Tiffany Poon, a Juilliard pianist now studying at Yale, tells us that Instagram has invoked copyright reasons for stopping musicians from playing classical music on live streams.

Tiff is not taking this quietly.

She has posted a video on Youtube and a petition, right here.

Four thousand have signed already.  You should, too.

 

While the BBC Proms approach their climax, the kid-brother season in Britten’s Snape has scored a new record:

As Snape Proms approaches the last of its 31 concerts, Snape Maltings (est. 1982) has announced that this year’s season is the highest selling ever, with 23,000 tickets sold, the hall at 92% of capacity and 36% of bookers new to Snape. More than 3,000 of the tickets sold cost just £6.50.

A truly horrific story from St Petersburg.

At 93, rehearsal pianist  Nina Matsina was the oldest employee of Gergiev’s Mariinsky Theatre. Although she no longer played, she prepared scores for others in the music library.

Thieves broke into her apartment, tortured and killed her. It appears they were after her meagre savings for her funeral expenses – and a signed photograph she owned of the great bass singer Chaliapin.

Her carer has been arrested as an accomplice to the murder.

Nina had many friends around the music world who are devastated by her passing. God rest her gentle soul.

photo: Mariinsky

 

 

The ECHOs were scrapped for offensive Holocaust jibes.

Here’s the classical substitute, about to be announced:

The OPUS KLASSIK, a new award for classical music, will be awarded for the first time in Konzerthaus Berlin on Sunday, 14 October, 2018. After the Echo was ended this spring, exceptional achievements in the classical music genre will once again be recognized this year. The Opus is organized by the new association Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen
Musik e.V.will be broadcasted on ZDF on 14 October, 2018 at 10 PM The OPUS KLASSIK, a new award for classical music, will be awarded for the first time in Konzerthaus Berlin on Sunday, 14 October, 2018. After the Echo was ended this spring, exceptional achievements in the classical music genre will once again be recognized this year. The Opus is organized by the new association Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e.V. The awards ceremony will be broadcasted on 14 October at 10 PM by the media partner ZDF.

“Classical music in Germany should be acknowledged with its very own award,” said Burkhard Glashoff, chairman of the Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e.V. “We, the founding members, have made it our goal to recognize and award exceptional achievements in classical music. We have developed a concept for a new music award that is more broadly
positioned than in the past and reflects the branch in all its diversity.”
The founding members of the Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e.V. embody the basis of the award in the wide-ranging music business: CLASS – Association of Classical Independents in Germany e.V., Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft GmbH Konzertdirektion Dr. Rudolf Goette GmbH, Dagmar Sikorski (Sikorski Musikverlage), Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH, Benedikt Stampa (designated director of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden) and Warner Music Group Germany Holding GmbH. The board consists of Burkhard Glashoff, Konzertdirektion Dr. Rudolf Goette GmbH, who serves as the chairman of the board, and Dr. Clemens Trautmann, Deutsche Grammophon.

The association was founded after the organizer of the Echo, the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), announced the termination of all Echo awards in the categories Pop, Classical and Jazz. In this transition year, the rules and jury for the new award will still be based on those of the Echo Klassik; however, the association will strive to continually refine the new prize for classical music on the basis of feedback from the music industry.

Andrea Puente-Catán, producer, lecturer, widow of the Mexican composer Daniel Catán, has joined San Diego Opera as Major Gifts Officer in charge of Hispanic donors. Catan, who died in 2011, was a close friend of Placido Domingo.

 

In an unrelated development, San Diego Opera has also hired Dominic Domingo, Placido’s grandson, as its director of artistic administration. Dominic has been until now assistant company manager at Los Angeles Opera, where his grandfather is general director.

What goes round, goes round.

 

 

The US countertenor, accused of rape by a former protege, now faces the possibility of a police charge over attempted solicitation on the gay pickup site Grindr, it is reported.

More here.

 

We have been notified of the death of Katherine Pring, a memorable Carmen and Fricka at English National Opera.

She was 78.

Katie joined Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1968 and made her Covent Garden début in 1972 as Thea  in Tippett’s The Knot Garden. That year she also sang for the first time at Bayreuth.

Rare film from their early days together.

From the GG archive:

The soloist in the finale of the second symphony is Maureen Forrester.

Opera Saratoga announces:

“Ellen West,” world premiere of opera based on the early-20th century case of a woman’s battle with severe eating disorder and a doctor’s efforts to diagnose her through existential psychotherapy, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and libretto by Frank Bidart. Commissioned by Opera Saratoga and Beth Morrison Projects, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya and directed by Emma Griffin in her company debut, the production will feature baritone Keith Phares and the first Opera Saratoga appearance by soprano Jennifer Zetlan.

Performances are scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, June 30; 2 p.m. Saturday, July 6; and 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 12.

She will sing Danny Boy at the farewell on Saturday.

More here.

 

From the Chicago Symphony memorial to James Mallinson, who died yesterday:

Lady Valerie Solti shared her thoughts. “I was so very sad to hear of James’ passing. What a fantastic amount of iconic recordings he masterminded that were such a very important part of not only the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s legacy but also Solti’s own personal catalog. I especially remember him working so hard to get the breathing right in Tippett’s extraordinary Fourth Symphony and the balances in Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, and the wonderful Brahms symphonies. James was a man of great skill and diplomacy, always so calm and self-effacing, one of the great unsung heroes.