You may have read by now that Jennifer Grout, 23, a Boston-Irish student who’s had her voice trained for opera singing, came second in the Arabs Got Talent competition without speaking more than five words of Arabic.

What intrigued us, even more than her cross-cultural achievement, are the operatic melismas that she introduced to her performances. Just watch and learn.

jennifer grout

Wir bedanken unsere Leserin, Midou Grossman:

Hat geistige Musik noch eine Berechtigung in der heutigen Zeit? – Das Münchner Runkfunkorchester bejaht diese Frage eindrucksvoll

Kategorie: Kultur, Musik, Regionales, Bayern

München, Bayern, Deutschland (Weltexpress). Vor kurzem stellte Norman Lebrecht, Autor, Publizist, Journalist, Fernsehkommentator der BBC, in seinem Blog die Frage: Why can’t we articulate the value of music to society? Es folgte eine interessante Online-Diskussion, die allerdings keine wirklich befriedigende Antwort lieferte….
Weiter lesen hier. Original English article here.
royal academy of music

That’s the verdict of our New York neophytes, Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes. Read on here. But don’t ignore prior health warning here, with plenty of horse fodder in the ensuing discussion.

maestri falstaff

domingo abu dhabi

The excellent Quatuor Voce are the latest group to suffer airline tyranny, this time at Orly Airport in Paris. They were forced to remove instruments from their cases and fly with them unprotected.

Cellist Lydia Shelley reports on their Facebook page:

Got to love the Vueling (Spanish airline) staff at Paris Orly who made my colleagues check their instrument cases into the hold and take their two violins and viola on board the flight without cases, and pay over €100 for the pleasure! Lucky I had enough space in my cello case (with the help of several scarves) to fit their bows in..!

Un grand merci à l’équipe de Veuilng à Paris Orly qui a forcé mes collègues de prendre leurs instruments dans l’avion sans leurs boîtes, qui devaient être enregistrées en soute pour plus que €100! Heureusement j’avais assez de place dans ma boîte de violoncelle (avec l’aide de plusieurs écharpes) pour en mettre leurs archets…!

She concludes: #musiciansneverflyvueling

The Strad has some more details.

quatuor voce

 

Here are some clues:

– it does not feature the accordion,

– or the mandolin,

– or any electronic gimmickry;

– it was released as far back as January. And it got through the year unbeaten.

Click here for a record summary of 2013.

hmv gramophone

The pianist Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, who came third (to Bella Davidovich and Halina Czery, joint first) in the 1949 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, has died at the age of 83. She enjoyed an international career, mostly in Soviet Bloc countries, and recorded for several labels, including Deutsche Grammophon. You can hear her competition performance here.

 

barbara hesse

Message from the embattled head, David Thomas:

For the benefit of those not at yesterday’s Staff Forum, this email is to confirm that all staff have been awarded a 1.5% pay increase from January 2014.
 
Although the school’s finances remain very tight, with many demands on our resources, the Governor’s (sic) believe that it is important to recognise the contribution that staff have made and continue to make to the success of the school.
 
In making this award, the Governors would like to thank all staff for their efforts this term, and particularly for the way in which you have dealt with the many changes which have taken place since September.
 
If you are not able to be part of the various end of term events, I do wish you a happy and restful Christmas.
Hanging over this happy and restful Christmas is the dismissal of the Head of Music, Quentin Poole, supposedly because this music school could not afford a head of music.
purcell school

The Russian President signed a decree today, announcing the reorganisation of the news agency Ria-Novosti and the broadcaster Voice of Russia. Both will be brought under direct Kremlin control.

Another glimmer of free speech has been snuffed out.

Here’s Ria announcing its disappearance.

putin-sergei-sobyanin-site-of-rossiya-hotel-3

Gennady Rozhdestvensky takes a bow with cast after last night’s performance of Death in Venice at the Moscow Conservatory.

Britten’s opera, after Thomas Mann’s novella, describes the raging desire of an aging writer for a young Polish boy. Rozhdestvensky described the performance as ‘one of the most important concerts of my career’. You may read into that remark whatever you wish. Cast included Ian Bostridge, Peter Coleman-Wright, Iestyn Davies and students of the Conservatory.

rozhdestvensky death in venice

photo: Richard Jarman

Some 80 students and staff at the Conservatoire supérieur de Lyon, France, were ordered to leave the building last night after a burst water mains caused the earth to move on the hill above the building. No-one was hurt. Large parts of the building remain inaccessible.

conservatoire lyon