This official audio has been released by the Los Angeles Philharmonic:

**Actual Audio Recording** On March 28, 2014 at 9:09pm, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Philharmonic was six minutes into a performance of Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloé” with guest conductor Charles Dutoit when the quake hit. A strong jolt followed by a minute of rumbling did not unhinge the orchestra or Maestro Dutoit, and the stirring concert continued without a hitch.

Quite a contrast to the other concert we reported in Long Beach.

Ian Campbell was greeted with jeers, hisses and catcalls before the performance of San Diego Opera’s last production, Massenet’s Don Quichotte. Campbell’s plan to shut the company is now being hotly contested.

Watch.

Russian and Baltic emigrés have launched a petition calling on Chancellor Merkel and the Bavarian President Horst Seehofer to veto the appointment of Valery Gergiev as music director of the Munich Philharmonic.

They argue: ‘For the first time since 1938, a European State has stolen part of the internationally recognized territory of a neighboring country when Russia occupied and annexed the Crimean peninsula. … A letter to the Russian people in support of this “Anschluss” was signed among others by conductor Valery Gergiev, violinist Vladimir Spivakov, violist Yuri Bashmet, pianist Denis Matsuev…. Here in Munich, we must be particularly sensitive to any sign of political immorality. Therefore, we ask: How can Valery Gergiev can become chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra How can a German State Orchestra be led by a man who actively supports Russian military interventions?…’

Read (and, if you agree) sign the petition here.

In the middle of the last century, when the Moscow Conservatoire was a mecca for violin teaching in the old style, the great David Oistrakh would sometimes send his students for a second opinion to Abram Shtern – Abrasha – in Kiev. Shtern was a student of a Leopld Auer pupil, David Berthier. He was concertmaster and professor in Kiev until his family’s migration to the US in 1990, when he was 71. He continued playing expressively into his 90s, as you can hear below. Misha Keylin tells us that this inspirational teacher died on Thursday, aged 96.

Here’s a fairly recent profile in the LA Times.

How many movie buffs can name him?

Paul Salamunovich conducted the chorus in major feature 10 movies and in the NBC series ER.

He sang solo on the soundtrack of How the West Was Won and prepared choruses for concerts conducted by Igor Stravinsky, Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Simon Rattle and more.

Music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1991-2001, he died in Hollywood aged 86. Here’s a composer’s tale from his final days.

Watch here.

Lumosity prides itself on cognitive analysis. Every year, it publishes a list of top US colleges based on five areas of performance: Speed, Attention, Flexibility, Memory and Problem Solving.

The scope of the survey is wide. At #36 you will find, for instance, the Colorado College of Mines. MIT is at #2.

But, unless we’re missing something vital, nowhere in the list will you find a conservatoire or college-level school of music. You would have expected musicians to excel at the five Lumosity criteria. So what’s gone wrong.

Read the list here.