Once upon a time, there was a Bach Festival of international renown at the University of Oregon, in Eugene.

Its founder Helmut Rilling retired in 2011. His successor, the British conductor Matthew Halls, was fired last year after allegedly making a racial joke to his good friend Reggie Mobley, who said he took no offence.

Since then, the university has behaved like a bunch of clowns.

The latest mishap was to announce the engagement as a guest conductor of Jaap ter Linden, ‘a pioneer in the emergence of the historical performance movement,’ according to the website.

 

 

Then someone realised that Jaap ter Linden was fired three years ago by the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio after three students complained of a racial slur they said he used in rehearsal. Oberlin is a hotpot for such issues.

So Jaap ter Linden’s concert has now been dropped from the Bach Festival website.

Full story here.

Send in the clowns.

 

More than 200 leading musicians have signed a petition calling on the Netanyahu government to drop its plan to deport African asylum seekers who have sought refuge in the country

The signatories include the conductors Ilan Volkov, Yoav Talmi, Daniel Cohen and Yuval Zorn; composers Chaya Czernowin, Zvi Avni, and Jerusalem Academy president Yinam Leef; singers Mira Zakai, Chen Reiss, Hila Baggio and Keren Hadar; pianists Einav Yarden, Iddo Bar Shai and Shay Wosner, as well as section leaders from both the Israel Philharmonic and the Israel Symphony orchestras.

They write:

The refusal of several countries to accept Jewish refugees before, during and after the Second World War, is one of our most traumatic memories as a society. We must not be those who will be responsible for creating similar trauma in a community which needs our assistance at this time, assistance we are able to offer. 
We call upon the Israeli government and its Prime Minister to learn the lesson from this traumatic memory, to take part in helping to solve the global refugee crisis, and to set an example in the way it treats asylum seekers within its borders.

Te winners of the 12,000-Euro first prize in Heidelberg are the Spanish Cuarteto Cosmos.

Get it? They want to rule the universe.

Second place? Simply Quartet.

Er?

 

The short and tragic life of Eric Sun was recorded in a must-read New Yorker profile early this month.

Eric, a Facebook engineer who built the network’s knowledge graph, was an enthusiastic violinist who managed to acquire a Vuillaume. After being diagnosed the incurable brain cancer, he spent the last months of his life playing in a production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Eric died in November, aged 33.

But he left instructions for his violin to be placed in a foundation where others can continue to use it.

Here’s how to apply.


 

King’s College Cambridge is seeking a new Director of Music to succeed Stephen Cleobury in October 2019.

Cleobury, who has just turned 69, has led Kings since 1982 and has also been director of the Cambridge University Musical Society until 2009, making numerous recordings and television programmes.

The Provost, Professor Michael Proctor, said: ‘The College owes a huge debt of gratitude to Stephen Cleobury for his distinguished service and tireless efforts and we shall be celebrating his unique contribution in due course. We are seeking someone of the highest calibre as his replacement, and look forward to seeing the music and Choir of King’s thrive long into the future.’

The Dean, the Revd Dr Stephen Cherry commented: ‘Choral musicians around the world look to King’s for example and inspiration, and the pressures of the post are considerable. The Choir has developed its repertoire, and the extent of its touring and recording activity, very considerably in recent decades but the core of its life is the choral worship in Chapel that takes place every day in term. As we look to the future, the continued integrity and excellence of the music in Chapel will be a major priority.’

 

Philadelphia is mourning one of its most engaging musical citizens.

Robert Capanna, winner of the Koussevitsky Prize at Tanglewood, was a flourishing composer whose works were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Berkshire Music Center Orchestra, Trio di Milano, Colorado String Quartet nd many more.

For 27 years he was also executive director of the Settlement Music School, with 9,000 students at six locations across the region. Later, he was president of the Presser Foundation.

Robert Capanna died of cancer on Friday at his home in Philadelphia.

Richard Horowitz, principal timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, had a little side job.

Read here.

 

The violinist is Simone Lamsma.

The cor anglais Davida Scheffers.

From New Orleans Pelicans vs. Houston Rockets last night.

‘Put your hands on your hearts’

Daniel Lelchuk is assistant principal cello at the Louisiana Philharmonic.

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal has admitted it ignored complaints of ‘psychological harassment’ by music director Charles Dutoit dating back to the 1990s.

The complaints were made by musicians in the orchestra. In 1997, a majority of OSM players signed a letter requesting a meeting with the management to discuss the matter. The request was refused.

Five years later Dutoit resigned from the orchestra, blaming the musicians for his departure.

Le Devoir has published a report on the early complaints here. The OSM is refusing to comment, saying it has appointed ‘an independent individual’ to investigate.

Dutoit, 81, has withdrawn from all conducting activity following a spate of harassment claims, which he denies.

The Scrabin interpreter and musical intellectual Igor Zhukov died yesterday, January, 26, in Moscow.

A student of Gilels and Neuhaus, he conducted the Moscow Chamber Orchestra until 1994 and the Soloists of Nizhny Novgorod. He recorded the complete Scriabin sonatas for Melodiya, along with much else.

More than most artists, he had a passionate interest in the mechanics of recording. ‘I am the best pianist among recording engineers, and the best recording engineer among pianists,’ he would say.

He had little interest in foreign travel and none at all in personal image.

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

The British conductor Harry Christophers has his own record label, Coro, which turns out a stream of fine performances, mostly with his own group The Sixteen, and mostly unnoticed outside the shrinking pages of record magazines. Which is a pity, since some of them are very fine performances, indeed.

The latest release is with Christophers’ other group, the venerable Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, America’s oldest performing arts organisation. It presents two Haydn works written 20 years apart with Mozart’s G major violin concerto sandwiched in between. This is a brilliant piece of programming for any number of reasons…

Read on here.

And here.