January 2011 - Page 9 of 10

Some months ago I relayed a dolorous email from Cameron Carpenter’s agent. The self-styled Bad Boy of the Organ had gone missing. More specifically, he had given his agent the push and was off into the wide, wide world to make his fame and fortune.

photo by Dana Ross

Well, now we know where the naked organist has landed. A press release announces that Cameron’s cake has been cut in three chunks – CAMI for North America, KD Schmid for the rest of the world and Peters Edition for publishing his flamboyant arrangements. That’s how the future lines up for the hottest thing in the organ loft since Saint Cecilia, at least.

photo by Chris Owyoung, with styling by Maeri Hedstrom

Hmmmm…. maybe there’s more to the Bad Boy than meets the ear. It was shrewd of him to avoid becoming exclusively CAMI’s Cameron, as the former conductors agency is no longer the powerhouse it once was. And it was even sharper of him to plant a large footprint in Europe as a clever hedge against declining US attendances for classical variety acts.

As Cam himself puts it: “There could hardly be a better start to the New Year for a musician than to be simultaneously signed by both CAMI Music and Konzertdirektion Schmid. I’m thrilled that my work has the muscular advocacy of both Jean-Jacques Cesbron and Cornelia Schmid on a combined four continents.”

But that’s not quite the full story. CAMI’s Cesbron, who Cam credits above, spends most of his waking hours looking after – you guessed – Lang Lang. So the plot thickens. Suddenly the two flashiest finger men are under the same manager. What price a big duet? Or is that more like a duel? Here’s Lang Lang practising for the event, back home in Beijing.

press photo: AP

Full press release appears below

—————————————————————————————————————–

PROVOCATIVE ORGANIST-COMPOSER

CAMERON CARPENTER KICKS OFF 2011

WITH NEW MANAGEMENT, PREMIERE OF MAJOR COMMISSION,

PUBLISHING CONTRACT

Virtuoso Recently Profiled on CBS Sunday Morning;

Global Management By CAMI Music and Konzertdirektion Schmid

[New York, NY] – Wherever Cameron Carpenter appears, he generates enormous excitement from audiences and critics alike; and as the only organist in the world filling concert halls from Berlin’s Philharmonie to Davies Hall in San Francisco, it’s clear he is now one of the industry’s most in-demand talents. On the heels of a recent U.S. national television profile on CBS Sunday Morning, the “Bad Boy of the Organ” (CBS) announces his new management team, solidifying his representation throughout the world: CAMI Music, LLC for North America and Asia, and Konzertdirektion Schmid for Europe, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia (including Nordic countries), New Zealand, and Australia.

“There could hardly be a better start to the New Year for a musician than to be simultaneously signed by both CAMI Music and Konzertdirektion Schmid,” says Carpenter. “I’m thrilled that my work has the muscular advocacy of both Jean-Jacques Cesbron and Cornelia Schmid on a combined four continents.”

Formed in 2004, CAMI Music specializes in the worldwide general management and touring of nearly 50 prominent artists, institutions and events across the worlds of theater, dance, and world, jazz, and classical music and beyond. Carpenter joins a roster including such superstars as Lang Lang, Seiji Ozawa, Maxim Vengerov, Howard Shore, Tan Dun, and the American Ballet Theatre. Specifically, Cameron will join CAMI Music’s Instrumentalists as only the sixth artist in that elite group, alongside Lang Lang, Ray Chen, Khatia Buniatishvili, Mischa Maisky, and Vadim Repin.

“We are thrilled to bring an artist of Cameron’s stature to the roster,” said Jean-Jacques Cesbron, President of CAMI Music. “We are looking forward to introducing our clients to his phenomenal talent and ground-breaking vision of what the organ can do.”

In addition, Cameron’s manager Tobias Tumarkin of CAMI Music adds “We are so excited to be working with Cameron and strongly believe that he will bring new fans to the organ and the wonderful repertoire, both classical and popular, that it provides.”

Konzertdirektion Schmid is Europe’s leading classical music management, well-known for handling the European careers of artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Joshua Bell, Murray Perahia, Yefim Bronfman, Xavier de Maistre, Mitsuko Uchida, among others. Cameron is represented by Schmid associate Benedikt Carlberg as the sole organist on the Schmid roster.

“We instantly knew that Cameron Carpenter is an exceptional and brilliant artist from the very first moment he caught our attention. Not only because he plays the organ in a way nobody has done before – but particularly because of his deep understanding of the music and his absolute dedication to it,” saysCornelia Schmid, who manages the Konzertdirektion as President from their office in Hannover, Germany.

Carpenter, called a “smasher of cultural and classical music taboos” by the Los Angeles Times, started 2011 with the world premiere of The Scandal, a major 30-minute work for organ and orchestra composed by Carpenter and commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonie (KölnMusic GmbH). This was the first major event under Carpenter’s new relationship with world-renowned publishing house Edition Peters, which has signed the composer to an exclusive worldwide publishing contract. Edition Peters, which has already published Carpenter’s Aria, Opus 1 for solo organ and will soon release his Serenade and Fugue on B.A.C.H as Opus 2, will publish The Scandal in two versions, both as Carpenter’s Opus 3 (for organ and full orchestra) and Opus 3a (for organ and expanded chamber orchestra, as premiered in Cologne).

The Scandal, with Carpenter in the solo organ role, debuted on New Year’s Day 2011 at the Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under the direction of Alexander Shelley. Lauded by press and audiences alike, the performance garnered such praise as from Germany’s Die Welt: “Carpenter…is proving himself to be a clever eclecticist, who understands to entertain with much finesse.”

“I’m honored to watch Edition Peters launching my career as a composer. With the publication ofThe Scandal, Op. 3 in 2011, I hope to begin an ongoing expansion of the secular organ repertoire, particularly in major works for organ and orchestra,” says Carpenter.

For more information on Cameron Carpenter, including his most recently released CD/DVD set Cameron Live! (Telarc, 2010), visit www.cameroncarpenter.com.

Cameron Carpenter

Cameron Carpenter is a dazzling performer and showman, but these are just the first impressions to be had from a diverse and prolific artist. Encompassing the organ in all its iterations – pipe, virtual, classical, and popular – Cameron’s unique voice is emerging as a revolutionary in his field, while still evolving. This exorbitant virtuoso is renowned not only for his playing of the great organ works, but also for his compositions which – in their emphasis on color, secularity, and performative freedom – follow in the footsteps of Percy Grainger, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, and Leopold Godowsky. The 29-year-old (first ever) Grammy^®-nominated organist has already performed widely in the U.S. and abroad, and arranges prolifically for the organ (from Chopin’s Études and piano masterworks of Liszt, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, etc., to contemporary pop music and scores from Japanese animé).

“No other musician of Carpenter’s generation has more adeptly fused shrewd showmanship, dazzling technique and profound thinking about his instrument and his place in the musical cosmos…” – San Francisco Chronicle

Contact:

For Media requests:

Amanda Sweet/Bucklesweet Media Amanda@Bucklesweetmedia.com 347-564-3371

For CAMI Music: Tobias Tumarkin Tumarkin@camimusic.com

For KD Schmid: Benedikt Carlberg benedikt.carlberg@kdschmid.de

The British Phonographic Industry has announced its sixth year of straight decline, a seven percent dip last year, allied to a slowing of download growth.

Look at the stats whichever way you like and there is no gleam of light. A decision by HMV to close 60 record and book stores confirms the prevalent state of gloom. Here’s a BBC report.

The BPI blames all the usual culprits for the declining interest in commercial recordings – bad weather, store closures and, over and above the rest, illegal downloads. This official analysis is as predictable as it is irrational.

Illegal downloads do not surge if the music fails to turn on a mass public – and that’s the core concern. One glimpse at the charts shows a dominance of Simon Cowell’s TV contest winners, from Matt Cardle down. The gimmick is wearing thin, but the music industry is so hooked on Cowell’s medicine that it refuses to recognise its own slow death by overdose.

press image from Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film Three Monkeys

One of Cowell’s regular producers told me the other day that he thought the machine was now progressively killing the music. He feared for young talent that was being squeezed out by the preponderance of TV game shows and for listeners who are being turned off.

If record sales are to rise again, industry leaders must stop acting like the three monkeys – one who can’t hear, one who can’t see and the third whose job it is to claim government protection and disability benefits. An end to the X Factor could mark a new start for the beleaguered record business.

The BBC has cut the number of finalists in this year’s Cardiff Singer of the World competition from 25 to 20 and the number of rounds from five to four. The usual reason – ‘due to challenging financial circumstances’ – but it makes good sense. Anyone remember who came 22nd last time? (Tell us if it was you)

And I’d be surprised if the lower orders got much from the experience other than another tick in the box and an economy rail return to London. The contest takes place June 12-19.

The website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/cardiffsinger/

1 The New York Philharmonic will pick the wrong man to
succeed Zarin Mehta (they won’t even interview a woman).

press photo courtesy NYPO

2 Placido Domingo will not retire on his 70^th
birthday (why does the poster say he’s older?).

3 Anna Netrebko will cancel (who says she’s a no-show?)

press photo courtesy dpa

4 Joyce DiDonato won’t.

5 Valery Gergiev will arrive late at three concerts out of
four (too busy with his main best friend?)

6 The Dutch will talk about scrapping orchestras, and do nothing.

7 Wicked old Citibank will break up EMI.

8 The new Helsinki hall will be an acoustic marvel. Free
Nokias with season subscriptions.

9 The New York Times will continue the free PR service for Alan
Gilbert and Peter Gelb (and free bagels, too).

photos (c) New York Times

10 A classical accordionist will have a record hit.

Happy New Year from Slipped Disc.

The January issue of the German magazine Das Orchester is dedicated to environmental awareness. It reports healthy progress on many fronts.

The Schleswig Holstein Music Festival has introduced reusable lunch plates. The Leiszhalle in Hamburg has replaced its lighting system. The Grafenegg festival runs bus shuttles.

Players in Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin Staaskepelle have set up a group called NaturTon to raise awareness among musicians and audiences of the damage they are doing to the planet.

The British music industry is praised for forging ahead with Julie’s Bicycle, a cross-arts initiative chaired by ex-EMI boss Tony Wadsworth on how to make the arts less pollutant.

There is, of course, an elephant in the room. It is called orchestral touring. If orchestras like the Staatskapelle stopped jumping on planes at the drop of a fat cheque, they would save large chunks of the ozone layer and be able to play with clean consciences. It’s not as if they tour for a living. Most orchestra players are paid salaries whether they play or not, fly or stay home.

Flying orchestras is wasteful and wrong. Most musicians know that and many would like to do something about it.

Audiences can help. Support your local orchestra. Don’t buy tickets to orchestras on tour. Spread the word. Stop classical pollution.

The January issue of the German magazine Das Orchester is dedicated to environmental awareness. It reports healthy progress on many fronts.

The Schleswig Holstein Music Festival has introduced reusable lunch plates. The Leiszhalle in Hamburg has replaced its lighting system. The Grafenegg festival runs bus shuttles.

Players in Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin Staaskepelle have set up a group called NaturTon to raise awareness among musicians and audiences of the damage they are doing to the planet.

The British music industry is praised for forging ahead with Julie’s Bicycle, a cross-arts initiative chaired by ex-EMI boss Tony Wadsworth on how to make the arts less pollutant.

Flying orchestras is wasteful and wrong. Most musicians know that and many would like to do something about it.

Audiences can help. Support your local orchestra. Don’t buy tickets to orchestras on tour. Spread the word. Stop classical pollution.

A German musicologist by name of Clytus Gottwald has retrieved three songs by the young Alma that Mahler dismissed as trash and set them for a capella choir. The premiere will take place in Stuttgart on February 26 in a concert conducted by Marcus Creed. The songs are titled Die Stille Stadt, Laue Sommernacht and Bei dir ist es traut. Details are listed here.

Clytus Gottwald, 85, is founder of the Stuttgart Schola Cantorum, a former IRCAM associate of Pierre Boulez and an expert in musical paleography – the art of reading old handwriting. I can’t imaging he – or anyone else – would have wasted precious time on the doodles of an untalented teenager, had she not become the love object of a great composer. There have been several attempts to make more of Alma’s sings than is actually in them – the best being the orchestral versions made by Colin and David Matthews – but after more than one listening it is hard to escape the conclusion that Mahler was right: she had nothing to say in music –

unless, of course, her third song was a sketch for a bigger hit, sometimes attributed to Mahler. Now that would be a world premiere…

Here’s the Youtube version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vvo3MaFcxw

I had to read this twice to make sure the hangover hadn’t turned into a Bruckner nightmare, but even in the cold light of day it appears that the conductor Christian Thielemann has told the Berliner Morgenpost that he’d like to spend some time with Madonna.

‘I find this woman fascinating,’ said Thiely. ‘Not just musically…. I’d like to get to know Madonna a whole lot better.’ Click the link above for the full sticky and sweet interview in German.

Now I know that opposites attract, but this is just silly. Madonna is a rabbi-quoting kabbalah freak who drops her clothes for artistic purposes and lines up for all the right – that is, left – causes. The German conductor is a noted conservative in social outlook and deficient – until now – in any notable appreciation of foreign, popular and feminine culture.

What on earth might they say to one another? And what do they do for a second date? Can you see Madge summering in Bayreuth or Thiely smoking spliffs backstage at her next Tel Aviv gig?

This is not so much a date as celebrity mania gone berserk. It could be the basis for a reality television version of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huits Clos, a date that runs and runs until one of the dates shrieks ‘I’m a Maestro, Get Me Out of Here’ and the band strikes up the opening of Götterdämmerung. In your dreams…

What on earth might they say to one another? And what do they do for a second date? Can you see Madge summering in Bayreuth or Thiely smoking spliffs backstage at her next Tel Aviv gig?

To ease the world back into working mode, Slipped Disc presents the last pair of free tracks in the present series – a run that has attracted listeners from most corners of all five continents.

To end, here is a star pairing from the two founding indie labels, Onyx and Orchid.

By popular demand to hear more James Ehnes playing Mendelssohn, here he is again – not in the concerto but with a pack of pals attacking the presto of the Octet, possibly the most perfect piece old Felix ever wrote. Click here to download.

The other seven players are Erin Keefe, Andrew Wan, Augustin Hadelich, Cynthia Phelps, Richard O’Neill, Robert deMaine and Edward Arron.

From Orchid, we present a forthcoming release from Orchid, never yet heard on public airwaves. It’s the British pianist Martin Roscoe playing Dr Gradus ad Parnassum from Debussy’s Children’s Corner. Click here.

And that’s all, folks, for the moment. We’re assessing the free download numbers to see what implications they might have for the industry and I’ll report results when ready.

Meantime, do post below if you had a particular favourite track, or one you loathed.

All good things come to those who listen.

To clear your head for the New Year, try a little Sanctus by Josef Rheinberger on the Somm label. The performers are the Hildegard Choir of Oxford, with soprano Emily Van Evera and conductor Gulliver Ralston.

To download, click here.

Rhondda Gillespie, who enjoyed an international career and made recordings for Argo, EMI, Phillips and Chandos, died on Thursday in Barbados, a friend reports. She was 68.

Her husband, the critic Denby Richards, predeceased her three weeks ago.