A couple of weeks back, we received a press release of a link-up between a Chicago classical station and one in Shanghai.  Nice idea: it will be the first time that concerts by leading US orchs will be heard regularly on radio in China, and vice versa.

This is very much a sign of the times.

The NY Phil’s player/teacher exchange with the Shanghai Symphony goes live this summer. Trips by other US orchs are no longer diplomatic showpieces but genuine educational interactions with Chinese musicians and audiences. There are some signs of Chinese traditional music finding a foothold in the US.

Ronald Sadoff of New York University tells Chinese media: ‘There is a genuine cultural interchange here, but it appears to transpire as a two-way street, with Chinese classical music coming this way and Western music going that way.’

All of this is much to be applauded – except in Europe, where multiple orchestral tours have led to no significant involvement. Europe lags far behind the leading US orchs in China, and it may be too late to catch up.

In Milan on May 1, a new production of Turandot will mark Riccardo Chailly’s first performance as principal conductor at La Scala.

In Berlin two weeks later, a new music director will be announced by the Philharmonic. Chailly is among the favourites.

If you missed it first time round, watch my recent conversation with Riccardo right here.

The largest-ever study of musical training and brain development is said to support a theory that learning an instrument, especially the violin, can reduce mental illness in young children more effectively than medication.

The report, by a teams of psychatrists at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, is based on a national database of 232 brain scans of children aged six to 18.

The findings support a hypothesis by lead author James Hudziak that music practice affects  a layer of the brain associated with anxiety, depression and aggression.

Noting that three-quarters of U.S. high school students ‘rarely or never’ take extracurricular music and art lessons, the report warns:  ‘Such statistics, when taken in the context of our present neuroimaging results, underscore the vital importance of finding new and innovative ways to make music training more widely available to youths, beginning in childhood.’

President Putin’s merry lads and friendly generals would like to wish you a happy 2015.

The Red Army Choir, founded on Stalin’s orders in 1939, is an official ensemble of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation.
Enjoy.

Lyndon Terracini, hyper-sensitive artistic director of Opera Australia, has told two women writers that they are persona non grata at his opera house.

Harriet Cunningham of the Sydney Morning Herald, received this email from a media flak:

Hi Harriet

Lyndon is very offended following your article earlier this week – I’m sure this comes as no great surprise. So no, I’m afraid we’re not able to offer you any further comp tickets.

Diana Simmonds of StageNoise was told:  In response to some of your recent writing about the company, Lyndon asked that you be removed from the media list.

Who’s next?

The Vienna Philharmonic have announced Mariss Jansons as conductor of their next New Yea’r Day concert.

I will ask him personally, as I have asked others in years past, to request that the ensemble fields at least ten women in the concert. He will smile, and sweetly equivocate. Nothing will change.

Conductors are supposed to have an influence on the musical process. Some of them do. In this instance, they become besotted by the ‘tradition’ of the occasion and become mere time-keepers and masters of ceremony.

The day a conductor refuses to conduct the Vienna Phil until it ends discrimination will be the day the orchestra begins to grow up.

Who’s first?