Message from the LSO:
The LSO is saddened to hear that flautist Richard Taylor has passed away. Richard died peacefully in St Barnabas House Hospice in Worthing on Monday 11 August. He was a member of the LSO from 1957 to 1983 and was Co-Principal Flute from 1972 to 1983.
To read the LSO’s full statement, please click here: http://bit.ly/1kUCguM
An 18 year-old Austrian, Florian Pichler, has joined the Berlin brass. The news was posted without fanfare on the Berlin Phil site. Pichler will play second trumpet but will often find himself in the #1 seat.
His appointment follows a bold move by the London Symphony Orchestra in naming its first teenaged principal player.
Getting younger all the time…
Juan Felipe Molano, a graduate of the Colombian offshoot of Venezuela’s El Sistema, has been named director of the youth orchestra of Los Angeles, Yola. ‘He’s a great inspiration,’ said Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil’s music director.
Colombia has the world’s second-largest network of Sistema youth orchestras, after Venezuela.
IATSE, the main stage union, has just announed the Local 1 has reached agreement with the Met. The terms are another humiliation for Peter Gelb.
He has been forced to accept ‘mandatory cost reductions from management and an independent monitor to track budget performance.’
Gelb has been trussed up hand and foot in these talks, left with no room for manouevre on future policy change – unless he gets the approval of the unions and the independent budget monitor.
What began as negotiation ended in total capitulation.
From the IATSE statenment
The tentative agreement we reached today – which includes mandatory cost reductions from management and an independent monitor to track budget performance– offers a way to get the Met on a track for success.
We look forward to presenting the details of the agreement to members of Local 1 for their decision on ratification. And we’re committed to remaining at the bargaining table to conclude agreements for the other six I.A.T.S.E. local unions whose members make the magic happen at the Metropolitan Opera at every performance.
The Met’s version:
New York, NY (August 20, 2014) – The Metropolitan Opera announced tonight that a new labor agreement has been secured with IATSE Local One, the union representing the company’s stagehands. Final negotiations will take place tomorrow with eight smaller unions representing behind-the-scenes Met personnel. All are expected to reach agreements, preventing a potential labor crisis at the nation’s largest performing arts organization.
The new contract with Local One, subject to ratification, will provide the institution with savings comparable to those achieved through the recent agreements with Local 802 (which represents orchestra musicians and librarians) and AGMA (which represents chorus, principal singers, directors, and stage managers).
Pre-season rehearsals and preparations for the 2014-15 season will continue without interruption. The Met season will open as scheduled on September 22 with a new production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and continue with 221 performances of 26 operas in six new productions and 18 revivals.
We regret to report the death of Marshall Fine, principal viola of the Memphis Symphony and a widely published composer of three symphonies and more.
Marshall did not recover from injuries sustained in a car crash last week.
Marshall was the son of Burton Fine, long-serving principal viola of the Boston Symphony, and the brother of Elaine Fine, flautist and composer.
Our sympathies to the Fine family.
See also here.
Another day, another deadline passed, another sign of Peter Gelb’s failed strategy. Ten stage unions continued talks through the night. Moments after midnight, a Met spokesmen told the media there was ‘nothing to report’.
A source close to the musicians points out the wider implications of the financial oversight that Gelb has conceded is likely to work. Gelb, he says, will be managing in handcuffs. ‘Every time the financial analyst points out what has to change to save money, the board will ask themselves, “Why wasn’t Peter doing this before?”’
Jubilation at Austrian TV as the second channel ratings came in. Last Friday’s screening of the Salzburg Rosenkavalier on ORF2 was watched by 503,000 viewers.
At peak time, it had nine percent of the total viewing figures.
Could any other country match that?
Franz Welser-Most conducted, Brian Large produced for TV.
