst scandal, would it be accepted for those responsible to reply with: “I’m not a bit worried. Europe is full of professional athletes!”?

When the board started their assignment they initiated an organization-wide external investigation into the activities of Länsmusiken. While they have been withholding these documents and/or denying their existence, the report led to thorough condemnation of the administrations leadership and the running of Länsmusiken, while praising the orchestra for its success against all odds. Yesterday it was announced that Kjell Lindström has been rehired until his successor is found. In other words the board, while ignoring the musical backbone of the organization, is now planning a future with the help of their heavily criticized former leadership.

Our hearts go out to the administrators and local musicians with whom we had been planning a bright and promising future and who worked so hard on our behalf to run our organization against all odds. They are once again forced to work under a leadership everyone hoped was gone, and we cannot imagine how heavy this insult must be for them.

In the meantime the freelance musicians have presented creative and hopeful visions for the future on multiple occasions. Ways of cutting costs and running the orchestra effectively to bring back its irreplaceable freelancers and leaders and maintain its international network and recording contract, all of which would otherwise be lost. These propositions have been ignored without response or comment by Högberg and his board.

Because of these actions, we must confirm that as musicians we cannot be part of this organization in any way in the future. Högberg has declared “business as usual” and for the musicians who have fought for years to build up this internationally recognized ensemble, we know that this will simply mean a continuation of incompetence, gross wasting of precious government funding, and continued lies and disrespect towards musicians.

Those left in charge in Kalmar County have proven themselves entirely incapable of their jobs. While costs spiral out of control they continue to deflect questions while avoiding any form of transparency and responsibility. They show no respect for the cultural treasures they have been entrusted with, and their continuing actions can lead to nothing less than a boycott of performances in the region by musicians and audiences alike.

If this board is allowed to remain, they will be forced to face the consequences of having destroyed an institution that they cannot rebuild. And they will face it together with the leadership responsible for leading it into this situation, without their greatest assets, without their international network of musicians and leaders, without their recording contract, and with no artistic leadership. They have marked Kalmar County and its Länsmusiken as an organization that cannot be trusted, and a region where musicians cannot play.

The board initiated this process nearly two months ago, and what have they achieved? One continuous sequence of failures. To the civil service men and women and the politicians of Kalmar County who watched and allowed this to happen: we cannot understand how you allowed things to come to this without standing up for what is right and questioning this complete and utter madness.

To the many wonderful musicians, promoters, organizers, volunteers, friends, music lovers, fans, and above all our audiences in Kalmar County and around the world: thank you for everything from the bottom of our hearts, we will never forget all the wonderful moments we shared with you.

Signed,

Abbie Fenna, Anders Rensvik, Barbro Lennstam, Brusk Zanganeh, Catherine Bullock, Claudia Ajmone-Marsen, Daniel Bard, Dinara Mansurova, Eleanora Matsuno, Eva Bindere, Guy Ben Ziony, Max Mandel, Mihkel Kerem, Natasa Grujic, Nikolay Shugaev, Pål Solbakk, Per Nyström, Philippe Graffin, Robert Mende, Sadie Fields, Sergej Bolkhovets, Simona Bonfiglioli, Sofie Sunnerstam, Sophie Rosa, Terje Tønnesen, Ulrich Schneider, Vashti Hunter, Willem Stam.

From Fiona Maddocks’ interview with the new octogenarian, Philip Glass:

After Einstein on the Beach I went back to driving a New York cab. I didn’t mind that. It was interesting work. I didn’t have an agent. I ran all the business side of it and the box office myself. I enjoyed it. I grew up in the music business. I was happy to do it. But it took at lot of time and work. In 1979 when we did our first Carnegie Hall concert we had to pay for it, and sell the tickets! Eventually I formed a publishing company and had people doing it for me. I didn’t do it for them!

More driving tips here.

The  PRS Foundation has distributed £150,000 ‘to support composers and enable them to realise projects and ambitions that may not be possible through traditional commissioning models.’

Mostly, that will involve recording their music, off and on-line.

This year’s 12 lucky composers are:

Ed Bennett
Gary Carpenter
Jessica Curry
Shiva Feshareki
Stuart MacRae
John McLeod


Hilda Paredes
Lynne Plowman
Gwyn Pritchard
Philip Venables
James Weeks
Elizabeth Winters

More here.

It’s the Jacksonville Symphony, and they have reached agreement eight months before contract expiry. They are also increasing the number of concert weeks from 35 to 40.

Here’s the small print:

 

 

Jacksonville, FL (January 26, 2017)– Robert Massey, President and CEO of the Jacksonville Symphony and Peter Wright, President of Local 444, American Federation of Musicians, announced the ratification of a five-year collective bargaining agreement between the Symphony Association and Union. The contract was ratified both by the Symphony Association’s Board of Directors and the musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony on Wednesday, January 25, eight months in advance of the expiration of the current contract.

 

Prior to the current agreement, the Symphony Association had been plagued by years of operating deficits which threatened the organization’s survival. Today, the Jacksonville Symphony is a very different organization. The early renegotiation of this agreement heralds a new dynamic relationship between the Symphony Association and its musicians, leaving behind an era often marked by serious disputes as well as significant sacrifices by the musicians.

 

With this new contract, the Jacksonville Symphony season will expand from its current 35 weeks to 38 weeks during the 2017-2018 season, 39 weeks in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons, and finally 40 weeks beginning in the 2020-2021 season. The Symphony is also adding to its roster, increasing the number of full-time musicians from 53 to 60. Musicians’ weekly salaries will increase 19% over the term of this agreement, and with the added weeks, annual salaries will rise 37%, greatly increasing the Symphony’s ability to recruit new musicians and more importantly, retain the extraordinary musicians that currently grace its roster.

 

With this contract also comes innovative ways to engage the community, extend the Symphony’s reach, and deepen impact. By maximizing operational efficiency, the Symphony’s annual expenses will increase on average 4.8% per year for the next five seasons, which aligns with its strategic plan adopted in 2016.

 

Things are going so well in his first full season that Riccardo Chailly has signed a second contract with La Scala, taking him to 2022.

More here.

 

Stéphane Lissner, director of the Paris Opéra says his cheap ticket scheme for under-28s is working well.

Last season, he claims, ‘we welcomed 100,000 patrons under 28,’ as well as registering a 15 percent increase in under 18s.

Lissner is now offering 40 percent ticket discounts to people aged 29 to 39.

The average attendance age at the Bastille is now 46 years old for opera, 42 for ballet.

Anybody got reliable age stats for the Met and Covent Garden?

The Vienna Konzerthaus, where he played more than 200 times, is putting on a farewell concert in Heinrich Schiff’s memory on February 12.

Among those taking part are Paul Gulda, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Francesco Piemontesi, Christian Poltéra, Benjamin Schmid, Gerhard Schulz and a 24-person cello ensemble including: Natalie Clein, Valentin Erben,  Ádám GróbClemens HagenJulia HagenYves SavaryLeo SchmidtMark SchumannJulian Steckel and more.

It’s a fine chance to sing farewell to a great artist, who died a month ago. Tickets here.

The death is reported of Klara Takacs, a widely travelled and well liked Hungarian mezzo.

She sang major roles at the Met, Vienna, Salzburg and La Fenice and recorded extensively for Hungaroton and Capriccio.  Her breakthrough recording was Goldmark’s opera The Queen of Sheba with Magda Kalmár and Siegfried Jerusalem.

Klara died on Saturday, aged 71.