The Malko Competition jury has halved last night’s dozen to just six. Here are the survivors:
Giedre Slekyte (Lithuania)
Stilian Kirov (Bulgaria)
Risto Joost (Estonia)
David Niemann (Germany)
Jesko Sirvend (Germany)
Tung-Chieh Chuang (Taiwan)
The Malko Competition jury has halved last night’s dozen to just six. Here are the survivors:
Giedre Slekyte (Lithuania)
Stilian Kirov (Bulgaria)
Risto Joost (Estonia)
David Niemann (Germany)
Jesko Sirvend (Germany)
Tung-Chieh Chuang (Taiwan)
When the New York Philharmonic awarded its front seat to a guy there was a general shrug and a sigh: that’s how things are, right?
But during the interregnum since Glenn Dicterow’s retirement, the orchestra has been very capably led by Sheryl Staples and the Philharmonic has two further associate concertmasters in Michelle Kim and Carole Webb. These days, you are almost more likely to see New York Phil with a woman leading than a man.
Elsewhere, Nurit Bar-Josef (above, right) is concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra and four more women concertmasters have been appointed around the country since 1988 when Emmanuelle Boisvert became the first, in Detroit. In Minnesota, the concertmaster recently married the music director. Still, the situation is patchy and five concertmasters is not that many in a pack of 250 orchestras. (UPDATE: see below: there are more, many more).
In Europe, the distribution is northerly – more women concertmasters in Scandinavia, few in Austro-Germany.
Maybe we should start a list.
Send in details of concertmasters or acting concertmasters of symphony orchs, wherever you are.
We’ll exclude chamber orchs for the time being. Bear in mind, too, that many German orchs have three or four concertmasters, greatly increasing equal opportunities.
*
Here goes:
North America (from north to south):
Diana Cohen, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
Gwen Hoebig, Winnipeg
Bénédicte Lauzière, recently appointed concertmaster of Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Ontario.
Yukari Cousineau, l’Orchestre metropolitain in Montreal
Yoonshin Song is the new concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Juliana Athayde, Rochester
Susie Park, Kalamazoo
Holly Mulcahy, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera
Robin Mayforth, Symphony Silicon Valley
Terrie Baune and Dawn Harms, co-concertmasters, Oakland East Bay Symphony (northern California)
Erin Keefe, Minnesota Orchestra
Nurit Bar-Josef, National Symphony Orchestra
Ruth Lenz, Reno Philharmonic
Stephanie Sant Ambrogio, Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jessica Mathaes, Austin Symphony.
Suzanne Jacobson, Temple (TX) Symphony
Carolyn Richards-Chacon, Austin Civic Orchestra
Annamaria Karacsony, Colorado Mahlerfest Orchestra.
Denise Tarrant, Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet
Jessica Tong, Evansville Philharmonic
Susanna Perry Gilmore, concertmaster of the Omaha, Nebraska Symphony
Jill Levy of the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra
Sarah Kwak at the Oregon Symphony.
Yumi Hwang-Williams, Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver
Dawn Gingrich, Orchestra Iowa
South America
Lucia Luque, Córdoba Symphony Orchestra (Argentina).
Europe
Anna Gebert is concertmaster in Trondheim, Norway.
Melina Mandozzi , Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Norway
Elise Båtnes at the Oslo Philharmonic
Camilla Kjøll and Catharina Chen, Oslo Opera orchestra
Maaria Leino, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Finland
Malin Broman, Swedish Radio SO, Stockholm
Jannica Gustafsson and Tale Olsson, Stockholm Opera orchestra
Øyvor Volle, Gøteborgs Opera
Sara Trobäck, Gøteborgs SO
Marika Fältskog, Malmö Symphony Orchestra
Yana Deshkova Aalborg Symphony
Christina Åstrand and Soo-Jin Hong Copenhagen Radio, Denmark
Sigrún Eðvaldsdóttir, Iceland SO
Sabine Vivian-Höpker at Nordwestdeutche Philharmonie, Germany
Dora Bratchkova and Margarete Adorf, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken
Kathrin Rabus at NDR Hannover
Ursula Berg in the Gürzenich orchestra, Cologne
Natalie Kundirenko, Göttinger Symphonie Orchester
Anna Rezniak, Nürnberger Symphoniker
Mila Georgieva and Natalie Chee, co-concertmasters of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Yun-Jin Cho, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Heike Janicke, Dalia Schmalenberg, Eva Dollfuß, Dresdner Philharmonie
Juliane Winkler, Staatskapelle Berlin
Odette Couch, Munich Philharmonic
Alexandra Psareva, Ruxandra Klein, Marietta Kratz & Brigitte Lang, NDR Sinfonieorchester
Friederike Starkloff, NDR Radiophilharmonie
Naoko Ogihara, Susanne Richard & Ye Wu; WDR Sinfonieorchester
Barbara Kink; hr-Sinfonieorchester, Frankfurt
Franziska Früh; Düsseldorfer Symphoniker / Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Barbara Burgdorf; Bayerisches Staatsorchester
Judith Eisenhofer, Annegret Knoop, Claudia Ander-Donath, co-leaders at Thüringen, Gera/Altenburg
Albena Danailova, one of four concertmasters at the Vienna Philharmonic, is presently in maternity leave with her second child.
Bettina Gradinger, Vesna Stankovic-Moffat, Anne Harvey-Nagel at Vienna Volksoper
Lieke te Winkel, Tonkünstler Orchester
Yukiko Imazato-Härtl and Fuyu Iwaki, Graz Philharmonic
Marianne Riehle, Monika Kammerlander, Mozarteum Salzburg
Monika Schuhmayer, Vorarlberg Sinfonieorchester
Geneviève Laurenceau Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse
Charlotte Juillard, Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Dorota Anderszewska Orchestre National de Montpellier
Sarah Nemtanu, Orchestre National de France (her sister, Deborah, leads a chamber orch)
Jennifer Gilbert, sister of Alan Gilbert, is concertmaster of Orchestre National de Lyon.
Vera Novakova, first concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice
Ann-Estelle Médouze of L’Orchestre National d’Ile de France
Carla Leurs, Nederlands Sinfonieorkest
Elisabeth Perry & Nadia Wijzenbeek, both Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Olga Martinova, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Cécile Huijnen, Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra
Lisanne Soeterbroek, Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (Belgium)
Wioletta Zabek, Concertmaster of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon in Valladolid since 1991.
Lisa Schatzman and Ina Dimitrova, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland
Anna Weinmeister, Zurich Opera
Julia Becker, Tonhalle Zurich
Lynn Fletcher, Halle orchestra, Manchester
Clio Gould, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London
Janice Graham, English National Orchestra
Lesley Hatfeild, BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thelma Handy, joint leader Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Helena Wood (with co-leader Elaine Clark) – RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Mia Cooper – RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Russia
Lyudmila Tchaikovskaya, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Tatiana Porshneva, Russian National Orchestra
Alexandra Zhavoronkova, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra
Elena Reznichenko, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia
Olga Dzerzhinskaya, New Russia State Symphony Orchestra
Africa
Joanna Frankel serves as Concertmaster of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, South Africa.
Middle East
Jenny Hunigen and Geana Gandelman, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
We have been speed-reading an early copy of the tell-all book by the former head of the Lincoln Center.
In They Told Me Not to Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy praises Peter Gelb’s initial courage and vision in renewing the Met repertoire and pushing its movie drive. But he depicts Gelb as financially reckless and his board as unwieldy and irresponsible.
‘Was anyone pressing Gelb for a major course correction?’ he demands, after spending soared from $215 million to $330 million in ten years. It was, reports the Lincoln Center chief, ‘frustrating to run the risk of being be held accountable for the travails of resident organisations like…. the Metropolitan Opera’.
He pinpoints Gelb’s nemesis to the moment in March 2014 when he told the UK Guardian – not any of the New York press pack who might have challenged him – that the Met faced an ‘existential’ battle. It stood, in fact ‘on the edge of a precipice.’ The calamitous warning was designed to bring the unions to heel under threat of closure and job losses. Instead, it provoked forensic scrutiny of Gelb’s retreat and a management retreat on an epic scale.
Levy asked Gelb in a private meeting what would happen if his schemes did not bring in enough money, or if his strategy failed. ‘It has to work,’ said Gelb. ‘There is no Plan B.’
Levy goes on to say: ‘I know of no successful CEO without a backup plan in the event of failures or shortfalls.’
On the same page, Levy charts the ten-year decline and demise of City Opera on a path the Met now seems to be taking. ‘Why didn’t the Met’s board of trustees demand early on the development of an economic model that held promise of a viable financial future?’ he laments.
They Told Me Not to Take That Job will make grim reading for Peter Gelb and essential reading for all who need to know how not to sail a ship into a storm.
The composer of ‘In C’, arguably the simplest piece of music since scores began, is to be awarded a doctorate by his alma mater, the SanFranCon.
Go, Dr Terry!
Press release: The San Francisco Conservatory of Music will grant Terry Riley, one of America’s most influential living composers and a former Conservatory student, the honorary degree of Doctor of Music at this year’s commencement ceremonies. With his landmark minimalist work In C, Riley pioneered a compositional style that has influenced everything from chamber and orchestral music to rock and roll. An artist who continues to inspire new generations of musicians, Riley was honored at SFCM last January with a concert of premieres written for his 80th birthday and at the recent Switchboard Music Festival with a rendition of In C rewritten as a tribute and performed by numerous Conservatory alumni. Riley will help send off the class of 2015 in ceremonies held at 10:30 a.m. on May 22 in the Conservatory’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall.
President David H. Stull says the Conservatory is privileged to honor Riley as a role model for this year’s graduates. “His work as a composer is clearly extraordinary, but more important is his impact on musicians and the art form itself. The music of our century would be demonstrably different in his absence; this truth is both a rare phenomenon and a monumental achievement, the full measure of which will not be known for generations to come. He is a remarkable individual and we are proud to honor him as an alumnus and friend.”
The Montenegro guitarist Miloš Karadaglić has signed for the US with CAMI, specifically with its boss Jean-Jacques Cesbron, mastermind of the global Lang Lang brand.
This is cool news for Milos, but it’s a dunk in iced water for IMG Artists, which used to look after Milos in the US.
Milos is managed worldwide by Kathryn Enticott, who left IMG eight months ago to go independent. She is at liberty to place him wherever he gets best service.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, 58, will stay chief conductor of the WDR radio orchestra until 2019.
He has been in the job since 2010. Before that he conducted with Finnish radio for 15 years. One of the last radio careers.
One of the players who will be voting on May 11 reckons it’s a four-way election:
1 Thielemann
2 Jansons
3 Kirill Petrenko
4 Ivan Fischer
Take this whispered tip cum grano salis (as Mahler would have said). There are presently more opinions in the orchestra than there are blossoms on a Mandelbaum.
Anther player whispered that they were all going ‘ganz diskret und neutral’ (totally discreet and neutral) into the voting chamber.
Various interested parties have informed us that one of the anti-Kiev pianist’s two Toronto recitals next month has been cancelled by the venue for lack of sales. A screenshot of the cancellation has been put out by pro-Kiev sources. However, it has been blocked by our computers as malware and may well be a propaganda attack.
Lisitsa has not confirmed any such cancellation. So far as we know, the two recitals are still on sale.
The music director issued this short statement:
I am heartbroken for our dear city. With so much need alongside so much possibility, I hope we can use any opportunities we get to set an example and inspire others to join us in trying to change the world.
Photo: recently with my BSO OrchKids with visiting guest artist, Chi-chi Nwanoku.
Last night’s concert was cancelled under curfew. The Baltimore Symphony will give a free concert today (Weds)outside the Meyerhoff at noon ‘in support of our community. It seems we could all use a little music in our lives right about now.’ #BSOPeace