This (2nd right) is Eugene Keilin, the auditor who is studying the books of the Metropolitan Opera with a view to giving the mediator a workable solution to put to both sides. Mr Keilin has been described as an independent auditor.

Mr Keilin is a long-time donor to the Met. He also has a long history with the CBC (Citizens Budget Commission), a NYC political elite. He was chairman of the CBC from 1999 to 2002 and remains one of its honorary chairs.

During his time as CBC chairman, Diana Fortuna was president of the organisation. Ms Fortuna left the CBC in 2008 to become chief financial officer of the Metropolitan Opera. She remains it CFO to this day.

Her signature is on all the tax forms. Ms Fortuna is responsible along with Peter Gelb for the Met’s financial predicament. Her past professional involvement with the auditor, and his with the Metropolitan Opera, raise some interesting questions about the extent of his even-handedness.

Josephine Dickinson is an English poet and musician who has lived most of her life with impaired hearing, or none at all.

A cochlear implant has restored her ability to enjoy sounds, and music. She writes movingly about the transformation here.

I entered a new world where every tap, squeak, clang, whisper and consonant exploded and sizzled inside my head. The air was filled with a flutter of whistles and flutes in the highest register of ambient noise: my hair rustling, clothes brushing against each other, door hinges squeaking. Every sound had a limitless resonance. Pattering feet set off tinklings that endured. My dog’s barks set off sympathetic changs and chungs in the radiators through the house. 

We’ve been informed that Deirdre Elliott, a New Zealander who enjoyed a lively career in Europe before returning south in 2007 to join the OA ensemble, has died. Apparently, she fell down a flight of stairs at her sister’s house and never recovered consciousness.

Deirdre, a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, is thought to have been in her late forties. She was widely known and liked on the British opera scene.

Title of a new memoir by the Austrian Wagner baritone Bernd Weikl. Can’t wait.

This is a professional orchestra player receving  piano tuition at an unnamed St Petersburg music school.

If you know the teacher, do name her – though her methods are by no means unusual. Some believe violence is innate to the culture.

UPDATE: We understand that the video was taken around 2010 in a fast-track school for gifted children.

Thomas Mansbacher is retiring from the Cleveland Orchestra cellos after 37 years. Lorin Maazel gave him the job and nothing that happened since has matched those early thrills.

Interview here.

A violinist sacked in cuts to the RTE orchestra has received twice her original payoff in a Labour Court ruling.

The musician, who was 22 months into a two year contract and had been assured of a further three years, received 13,500 Euros for upheaval and financial loss.

This is Santi Cazorla, a  midfield maestro, beating the fans into eve-of-season disharmony.