These six have been selected for accelerated training by the League of American Orchestras (formerly Asol):

Caleb Bailey, Orchestra Manager, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra (Lincoln, NE)

Jennifer Barton, Individual Giving Manager, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (Jacksonville, FL)

Nicholas Cohen, Director of Community Engagement, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Bradley Evans, Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager, San Francisco Symphony

Yoo-Jin Hong, Director of Civic Orchestra and Training Programs, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Michael Reichman, General Manager, Symphony Nova (Boston, MA)

Rebecca Zabinski, Artistic Associate, Houston Symphony (pictured)

 

The French film star was among the artists and friends who turned out yesterday for the funeral of Eva Ganizate, killed on her bike at the weekend, aged 28. She said: ‘Eva was an exquisite being, radiant with life. She had the voice of an angel on earth. She has returned to where it came from, to Paradise.’ Full report here (en francais).

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Fascinating piece in the Economist on attempts by the hi-tech campus to produce more rounded graduates. Wonder if any of the budding Brins will discover hidden 12-note rows. Read here.

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IMG Artists used to be in classical music. Now, they’re flashes in the desert sky. Read on:

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IMG Artists Announces Official Achievement of Guinness World Record® for Largest Firework Display

The Six-Minute Show Featured 479,651 Individual Fireworks

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New York, NY (PRWEB) January 08, 2014

IMG Artists, the global leader in the performing arts and lifestyle events management, announced today that the Company’s production of the “Largest Firework Display” has been officially verified as a Guinness World Record®. The rigorous confirmation process included a tour of all 400 firing locations.

Barrett Wissman, Principal and Co-Chairman of IMG Artists, said, “We are deeply honored to receive official recognition from the hard-working and spirited team at Guinness World Records®. IMG Artists was honored to work with the Government of Dubai and our production partner Fireworks by Grucci to achieve this spectacular World Record and commemorate Dubai’s memorable year.”

The six-minute show featured 479,651 individual fireworks controlled by 170 skilled pyro technicians and over 60 computer control systems ensuring split-second accuracy across the whole of The Palm Jumeirah and the Islands of The World, occupying 95km of seafront. The show surpassed the previous record of 77,282 fireworks set by Kuwait in 2012 within the first minute, with shells being fired at a rate of approximately 80,000 per minute and 1,332 fireworks per second.

A video highlight of the event can be viewed by visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-MUWJWqOv0.

 

He’s hot in Paris and warming up elsewhere.

Nemanja Radulović, 28, has that showbiz touch of Paganini that makes record labels beat faster.

Who was the last Serb fiddler signed by a major label? Keep thinking… Press release below.

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The brilliant young violinist Nemanja Radulović has signed an exclusive global recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon. Following a triumphant Paris recital, where he performed Paganini, Pugnani-Kreisler, Franck and Mozart for a sell-out crowd at the Salle Gaveau, the musician joined the Yellow Label roster of artists. Radulović has previously released an album on DG in France and, under the new agreement, his first international album will be produced by the hugely successful French composer-producer Yvan Cassar – known for his work with platinum-selling artists such as Roberto Alagna, Jean-Michel Jarre and Céline Dion.

 

Proclaimed the “International Revelation of the Year” in 2005 at France’s prestigious “Victoires de la Musique”, Radulović launched his international career in 2006 when he stood in for Maxim Vengerov at Paris’s Salle Pleyel, playing the Beethoven concerto to great acclaim with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Myung-Whun Chung. The next year he made his Carnegie Hall debut, receiving a “tumultuous ovation”, reported The New York Times reviewer, who noted that Radulović not only “looked the part of a dashing 19th-century Romantic virtuoso … he made every gesture count … His playing was engaging and exactingly articulated.”

 

Since then he has appeared with leading orchestras of Europe, Asia and North America, and most recently undertook a highly successful tour of Japan.

 

Nemanja Radulović was already being described by Le Monde de la Musique in 2009 as “a musician who can set crowds on fire. He offers his heart along with his music”. Le Figaro effused about his “magical singing” on the violin, while MusicWeb International, reviewing his Tchaikovsky Concerto performance with the Royal Philharmonic in 2010, called Radulović “a thoughtful, intelligent and fiery player who never allowed his obviously spectacular technique to get in the way of the music making … A fantastic talent at the start of what, I am sure, will be a towering career.”

 

Ute Fesquet, Vice President Artist & Repertoire of Deutsche Grammophon, said: “The spirit and sheer vitality of Nemanja Radulović’s performances are already making him one of our fastest rising violinists. We look forward to capturing that effervescent energy for an ever-wider public.”

 

The artist himself remarked: “I’m so excited about collaborating with Deutsche Grammophon, a company that appreciates my ideals of musical communication. The most important thing for me is to try to make people happy with my music and to move my audience, for them to be able to feel the energy and emotions in the music I’m playing. That’s just as true in recordings as it is in live performances, and I know DG is the label that best understands and supports my passion.”

 

Born in Serbia in 1985, Radulović began his musical studies in 1992 and was winning national prizes in Serbia by the time he was 12. He studied with Joshua Epstein in Saarbrücken in 1998 and Dejan Mihailović in Belgrade in 1999. At the age of 14, he moved to France and studied with Patrice Fontanarosa at the Paris Conservatoire. He also took part in masterclasses given by Yehudi Menuhin and Salvatore Accardo.

 

Nemanja Radulović represents a boldly innovative young generation of classical artists. Not only profoundly gifted and possessing enormous stage presence, he is also constantly seeking new ways to communicate his fiery and innately musical performances to audiences.

 

The musical mogul is funding six posts for trainee directors and producers. One is at the Lake District International Summer Music Festival. Apply now.

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This is Franz Welser-Möst at a a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game.

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It’s not that far from his other job. Click here to view.

 

Iris Wagner, eldest daughter of Wieland, disenfranchised by her uncle Wolfgang, has died, too soon, at 71.

Unlike most Wagners, she made a life for herself away from music and Bayreuth. Iris was the distinguished translator into German of the letters of Sylvia Plath and the later novels of Doris Lessing. Living in Berlin, Iris was also a photographer and film maker.

She had little to say about her great-grandfather, or about Bayreuth. Her only published comment: ‘I’m ashamed of it. Bayreuth burns in every nook and cranny.’

iris wagner

UPDATE: The FAZ has piblished an appreciaiton of Iris Wagner here.

The Chinese composer’s Earth Concerto will receive its US premiere next week by the New Jersey Symphony at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton. ‘The glazed pots have the purest tones,’ says the enterprising percussionist.  ‘It asks questions of the audience.’ Sounds like fun. Watch.

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The outgoing mayor, R. T. Rybak, who did his best to shame the Minnesota Orchestra Association into taking back their musicians, has been rushed to hospital with a cardiac event. His successor, Betsy Hodges, will be sworn in on Saturday with full gay men’s chorus, a beat boxer, hip-hop star, improvisation theatre and more… but no orchestra. Minneapolis is no longer on the orchestra map.

Mayor Betsy should make it her priority to put it back.

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He’s in Vienna to sing the elderly Doge in Verdi’s early opera, I due Foscari.

Asked about his role as a father who ruins his son’s romance, Domingo, 72, let slip a rare regret about his change of register. ‘The good thing about being a tenor is that you’re always the good guy. Now I’m the nasty one. I really like being the hero who got the girl in the end.’

Sic transit….

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