One of the competitors at the Georg Solti Conducting Competition has been in touch to suggest that the results were heavily pressured by a single jury member.
None of the top three finishers expected the Venezuelan José Luis Gomez Rios, 32, to win – and that includes Rios himself. He had booked a flight home after the second round, thinking he had done poorly. He is less experienced than Kevin Griffiths, 32, and Tito Munoz, 27.
Much of the discussion in the jury room centred on the illegitimate rule-bending that allowed Aziz Shokhakimov into the second round without having competed in the first. Other jurors included Sir Roger Norrington, the composer Matthias Pintscher and Lady Solti
No one is willing to point fingers, but there are serious questions to be answered and the man who needs to answer them is Karl Rarichs, the competition’s founder and director (below). Meantime, honest young conductors are flying home claiming they were robbed.
photo: Renate Feyerbacher/Frankfurt-Live
One of the competitors at the Georg Solti Conducting Competition has been in touch to suggest that the results were heavily pressured by a single jury member.
None of the top three finishers expected the Venezuelan José Luis Gomez Rios, 32, to win – and that includes Rios himself. He had booked a flight home after the second round, thinking he had done poorly. He is less experienced than Kevin Griffiths, 32, and Tito Munoz, 27.
Much of the discussion in the jury room centred on the illegitimate rule-bending that allowed Aziz Shokhakimov into the second round without having competed in the first. Other jurors included Sir Roger Norrington, the composer Matthias Pintscher and Lady Solti
No one is willing to point fingers, but there are serious questions to be answered and the man who needs to answer them is Karl Rarichs, the competition’s founder and director (below). Meantime, honest young conductors are flying home claiming they were robbed.
photo: Renate Feyerbacher/Frankfurt-Live
I submit herewith the minutes of a recent staff meeting at one of the world’s leading artist agencies. Item one: pats of butter in the fridge, too many. Item two: new coffee supplier, discuss. Item three: must we still print out every email, incoming and outgoing, in duplicate for archival storage? Item four: need I continue…?
Few will be surprised to discover that music and musicians figure very low on the agenda of an antediluvian industry obsessed with its own comforts and routines. I get about a dozen calls a month from young artists, wondering how to deal with agent attitudes that mock their urgent needs.
…….
To read more, read the October issue of The Strad, out now.
I submit herewith the minutes of a recent staff meeting at one of the world’s leading artist agencies. Item one: pats of butter in the fridge, too many. Item two: new coffee supplier, discuss. Item three: must we still print out every email, incoming and outgoing, in duplicate for archival storage? Item four: need I continue…?
Few will be surprised to discover that music and musicians figure very low on the agenda of an antediluvian industry obsessed with its own comforts and routines. I get about a dozen calls a month from young artists, wondering how to deal with agent attitudes that mock their urgent needs.
…….
To read more, read the October issue of The Strad, out now.
The BBC has added seven more artists to its New Generation scheme, one of the surest routes to classical success – far more assured than most international competitions.
The latest batch are violinists Alexandra Soumm from France and Veronika Eberle from Germany; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; the innovative Escher String Quartet; and two young British musicians – tenor Ben Johnson and 18-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. There is also a jazz saxophonist, Shabaka Hutchings, 26.
Past members of the scheme, which runs for two years, include Lisa Batiashvili, the Belcea Quartet, Alice Coote, the Ebene Quartet, Ingrid Fliter, Ilya Gringolts, the Jerusalem Quartet, Paul Lewis, Lisa Milne and Cedric Tiberghien… all now regulars in the hall of fame.
See the press release, and some video, here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/newgenerationartists/
The BBC has added seven more artists to its New Generation scheme, one of the surest routes to classical success – far more assured than most international competitions.
The latest batch are violinists Alexandra Soumm from France and Veronika Eberle from Germany; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; the innovative Escher String Quartet; and two young British musicians – tenor Ben Johnson and 18-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. There is also a jazz saxophonist, Shabaka Hutchings, 26.
Past members of the scheme, which runs for two years, include Lisa Batiashvili, the Belcea Quartet, Alice Coote, the Ebene Quartet, Ingrid Fliter, Ilya Gringolts, the Jerusalem Quartet, Paul Lewis, Lisa Milne and Cedric Tiberghien… all now regulars in the hall of fame.
See the press release, and some video, here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/newgenerationartists/
