At a meeting today of the Presidential Council for Culture, the pianist Denis Matsuev mentioned that Rachmaninov’s villa Senar, near Lucerne, was coming up for sale by auction. The estate has been thrown into confusion by the death last November of the composer’s grandson, Alexander B. Rachmaninov.
Matsuev said the house had been kept as it was in the composer’s time and contained, aside from his piano, many manuscripts and mementos.
How much? said Putin.
18 million Swiss francs, said Mastuev.
Let’s see what we can do, said the President.
Stanisław Skrowaczewski celebrates his 90th birthday in Tokyo on 3 October 2013 with a performance with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, where he holds the title of Honorary Conductor Laureate.
Skrowaczewski will conduct a series of concerts in Tokyo, including several performances of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, a work that he conducted in the presence of the composer in 1948 at its Paris premiere. The rest of his season includes returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, among others.
During the Minnesota lockout, Skrowacewski, who was music director in Minneapolis for 19 years, has been outspokenly on the musicians’ side.
We wish him the happiest and busiest of birthdays.
If you’re a Minnesotan or Mancunian, send him a greeting via Slipped Disc.
Here’s IATSE’s reason for blacking out opening night:
A STATEMENT REGARDING TODAYS STRIKE AT CARNEGIE HALL FROM JAMES J. CLAFFEY JR., PRESIDENT OF LOCAL ONE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES:
Local One has unfortunately been left with no choice but to exercise its legal rights at Carnegie Hall after 13 months of bargaining. Carnegie Hall Corporation has spent or will spend $230 million on its ongoing studio tower renovation, but they have chosen not to appropriately employ our members as we are similarly employed throughout the rest of Carnegie Hall.
The Union has been very respectful and honorable throughout the entire bargaining process. Carnegie Hall Corporation continued for 13 months to fail to acknowledge the traditional and historic work that we perform and after no significant progress, we found it absolutely necessary to take action to protect the members that we represent.
Contrary to today’s press statement released by Carnegie Hall Corporation, Local One has never proposed the elimination of any current Carnegie Hall employees, whether Union represented or otherwise and we remain willing and always available to bargain for a successful resolve.
James J. Claffey, Jr.
President
Local One, I.A.T.S.E.
The Latvian conductor has announced his is leaving the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the summer of 2015. This is no surprise. He has too much going on elsewhere – Boston Symphony, Bayreuth and Lucerne Festival – and he has suffered several health issues from overwork and avoidable accidents. This summer, his much-hyped Tangelwood debut was called off after he was concussed at Bayreuth.
Nelsons, 35 next month, will be missed. Over the past six years, he has maintained the CBSO as a high-performance team, challenging the top orchestras at the biggest festivals.
Here’s his statement: “With an extremely heavy heart I have reached the decision not to continue in my role as music director with my beloved CBSO after the 2014-2015 season. I have enjoyed five great seasons with this incredible orchestra and, while I look forward to another two in my current role, this difficult decision comes in view of my new position with the Boston Symphony Orchestra alongside my wish to protect precious time with my young family.”
UPDATE: And here’s what subscribers are being told:
Dear John
I thought you would wish to be among the first to receive the statement below containing news of Andris Nelsons’ decision to conclude his tenure as CBSO Music Director in summer 2015.
Our ability to put on so many wonderful concert performances during Andris’ time as music director has resulted in large part from the regular support of our most loyal concert-goers. He has asked me to pass on his sincere thanks.
News of Andris’ decision will be announced publicly at 6pm today.
We look forward to over 90 concerts with Andris in his final two years as Music Director, and indeed to regular collaboration thereafter. A global search for his successor is already underway, and I am certain that with your continued support we will make a world-class appointment worthy of the tradition which he, Sir Simon Rattle and Sakari Oramo have built up over so many years.
Thank you once more for your support, and we look forward to welcoming you this Autumn for more fantastic music-making.
With best wishes
Stephen
Stephen Maddock
Chief Executive, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Dear Colleagues of the Board, Orchestra, Emeritus Board, Volunteer Committees, Maestro’s Circle, and Staff:
This morning we made a joint decision with our partner Carnegie Hall to cancel tonight’s Opening Night concert due to a strike by its stagehands. While we deeply regret not having the opportunity to open Carnegie’s 2013-14 season, our musicians are rehearsed and eager to perform, and so in true Philly style we will “bring the music back home” for a Free Pop Up Concert TONIGHT in Verizon Hall! Yannick is incredibly excited for this fun opportunity! It all begins at 5:30pm – please see the attached news release for full details.
We are working now to get this news out through conventional media, social media, and by going directly to the 150,000+ households in our database. And please, SHARE this news with your own networks. If you are on social media our hashtag is #PhilOrchFreePopUp.
I look forward to seeing you tonight!
Yours in Music,
Allison Vulgamore
More details here.
Arrangements have just been announced:
В пятницу 4 октября в 11.00 в концертном зале ЦМШ состоится траурный митинг.
В 12.00 от школы отправляются автобусы на Востряковское кладбище, где состоится отпевание – примерно в 12.30.
Все кто хочет пожертвовать какие-то средства могут это сделать в ЦМШ в учебном отделе на первом этаже, где для этих целей выделен специальный ящик.
The Service for
Tatiana Stoklitskaya will be held on Friday, 4 October, at 11 a.m. in the Concert Hall of the CENTRAL MUSIC SCHOOL.
At 12.00 buses will head to the Vostrâkovskoe cemetery where the funeral service will be held at 12.30 pm.
First City Opera shut down. Then Minnesota lost its music director and any hope of resumed play after a year’s lockout.
Now Carnegie Hall has been hit by a Teamsters strike on opening night.
The strike will generate little public support. Some of the Teamster stagehands earn half a million dollars a year for doing nothing more expert or exerting than moving a few bits of furniture, but there’s not much Carnegie can do.
Any attempt to rationalise costs produces a union threat to shut down Broadway.
This is not a fight that Carnegie chief Clive Gillinson can afford to lose.
The next few days are going to involve some very tough talking.
A statement by the hall on its peremptory closure:
TONIGHT’S OPENING NIGHT PERFORMANCE AT CARNEGIE HALL
CANCELLED DUE TO STRIKE BY IATSE/LOCAL ONE STAGEHANDS
Local One Stagehands Demand Jurisdiction in New Education Wing,
In Ways That Would Compromise Carnegie Hall’s Education Mission
New Spaces Designed To House Carnegie Hall’s Music Education and Community Programs Scheduled to Open in Fall 2014
All Future Performances Currently Remain on Schedule,
Daily Updates To Be Provided
Read commentary here.
Read the union statement here.
| (For Immediate Release, New York, NY)—Carnegie Hall today announced that its Opening Night performance—scheduled for tonight—Wednesday, October 2—has been cancelled due to a strike by Carnegie Hall’s stagehands, represented by IATSE/Local One (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees). The season-opening concert by The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and featuring violinist Joshua Bell and vocalist/double bassist Esperanza Spalding, was scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. All future performances remain on Carnegie Hall’s schedule, and daily updates will be issued pending resolution of the strike.In opting to strike, the stagehands have rejected a proposed new agreement that includes annual wage and benefit increases and continued jurisdiction throughout Carnegie Hall’s concert venues. It also provides new additional work opportunities in the renovated upper floors of the building. The strike is an attempt to force Carnegie Hall to agree to the union’s demand for jurisdiction over the whole of Carnegie Hall’s newly-created Education Wing in ways that would compromise Carnegie Hall’s education mission. These new spaces, dedicated to the Hall’s expanding music education and community programming, are scheduled to open in fall 2014.Acceptance of the union’s demands would not only restrict education work within the new spaces, it would divert significant funds away from the Hall’s music education programs and into stagehand fees. Local One also demands that Carnegie Hall displace other union employees currently performing maintenance work in the new Education Wing, insisting that stagehands perform this work which will involve a substantially higher cost.“Carnegie Hall sincerely regrets any inconvenience this strike will cause our artists, concertgoers, and everyone with whom we work,” said Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall. “We are disappointed that, despite the fact that the stagehands have one of the most lucrative contracts in the industry, they are now seeking to expand their jurisdiction beyond the concert hall and into the new Education Wing in ways that would compromise Carnegie Hall’s education mission. There is no precedent for this anywhere in New York City. In addition, the activities in the education spaces, including education and community programs offered to the public for free or low cost, have nothing to do with the performance-related work they do in the concert halls. We remain strongly committed to reaching a fair agreement that continues to recognize the value they bring to Carnegie Hall and that also enables us to effectively and sustainably deliver on our education and community mission.”Carnegie Hall’s position is based on the fact that IATSE/Local One—a theatrical union whose fundamental jurisdiction is tied to performance spaces—has no collective bargaining agreements governing education spaces in any New York-area music conservatories, universities with music education programs, or other local facilities supporting education work. In addition, Carnegie Hall’s previous agreements with its stagehands have never included jurisdiction within the spaces on the building’s upper floors, the location of the new Education Wing.Working toward an equitable solution, Carnegie Hall has offered to extend the union’s jurisdiction into the Education Wing in a way that would preserve the operational flexibility needed to create a more informal, hands-on learning environment for activities serving students, young artists, and teachers, while also ensuring a sustainable and meaningful financial approach required to effectively manage these new spaces.
Carnegie Hall has been in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement with its stagehands since mid-2012. The stagehands’ most recent agreement expired on August 31, 2012. While negotiations were ongoing, both the stagehands and Carnegie Hall had agreed to work under the terms of their previous agreement. In order to avoid any disruption to concertgoers and the public, Carnegie Hall urged the stagehands to extend their current collective bargaining agreement and not strike while discussions continue. In choosing to strike, IATSE/Local One has rejected this proposal. |
Douglas Lowry, who stepped down as Dean of the Eastman School last week after eight years in office, died today of multiple myeloma. He was 62.
Our sympathies to his family and many friends.
Douglas Lowry, last week at his farewell
UPDATE: Here’s the University’s statement:
University Mourns the Loss of Eastman School Dean Emeritus Douglas Lowry
Douglas Lowry, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean Emeritus of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, died Wednesday, Oct. 2. A composer, conductor, and academic leader who was keenly attuned to the shifting music world and its challenges for music schools and students, he was 62.
“Doug was a remarkable University leader. He brought together the Eastman School community in ways that were deeply appreciated by its faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends,” said University of Rochester President Joel Seligman. “He was the leader during whose watch the School renovated and expanded Eastman Theatre. Inspiring new faculty were hired. Doug was a national presence in music education and an individual whose charm, wit, and intelligence inspired generations of students and colleagues.”
Dean Lowry became the sixth head of the Eastman School in 2007. He was named the first Joan and Martin Messinger Dean in 2011 and was reappointed in May 2013. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in September, 2011, he resigned for health reasons on Sept. 23, 2013. Following his resignation announcement, the University of Rochester Board of Trustees named him the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean Emeritus and awarded him an honorary doctor of music degree.
Dean Lowry was known for building strategic partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally, and for recruiting important faculty artists. He oversaw the launch of several new initiatives, including the expansion of Eastman’s international partnerships in China and Europe, focusing on the use of Internet2 technology to create a series of “virtual partnerships” with prestigious institutions worldwide. He founded the Center for Music Innovation and Engagement, under Eastman’s Institute for Music Leadership, as an incubator for new forms of music presentation. The Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research, founded this year and focused on researching and creating models for alternative ensembles, reflects Dean Lowry’s incisive appraisal of the rapidly changing landscape of the music world.
Dean Lowry led the biggest architectural transformation in the Eastman School’s history. Under his leadership, the School’s historic performance venue was renovated as Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, and the new Eastman East Wing, with state-of-the-art performance, rehearsal, and teaching spaces, was built. The renovation and expansion project was completed in December 2010.
Committed to raising the profile of Eastman with events and special programs around the country, he re-entered the school into the marketplace of New York City, most notably with the appearance of the Eastman Virtuosi at Merkin Concert Hall and the Eastman Chamber Jazz Ensemble at St. Peter’s Church.
“Doug Lowry not only enjoyed a remarkable career, he lived a wonderful life,” said Eastman School of Music Dean Jamal Rossi. “While he was active as a composer, conductor, author, poet, performer, and academic leader, I believe his real passion was people. Doug simply loved the community of individuals with whom he worked and interacted.”
Dean Lowry’s compositional premieres and other musical work took him to venues throughout the United States and Asia as a guest conductor and clinician for orchestras and wind ensembles. His “Geo,” commissioned and premiered by Christopher Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, opened Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre in October of 2009. He wrote incidental music for productions at the Cincinnati Playhouse and St. Louis Repertory Theatre and for a variety of other media. His works have been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the Starling Chamber Orchestra, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, the Flora Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and others.
Most recently, February 2013 saw the premieres of “The Freedom Zephyr,” his ode to the Underground Railroad, by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and of “Wind Religion” by the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Dean Lowry’s “Suburban Measures” for trumpet and organ was recorded on the BIS label by Anthony Plog and Hans Ola-Erikkson, organ. His “Blue Mazda,” a cabaret song cycle for soprano, trumpets, piano, and percussion, was recorded on the Summit label with the Freiburg Trumpet Ensemble and soprano Maria Cecilia Bengtssohn. He has composed for Music from Angel Fire and other distinguished chamber music organizations.
Before coming to the Eastman School in 2007, Dean Lowry was dean and the Thomas James Kelly Professor of Music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. During his seven-year tenure there, he started initiatives to engage communities in the arts, including joint master classes and concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He strengthened the conservatory’s presence at the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, where he also coached and conducted. He also co-hosted WVXU’s “Around Cincinnati,” a radio program on art and entertainment in the region.
Previously, Dean Lowry was associate dean of the Thornton School of Music, where he served in various teaching and academic leadership positions beginning in 1983.
Throughout his career, Dean Lowry served on the boards of numerous community and music organizations, including the National Association of Schools of Music, the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, and Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
Born in Spokane, Wash., in 1951, Dean Lowry earned his bachelor of music degree in theory and composition in 1974 from the University of Arizona, and two master of music degrees from the University of Southern California in trombone performance (1976) and orchestral conducting (1978).
Dean Lowry is survived by his beloved wife, Marcia, daughters Melanie and Jennifer. and son Timothy; his brothers, John Lowry and William Lowry; his sister, Susanne Carter. He was predeceased by his parents, John and Mildred. A memorial event is being planned and will be announced. Memorial gifts may be directed to the Douglas Lowry Fund for Musical Excellence to support Dean Lowry’s vision and the mission of the Eastman School of Music:
The players wave farewell to their music director after ten years, insisting that there was nothing more they could have done to prevent his departure.
We know that there is dismay, even among some who have supported the musicians throughout this ordeal, that we were unable to avert Osmo’s resignation through some last-minute compromise. We have spent the past several weeks, and this past weekend in particular, in dogged pursuit of just such a compromise, but have found ourselves rebuffed at every turn.
Read on here.
The musicians’ union, meanwhile, has called for a boycott of the companies represented by board members. They include Wells Fargo Bank, US Bank, General Mills, United Health Care, 3M Company, Land ‘O Lakes, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Read more here.
Michel Plasson, formative conductor of the Orchestre du Capitole du Toulouse (1968-2003) and later of the Dresden Philharmonic, was conducting in Seville today when the players heard it was his 80th birthday. They rushed out and got him a bottle of the region’s finest.
Here, as promised, is our first blog entry by a British composer who’s about to stage a world premiere in Mozart’s town. Enjoy.
My name is Iain Bell and I am a 33-year old classical composer. My opera ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ (based on the Hogarth series of etchings to a libretto by Peter Ackroyd) is due to receive its world premiere in Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on Sunday October 13th.
As of today, I have been in Vienna for exactly a month and will stay for another month. Being at this mid-point, a day shy of a fortnight before curtain-up, it feels like the perfect opportunity to take stock and bring you all (and myself) up to speed…
Now that time has ironed out those initial creases of paranoia that so crumpled my first few days here, with such internal outcries as, “that piano score reduction sounds nothing like the orchestra…eek” or blaming myself when a singer is fishing for their pitch at a particularly thorny vocal entry, I have now adapted to and grown very fond of my life in Vienna; I know to get all my food shopping in on a Saturday night as no shops are open on a Sunday, likewise I know better than to cross at a red light lest I incur the wrath of spittle-filled tutting from all others!
It is difficult to convey the surrealism that came with the first few days of rehearsal here. Obviously I knew this period was coming; I completed the work eighteen months ago and it was commissioned in 2010. Nonetheless, nothing could prepare me for the fact that on that first day of scenic rehearsals those dozens upon dozens of people were in that studio to realise a story that had up to that point existed solely (to me) as six etchings that had somehow morphed in my mind into the form of a black-and-white Watch with Mother cartoon with a slightly racier sound track.
What should have been the least surprising moment of the entire process was when the time came to hear the singers actually ‘sing’ their roles. I don’t know why it came as such a shock to me to hear them finally utter the words I had set to music, it is an opera after all, but I was utterly bull-dozed. No longer did I have to imagine how Diana Damrau would shape a certain phrase, it was there, living and breathing in 3D (excuse the mixed metaphor). Moll Hackabout – Hogarth’s name for his titular harlot – now existed, and what’s more she had a much finer voice than my broken-baritone could ever muster!
As the weeks have passed, I’ve become more relaxed in the environment and completely engaged in the rehearsals I have attended. I chose not to attend them all as it was very important to me to hand over the reins to the singers, directorial and musical staff and let them really stamp their own identities on the piece. I didn’t want them to just interpret, I wanted them to create and therefore have as much ownership of the work as me. This has thus far floored every journalist out here who has interviewed me who are seemingly all too aware of stories about composers terrorising entire houses with their diktats. Not for me. There is so much fun collaboration to be had as an opera composer so you have to be willing and happy to embrace that, if not, just stick to writing (and conducting) symphonies!
So t-minus 13 days and I am a very happy bunny indeed. The cast is on fire, we have had several runs of the piece already and the director’s concept is marvellous. That said, I am well aware that another set of tests will be presented in the coming week. We move from our studio rehearsal space in the outskirts of Vienna to the stage in the opera house, meaning the cast will have to transfer all their staging to a completely new space. This is also the week in which the first orchestral rehearsals take place. I have been urged by my publisher to stay well away from the first couple of these. The orchestra is world-class but as this piece is brand new to them, one cannot expect them to be note-perfect on the first attempt, so it has been decided that hearing this may not be a completely necessary part of my musical journey, as desperate as I am to hear them breathe life into the dark underbelly of London I have sought to evoke!
Will let you know…
