Our social affairs editor reports the debut, on February 23 in Belgium, of Mila Elina, daughter of Mischa and Evelyn. We wish much happiness to the whole family.
John Luther Adams, this year’s Pulitzer and Grammy winner, reflects on his change of priorities:
When I was younger, I was a full-time environmental activist. In the 1970s and ’80s I worked for the Wilderness Society, the Alaska Coalition, and the Northern Alaska Environmental Center…. But the time came when I realized that I had to choose between a life as an activist and a life as an artist. In that moment, I decided that someone else could take my place in politics; and no one could make the music I imagined but me. So I took a leap of faith, in the belief that music and art can matter every bit as much as activism and politics. And over the years, as climate change and other global environmental threats have accelerated, and as our political systems have become increasingly dysfunctional, I’ve come to believe that, fundamentally, art matters more than politics.
Read the full, fascinating article here.
Charles Dutoit’s return to Montreal next year has not been universally applauded, reports Arthur Kapitanis in the Gazette. It is being quietly intimated that any musicians who have bad memories can drop out of the concert. Here’s what Arthur writes:
‘I think this will be a great concert and I am very much looking forward to it,’ Stéphane Lévesque, principal bassoon and president of the OSM Musicians’ Committee, said in an email.
Lévesque would not directly confirm rumours that musicians who harbour hard feelings would be given the opportunity to opt out of the concerts.
‘The administration has been supportive of the fact that Charles Dutoit’s return may still be a difficult topic for some,’ he said. ‘We are discussing with management how to best accommodate and be supportive to our colleagues.’
It is a measure of the sensitivity of the matter that the Musicians’ Committee has instructed players not to talk to the press.
Probably won’t impact on soloist fees, but might be accommodated in Suzuki teaching.
Read more about Ro-bow here.
The UK Government is claiming a breakthrough in winning the first Chinese sponsorship for a British arts company. It’s worth half a million pounds over five years and it’s between Wuliangye Yibin Company, makers of a rice liquor, and the Philharmonia Orchestra, who don’t mind a drink.
Liu Zhongguo, chairman of Wuliangye, said at a Downing Street reception: ‘This historic collaboration will integrate one of China’s premier beverage brands with classical Western music and we hope the sponsorship will inspire people to enjoy the harmonious balance of drinking fabulous alcohol while listening to world-class classical music. We look forward to strengthening the understanding and recognition between Eastern and Western culture for both the Chinese and British, and the great revitalization of the arts that this will bring.’
David Whelton, the Philharmonia’s managing director, is quoted in Chinese media saying: ‘ With the help of our orchestra, Wuliangye will get Royal favour and enter the UK market, and the global market.’ The Philharmonia’s patron is HRH Prince Charles. In Wuliangye’s press campaign in China, Prince Charles is mentioned several times as the ‘one who invited the chairman of Wuliangye to UK’.
The composer’s son fled the Soviet Union in 1981, in what he describes as the ‘era of stagnation’. He has told Russian interviewer that he wanted to tell the truth about his father and make a political protest.
But he has moved back now. ‘I want my children to grow up in Russia, to feel like real Russians. Even in America, I lived next door to a Russian Orthodox monastery. When we moved to St. Petersburg, there were no schools that were right for our children. So my wife, Marina, created her own school at the Church of St. Catherine… Much of my father is here, in St Petersburg.’
Full interview (in Russian) here.
photo: NYPL, 1938
The BBC has announced 20 contestants for this summer’s televised singathon.
Among them are three South Koreans, three Americans, two from Belarus and one each for a dozen other nations.
A Swansea soprano, Céline Forrest, is included by virtue of winning the Welsh Singers Competition.
No contestant made the cut from any other part of the United Kingdom at eight international auditions.
Imagine the Tchaikovsky Competition without Russians?
BBC. National broadcaster. Plot. Lost.
Yundi Li, who has far more followers on Chinese social media than any other pianist we can think of, has cancelled all engagements until July.
We understand that his father is undergoing major surgery and Yundi, 32, wants to be around until he is on the road to recovery.
Just another reason why some of us prefer Yundi to other brands.
The government of New South Wales has decided to sink a fortune into ‘renewing’ the concert hall inside Sydney Opera House.
Bad move.
The concert hall has never been great from the day it opened, and never will. London has squandered hundreds of millions on two bad halls, the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican, achieving no more than marginal acoustic improvements.
Sydney should learn from these mistakes.
press release:
Statement from Sydney Symphony Orchestra Managing Director, Rory Jeffes:
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra applauds the New South Wales Government on its decision to renew the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra welcomes today’s announcement by the NSW Government to invest $202 million towards the renewal of the Sydney Opera House and specifically its largest theatre, the Concert Hall.
Since the Sydney Opera House opened in 1973, the SSO has been the building’s resident orchestra performing more than 200 concerts each year in the concert hall to over 200,000 people.
We applaud the vision demonstrated by the NSW Government through this announcement in wishing to make Sydney a major centre for the Arts in the Asia-Pacific region. Having toured across China and Asia multiple times and witnessed the calibre of the performing arts venues across the Asia-Pacific, the SSO knows what a vital piece of work this is for NSW in order for our state to remain culturally competitive.
Not only will the revitalisation of the Concert Hall have a major impact on the arts community in NSW and Australia, but it will have positive repercussions for the economy of NSW, leading to a growth in tourism and audience engagement. Such a critical piece of infrastructure development deserves cross-party support and we trust that regardless of the outcome of the March NSW state election, this initiative will indeed come to fruition.
When former SSO chief conductor Eugene Goossens spoke in the 1940s of the need for Sydney to have a world-class concert hall, he dreamed of the Sydney Opera House. He wished to see a venue created for music, and for the people, an ambition which included a concert hall with perfect acoustics for his beloved Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It is my hope that Mr Goossens’ vision will now be achieved through today’s announcement.
It’s the centenary year of Haakon Stotijn (11-02-1915 – 03-11-1964), principal oboist of the Concertgebouw orchestra from 1940 to his early death. His father Jaap was principal oboe in The Hague. The Stotijns set the tone across the Netherlands.
Haakon’s son, Marc, is building a website to their achievements. See it here.
Musicians of the Met orchestra are getting out more and more on their website.
We particularly liked this dinner interview with one of their conductors, Pablo Heras-Cassado, a man seemingly without pretensions. Asked why he doesn’t use a baton, he gives a straight answer:
‘I am left-handed. I tried holding the baton with the right, then the left, but neither was me. So I said, forget it. If I am not myself, what is the point of being on the podium?’
Read the full interview here.
