Word from Indianapolis is they can’t afford next month’s Albert Herring. Cast members have been stood down. The company is said to be in financial difficulties after poor ticket sales. Let’s hope and pray it’s not the third crash this season in American opera.

indianapolis opera

After we had remarked on the paucity of qualified candidates to head the BBC Proms and Radio 3, a kind spirit sent us the cv of the current head of Welsh Rugby:

(Our man) was appointed Group Chief Executive of the Welsh Rugby Union and the Millennium Stadium in 2006. He returned home to Wales from London in 2004 to take up the position of Managing Director of ITV Wales.

Immediately prior to this, between 1998 and 2004, he was the Managing Director and Programme Controller of Classic FM and a Board Director of its parent company GWR plc. Between 1990 and 1998, he worked in the record industry as a Managing Director at EMI Records and as the world wide President of the Decca Record Company.

He spent the 1980’s in radio. Between 1985 and 1990 he was a producer at BBC Radio 1 and then Head of the BBC Radio 1 Music Department. Between 1981 and 1985, he worked in commercial radio at Capital Radio, London, as a producer, and at Radio Tees, in the North East. He studied music at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1976 with a B.Mus (Hons). He worked as a musician between 1976 and 1980.

Should go straight to the head of the shortlist if he cares to apply.

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They’re called GQ and they – are – good.

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h/t: Andre Solomon-Glover

Having dismissed Nicholas Daniel after one year as summer school director, the chaotic Devon trust has appointed the pianist Joanna Macgregor to take charge for the next three years. Nick has been treated shabbily. Can Joanna expect better? Story here.

joanna macgregor

Roger Wright showed exquisite timing in his resignation. This looks like yet another added layer of much-loved BBC bureaucracy. 

Two memos:

Dear All,

 

Today, we’re announcing the biggest commitment we’ve made in the arts for a generation.

 

As I said last autumn, I want BBC Arts and BBC Music to sit proudly alongside BBC News – something we’re recognised for the world over.  Now, we’re placing arts and music right at the heart of what we do.

 

That requires strong, clear leadership.  So, I’ve appointed Jonty Claypole as our new Director of Arts and Bob Shennan as Director of Music.  They’ll be driving our vision, and, working closely with commissioning, they’ll be joining up arts and music on the BBC like never before – across television, radio and digital.

 

Bob and I will tell you more about BBC Music in the coming weeks.  But, today I want to focus on the arts.

 

There’s a new strand, BBC ARTS At, taking us out of the studio, and to the most exciting events all across the country.  We’ll have a new home for the arts on iPlayer and online – and we’re announcing an amazing array of new commissions, including three filmed adaptations of Shakespeare’s history plays, from the team behind The Hollow Crown.

 

We’ll be working closely with our country’s great artists, performers and cultural institutions.  And, I’m delighted to announce that Nicholas Hytner has agreed to join us as a non-executive director.

There’s much more besides – and I hope you’ll be able to read the speech I’m making this morning in full.

Best wishes,

Tony

tony hall1

 

 

 

Dear all

As you will have seen, Tony Hall has today unveiled the BBC’s renewed ambition for the Arts. In doing so, he’s announced that Bob Shennan is taking on a new role as the BBC’s Director of Music, starting immediately. Bob will take on the role in addition to his current responsibilities as Controller of Radio 2, 6 Music and the Asian Network, and in place of his position as Controller of Popular Music.

He will still report to me as one of our station Controllers, but will also lead the approach to music across television, radio and digital, thinking locally, nationally and globally.He will become the BBC’s main point of contact internally and externally for the genre, joining up our offer and ensuring a consistent and compelling strategy for music across the BBC.

 

It is great news for our Radio Group that music is at the forefront of the BBC’s thinking and wonderful news for Bob. I’m sure you will join me in congratulating him on his new role.

 

Best wishes

Helen (Boaden)

… probably none of the names that have been speculated in today’s papers in the wake of Roger Wright’s resignation as head of BBC Proms and Radio 3. It won’t be easy to find the right person. There is a lamentable paucity of proven managerial talent in the 30-45 age range.

The likely runners are:

– Stephen Maddock, chief executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a former Proms staffer;

– Hilary Boulding, head of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a distant Radio 3 executive;

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– Graham Sheffield, director of arts at the British Council; ex-Radio 3;

– Gillian Moore, head of music at the South Bank; no BBC track record;

– Edward Blakeman, Proms minder after Wright’s departure;

– John Gilhooly, Wigmore Hall;

– Richard Wigley, BBC Philharmonic;

– Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, a willing candidate for top music jobs.

 

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Also fancying their chances:

Jonathan Mills, outgoing Edinburgh Festival director;

Meurig Bowen, Cheltenham Festival director.

David Pickard, Glyndebourne;

David Butcher, Britten Sinfonia.

 

Overseas candidates:

The headhunters will place calls to the following, all with relevant UK experience:

Anthony Freud, Chicago Lyric Opera;

Graham Parker, WQXR New York;

Mary Miller, Bergen National Opera;

Simon Woods, Seattle Symphony;

Michael Henson, Minnesota Orchestra (unless they’ve been reading Slipped Disc).

 

And there’s always this failed candidate from the last round.

From his earliest steps in music, the German pianist and conductor was drawn to the centre of power. A protege of Herbert von Karajan, he was befriended by the German chancellor Helmut Schmidt and recorded with him (and Justus Frantz) the Mozart triple piano concerto on EMI.

His first post as music director was in ultra-rich Zurich (1982-86). His second was in oil-well Houston (1988-1999), where he built a loyal following among musicians and audiences.

A capable, at times inspirational, conductor, his hallmarks were designer-cut coats, a lifestyle to match, and an entourage of soloist friends who seldom matched his musical calibre. In Houston, these attributes passed unnoticed.

 

It was only when Eschenbach was announced in 2003 as music director in Philadelphia that they drew critical attention. Although musicians were represented on the search committee, he had not conducted the orchestra for four years and his previous engagements had been unsatisfactory. The atmosphere did not improve over time; when Eschenbach’s contract was renewed, the musicians were reported to be 80 percent against him. There was a similar response at the Orchestre de Paris, which declined during his tenure (2000-2010).

In 2008, he transferred to the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington after a brilliantly orchestrated whisper campaign by his agent to suggest that he was in line for the New York Philharmonic. He fee was far above expectations and the results have been inconsistent,  a mixture of the memorable and the capricious. Ever personable, Eschenbach made himself agreeable to DC society and to a section of the musicians.

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But his mind was often elsewhere and he ate too many cherries off the cake. Last summer he stepping in for the first of three Mozart operas in Salzburg in the middle of an orchestra tour. He earned a hostile response and was accused of wrecking the festival’s centrepiece. His Magic Flute in Vienna was dismissed as flabby.

His renewal in Washington this week was another inside job where friendship and connections took precedence over the needs of the orchestra and the city. His programming next season, from which American music is absent, is insensitive. No other candidate was considered by a lame-duck management. There is only one winner in Washington these days and it is not the music.

 

The new chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutschen Philharmonie, based in Herford, is Yves Abel. He succeeds Eugene Tzigane next January.

Abel was previously principal guest conductor at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin.

yves abel

Chana Szpilman Wallace, first cousin of the hero of Roman Polanski’s iconic film, has died in Toronto, aged 106.

The daughter of a successful violinist, Chana survived the horrors of Auschwitz and the knowledge that, after the War, her son was beaten to death by Polish anti-semites. She made a new life in Canada and leaves a thriving family.

szpilman

The Seattle Symphony has jumped late on the bandwaggon of orchestras with their own record label. Most have failed in their twin purposes: to replace revenue lost when the music industry died and to promote the ensemble’s activities in new markets. Few have broke even.

The only label that has succeeded is LSO Live – chiefly because it was first into the water, built up a rapid back catalogue to pay for new releases and was, from the outset, marketed worldwide.

Seattle has a British MD, Simon Woods, who once worked at EMI. He knows the basics of the record business, old-style. But he has a mountain to climb in a market that is not working.

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