The St Paul Chamber Orchestra has excitedly announced the recruitment of Julie Albers as principal cello.

She’s terrific.

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So is her sister Becca who is assistant principal viola up the road at the Minnesota Orchestra.

And a third sister, Laura, is associate concertmaster at the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (Emily E. Hogstad reports).

 

the albers sisters

 

That’s quite a family, seriously going places.

 

The musicians have been out on the picket line today in Atlanta, Georgia, boosted by free coffee and doughnuts from members of the public.

atlanta musicians

Behind the scenes, the ASO and its president ‘Dr Stanley E. Romanstein, PhD’ are digging in for a protracted lockout. Romanstein needs the stoppage to last a long time because he’ll never get another job in music once it’s over. And here’s one reason why.

The violinist Emily E. Hogstad, who provided brilliant insights into the Minnesota dispute in its time, has been reading the balance sheets of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. What she has come up with is a couple of nuggets of pure gold (you might use an earthier noun when you’ve read her discoveries here).

Emily reports that two years ago – the last time ‘Dr’ Romanstein ransacked the musicians’ pay packets and threatened their jobs, the president was awarded a $45,000 bonus by a grateful board. That is money you might think would have been better spent building a stronger orchestra. You might think that; we couldn’t possibly comment.

But Romanstein’s reward is Jimmy Carter peanuts when set beside the annual bonus paid to his predecessor, Alison Vulgamore – a bonus of $169,101 on top of her annual salary, bringing her total take-home to $600,000.

And this was paid to her at a time the orchestra was running a deficit the size of a small oil well.

Alison hightailed it soon after to Philadelphia, leaving behind a black hole and a grim tradition of giving undeserved rewards to failed executives. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is in a helluva mess. None of it is the fault of the musicians, who are being made to pay.

And there’s no sign the ridiculous ‘doctor’ plans to take any of his own medicine in cuts and sutures.

A producer friend who does not usually hype his own work asked me to listen to a recent release. It’s a set of Fauré’s Requiem, preceded by eight Fauré songs that were orchestrated for the occasion by the conductor John Lubbock. So I listened.

And was overwhelmed.

But here’s the catch: the record is not being reviewed because it is an own-label release by a fringe ensemble, the Orchestra of St John’s Smith’s Square.

For the same reason, it is not getting played on Classic FM or BBC Radio 3.

Or shipped abroad. Or promoted anywhere.

If it weren’t for Slipped Disc, you’d never get to hear about it, or to access one of its tracks.

Sit back, click and be ravished.

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The BBC has – for reasons that will be clarified here at a later date – postponed the repeat of my three-part series, Music and the Jews.

But the series is taking on a separate life of its own.

On Sunday 21st, I am doing a live talk on the relationship between music and the Jews, illustrated with recordings and a fabulous young chorus. It’s at JW3 in Hampstead.

Be there if you can.

music and the jews

Book online here.

Just in:

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New York, NY–Tuesday, September 9, 2014The musicians of the Met Orchestra and their union, the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, announced that they have voted to ratify a new labor agreement with the Metropolitan Opera.

“Throughout this process, the musicians continued to believe that opera is alive and well here in New York City, and that with proper fiscal management, it is possible for the Met to present innovative grand opera and continue to attract and retain the top musicians in the world,” said Local 802 AFM President Tino Gagliardi. “We are proud to have helped craft an agreement that is unprecedented among arts institutions, one that allows for financial oversight and includes a mechanism for artists to collaborate in finding meaningful efficiencies. We are thankful to all those elected officials, fans, friends and colleagues who stood beside us during this process, and are eager to work on ensuring a sustainable future at the Met.” 

“No one is more concerned with the Met’s future than the musicians, choristers and craftspeople whose livelihoods depend on the Met’s survival and who are responsible for every aspect of the audience member’s experience when they come to the Met,” saidJessica Phillips Rieske, clarinetist and chair of the MET Orchestra committee. “We are thrilled that our season has been saved, and that we can get back to doing what we do best, which is to make the music come alive. We are dedicated to working collaboratively with management to find ways to achieve efficiencies that will result in real cost savings for the Met while maintaining the artistic excellence that we strive for and which our fans have come to expect from us. We are so grateful to everyone who support

The annual statistics are in for 201213, and Wagner is … nowhere.

The most watched opera was:

Mozart, Magic Flute, with 479 performances of 40 productions, seen by  247,432 spectators.

 

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In second place: Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel, 268 shows, 35 production, 169,274 watched.

Third is Johann Strauss, Die Fledermaus, 246 performances, 24 productions, 155,435 visitors.

Fourth was Rossini, Barber of Seville. Fifth was Mozart Don Giovanni. Sixth La Traviata.

And only after that comes Wagner, with Flying Dutchman.

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Source here.

The jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler is in trouble. Aged 84, he and his wife Doreen are in poor health, unable to play and clean out of funds.

A benefit concert has been given in North London, where Kenny made his name on arrival from Canada in 1952. More are being planned in Canada.

kenny-wheeler

Wheeler’s pianist John Taylor, writes: “Kenny is at present living in a nursing home in Essex. He’s been there now for about three months. His presence there was necessitated because his wife Doreen was seriously ill and hospitalised. She is recovering now but will need a heart operation soon. I last saw Kenny a few weeks ago. He was well and in fairly good spirits but he has limited mobility and needs full-time care.”

There is a Paypal account for those who wish to contribute privately to this important and influential composer and performer.

The email address is: friendsofkennywheeler@gmail.com.

Share, and spread the word.

In an open-access interview with our partners, Hello Stage, the violinist Julian Rachlin recommends up-and-coming players to avoid entering competitions. ‘I don’t like the idea of one person competing against another in music. It’s not a sport… Many musicians don’t like this system. Certain students are being pushed by the jury system, in a very unfair way.’

So how to get started? ‘Try to play to important conductors, when you are ready…. A real talent will always find a way. Don’t get stressed about it.’

Click at 19:00 on the video. Apologies for the boxy sound.

julian rachlin

In the tercentenary year of the death of Jean-Philippe Rameau, the composer’s native town of Dijon has decided to get rid of its orchestra.

The mayor, refusing to cough up 330,000 Euros that would have saved l’Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne,  said: ‘this town is not a cash machine’.

He’s right. It’s nothing without Rameau (and mustard).

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The Atlanta Symphony has avoided calling its suspension of the musicians a lockout. in public. Their PR smoothies have advised agaist it.

But the L-word appears in its general business communications. See below.

atlanta symphony orch

 

 

Dear Applicant for the Atlanta Symphony Principal Bass audition,

 

As you may have heard, the Atlanta Symphony is currently without a Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the musicians are locked out. While we sincerely hope that this situation will not take very long to resolve, our Music Director feels that the fairest thing to do for all concerned is to postpone our audition until we have our orchestra back at work and ready to focus on holding successful auditions. We regret the disruption to your plans, and appreciate your patience as we work through our internal issues. If the labor dispute is resolved quickly, you will be notified of a new audition date directly by email. In the unfortunate event that it lasts more than a month, we will re-submit an ad to the International Musician, and start the process over from the beginning.

 

 

Russell Williamson

Director of Orchestra Personnel and Operations

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

London’s South Bank Centre is so proud that one of its orchestras has commissioned a new concerto it failed to notice the composer’s gender. This, you should know, is Stevie Wishart.

stevie wishart

This is the South Bank’s press release. Sample: At the centre of this concert is a brand new piece by the acclaimed composer Stevie Wishart. His track record encompasses both early music and cutting-edge electronics.

This is the esteemed soloist.

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Jean-Marie Zeitouni, artistic director of I Musici di Montreal, has been named music director in Boulder, Colorado, succeeding Michael Christie who served 13 years.

Zeitouni, 38, won the job over two other contestants in a baton shoot-out.

Press release here.

zietouni