The World Customs Organisation has issued a reminder that the new EU rules come into force on November 21. In effect, you should be able to take any musical instrument carried for personal use through the green channel of all EU airports. Including Frankfurt.

Press announcement below. Print it out and show it to customs inspectors.

feng ning

Press release

The European Union’s recent amendment of the Customs Code’s implementing provisions regarding the temporary import, export and reimport of portable music instruments was welcomed by WCO Secretary General, Kunio Mikuriya, who praised the benefits for both cultural life and economic activities.

 

According to the new amendment applicable from 21 November 2013, travellers may temporarily import/export portable musical instruments as professional equipment without customs formalities. This means that when travelling with such instruments they may use the green or ‘nothing to declare’ Customs channel at airports.

 

Previously, portable musical instruments which were temporarily imported by travellers with the intention of using them as professional equipment were to be presented to Customs and to be declared explicitly for the temporary importation procedure.  Because some musicians have been negatively affected by the application of Customs rules at import, the implementing regulation simplifies the access to the temporary importation procedure by allowing portable musical instruments intended for re-export to be declared by any other act (for instance, by going through the green or ‘nothing to declare’ Customs channel at airports) .

 

To mitigate similar problems in connection with export, re-export and reimport, the simplification also covers portable musical instruments which have been declared for export, re-export or which have been re-imported and declared for release for free circulation as returned goods by travellers.

 

At the WCO, this issue has been discussed at the Administrative Committee of the Istanbul Convention and the Meeting of the Contracting parties to the Customs Convention on the A.T.A. Carnet for the temporary admission of goods (A.T.A. Convention).  Experts attending the meetings agreed that limited knowledge of the rules on temporary admission might be causing problems and concluded that raising awareness among Customs was important to ensure proper implementation of the rules.

 

WCO Members will continue sharing experience and operational practices regarding temporary admission and the use of the ATA Carnet.

 

The new regulation is available by clicking here.

 

The Welsh warbler says she clings to her original fantasy of being a great Carmen. Click on her fan q&a video at 3:37.

 

katherine jenkins piano

Just watch those strings oscillate in this anonymous photo-shoot, posted today.

double bass

Yundi has a new one. Wait for Lang Lang to announce.

yundi bang

He tweets: Happy to start my exciting journey of being Bang & Olufsen‘s first ambassador from Asia. Congratulations on B&O’s 88th birthday!

An impassioned op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung today call for a halt to the forced merger between the southwest radio orchestra in Stuttgart and its more adventurous rival in Baden-Baden (where Pierre Boulez has a home).

The petition is an extraordinarily public outburst in the private, consensual world of German orchestra management. Public demonstrations are planned tomorrow in Baden-Baden and elsewhere. The SWR boss, Peter Boudgoust, is being depicted as the archetype bureaucratic philistine.

Here’s the list of signatories (more maestros than you’ve ever seen on one sheet since Ronald Wilford gave up active management):

David Afkham

Guido Ajmone-Marsan

Gerd Albrecht

Marc Albrecht

Alain Altinoglu

Stefan Asbury

Moshe Atzmon

Roland Bader

Hermann Bäumer

Serge Baudo

George Benjamin

Hans Michael Beuerle

Herbert Blomstedt

Pieter-Jelle de Boer

Fabrice Bollon

Ivor Bolton

Pierre Boulez

Martyn Brabbins

Alexander Briger

Sylvain Cambreling

Carmen Maria Cârneci

Robert Casteels

Friedrich Cerha

Gabriel Chmura

Myung-Whun Chung

David Robert Coleman

Denis Comtet

Teodor Currentzis

Joshard Daus

Thomas Dausgaard

Dennis Russell Davies

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

Jacques Delacôte

Andreas Delfs

Kasper de Roo

Jean Deroyer

Christoph von Dohnányi

Klaus Donath

Charles Dutoit

Christoph Eberle

Sian Edwards

Titus Engel

Roger Epple

Peter Eötvös

Asher Fisch

Ádám Fischer

Thierry Fischer

Tilo Fuchs

Hortense von Gelmini

Michael Gielen

Johannes Goritzki

Clytus Gottwald

Konstantia Gourzi

Eivind Gullberg Jensen

Leopold Hager

Friedrich Haider

Michael Halász

Johannes Harneit

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Olaf Henzold

Pablo Heras-Casado

Peter Hirsch

Heinz Holliger

Rupert Huber

Eliahu Inbal

Pietari Inkinen

Neeme Järvi

Marek Janowski

Johannes Kalitzke

Kirill Karabits

Peter Keuschnig

Bernhard Klee

Roland Kluttig

Bernhard Kontarsky

Ton Koopman

Kazimierz Kord

Gérard Korsten

Dieter Kurz

Franz Lang

Yoel Levi

Alexander Liebreich

Wolfgang Lischke

Brad Lubman

Michael Luig

Susanna Mälkki

Othmar M. F. Mága

Diego Masson

Mark Mast

Farhad Mechkat

Cornelius Meister

Jacques Mercier

Ingo Metzmacher

Alicja Mounk

Rainer Mühlbach

Christoph-Mathias Mueller

Uwe Mund

Kent Nagano

Günter Neuhold

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Ulrich Nicolai

Grzegorz Rafael Nowak

Arnold Östman

Gabor Ötvös

Franck Ollu

Kazushi Ōno

Krzysztof Penderecki

Alejo Pérez

Robert HP Platz

Emilio Pomàrico

Pierre-Dominique Ponnelle

Christoph Poppen

David Porcelijn

Christof Prick

Hans-Martin Rabenstein

Manfred Reichert

Burkhard Rempe

Peter Richter de Rangenier

Helmuth Rilling

Pascal Rophé

Peter Rundel

Donald Runnicles

Pablo Rus Broseta

Peter Ruzicka

Oswald Sallaberger

Thomas Sanderling

Nello Santi

Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Heinrich Schiff

Urs Schneider

Hanns-Martin Schneidt

Eberhard Schoener

Michael Schønwandt

Holger Schröter-Seebeck

Uri Segal

Leif Segerstam

José Serebrier

Leo Siberski

Nicolas Simon

Stanisław Skrowaczewski

Sir William Southgate

Christopher Sprenger

Alois Springer

Jonathan Stockhammer

Yoav Talmi

Arturo Tamayo

Michael Tilson Thomas

Francis Travis

Wolfgang Trommer

Mario Venzago

Ilan Volkov

Edo de Waart

Hans Wallat

Volker Wangenheim

Ralf Weikert

Günther Wich

Gerhard Wimberger

Jürg Wyttenbach

Lothar Zagrosek

Hans Zender

David Zinman

boulez swr

 

From the trailer, Alberto Venzago’s forthcoming film looks like a Battleship Potemkin for our times.

 

gergiev a certain madness

 

 

They’re not saying how much more, but the city coalition and the federal government have reached amicable agreement on a boost to culture – especially better social conditions for artists, film funding and building renovations. The deal will be the swansong of the brilliant culture minister, Bernd Neumann, who is heading for retirement next year at 72 after a Cabinet career of powerful advocacy for the arts. Where will we find another Bernd?

bernd neumann

The Teatro de São Carlos in Lisbon has named Joana Carneiro as principal conductor of the Portugal National Symphony. Joana, 37, will take up the baton in January and will contine as music director of the Berkeley Symphony in California.

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