Here’s the women’s selection, just announced. Apart from China’s Xianglei Fang, Poland’s Ewa Tracz and Korea’s Eun Kyong Lim, they are almost all home grown. Fair?

tchaik women

UPDATE: Full list.

Litvin, Anna Russia
Pavlova, Natalya Russia
Shishkova, Irina Russia
Tracz, Ewa Poland
Bazargurueva, Ayuna Russia
Gulik, Maria Russia
Teemets, Arete Estonia
Starkova, Tatiana Russia
Fang, Xianglei China
Moskalenko, Svetlana Russia
Kazaryan, Diana Russia
Galoyan, Mane Armenia
Fedorova, Anastasia Russia
Vesenina, Antonina Russia
Ablaeva, Emilia Russia
Dushina, Evgenia Russia
Matochkina, Yulia Russia
Lim, Eun Kyong South Korea
Protasova, Venera Russia
Gaskarova, Gelena Russia

 

Men:

Men
Selivanov, Ilya Russia
Choi, Kidon South Korea
Demidchik, Dmitry Russia
Achmedov, Evgeny Russia
Saduakhassov, Damir Kazakhstan
Bayarsaikhan, Batjargal Mongolia
Ryausov, Victor Russia
Lee, Myonghyun South Korea
Kim, Seungjick South Korea
Hukasian, Harri Ukraine
Wang, Chuanyue China
Yang, Jongsoo South Korea
Petryanik, Yaroslav Russia
Yoo, Hansung South Korea
Agadzhanian, Migran Russia
Rozyev, Ruslan Russia
Nersesyan, Hovhannes Armenia
Li, Ao China
Zaraev, Anton Russia
Suchkov, Konstantin Russia
Kim, Keonwoo South Korea
Choe, Chol Jun North Korea
Chimed, Enkhtaivan Mongolia
Melikhov, Artiom Russia
Lyulkin, Roman Russia
Lee, Kyubong South Korea
Babik, Alexander Russia
Chuluunbaatar, Badral Mongolia
Oyuunchimeg, Khurelbaatar Mongolia
Krutikov, Ivan Russia
Mirzakamalov, Rakhim Usbekistan
Hong, Sung Hwa South Korea
Ayvazyan, Hovhannes Armenia
Evchuk, Yuri Ukraine
Kim, Won South Korea
Grigoriev, Dmitry Russia
Chernetsov, Grigory Russia
Kim, Taeseup South Korea
Ganbaatar, Ariunbaatar Mongolia
Kim, Yohan South Korea

 

The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize Final will be fought out at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on Friday, June 19 at 7.30pm between:

Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Mongolia)

Aviva Fortunata (Canada)

Ilker Arcayurek (Turkey/Austria)

Nadine Koutcher (Belarus)

and Jongmin Park (South Korea).

will perform at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on Friday, June 19 at 7.30pm.

Aviva tweets: So pumped to get to wear another gown in the Song Prize Finals!

aviva fortunata

Prizes at the 9th Aram Khachaturian International Violin Competition went to two pupils of jury members and a third who is taught by the competition chairman’s mother. Here’s a independent account:

According to the contest’s official announcement, 25 violinists representing 17 countries participated in the competition. Five finalists shared main prizes, amongst them: 1. Iva Miletic, Serbia; 2. David Ardukhanyan, Russia/Andrea Obiso, Italy; 3. Pierre Frapier, France/Mariam Vardanyan, Armenia.

Two out of five finalists are the students of jury members: Iva Miletic is Igor Petrushevsky’s student and David Ardukhanyan is Sergey Kravchenko’s. Mariam Vardanyan, the third out of five finalists, is the student of Tatyana Hayrapetyan, Armen Smbatyan’s mother. According to the angry audience, experts, and music lovers who are deeply dissatisfied with the low level of the finalists’ performances, the third prize unfairly awarded to Mariam Vardanyan is Armen Smbatyan’s favour to his mother, while Pierre Frapier’s prize was, in fact, a reimbursement for Armen Smbatyan’s son Sergey Smbatyan’s French Medal of Arts and Letters, received in June, 2015.

Why would any sensible artist take part in such a sham? Read more here.

iva miletic

The good news: donations to culture and the arts were up 9.4% in 2014, to a breath-taking $17.2 billion.

The bad news: Arts and culture came in seventh in the list of recipients of charitable donations.

The #1 cause for donations was, as ever, organised religion …. with $114.9 billion.

avery fisher hall

This masterclass in a Belgian zoo suggests they may have aspirations.

ELEPHANTS-570

At least they don’t act like peacocks.

Pass on the message:

We are sad to report that several of ViolinSchool’s teaching violins have been stolen during a break-in. The instruments, which are used for students attending ViolinSchool’s introductory violin classes, were in a vehicle in Vauxhall, London, and about to be driven back to ViolinSchool’s teaching studio in Victoria, Central London.

The missing instruments, totalling around £500, include a Stentor Conservatoire violin in a green case (with a picture of a panda!), and three Primavera violins in blue cases with ViolinSchool markings inside, each with an assortment of bows and coloured shoulder rest pads.

stolen violin

Details here.

The new principal conductor of the Hague’s Residentie Orkest is…. Nicholas Collon.

The orch is rebranding itself The Hague Philharmonic (er, why?)

Collon will conduct six weeks a year.

nicholas collon

Among the unlikelier causes for a concert cancellation:

hitchcok the birds

The pianist Paul Lewis was felled by a nesting seagull as he emerged at the weekend from the Liverpool Phil. He was knocked down, hurt his hand and headed off to hospital.

We wish Paul a swift recovery.

He is replaced tonight by Finghin Collins, directing and playing Mozart K414 and the Schumann concerto.

Medici.tv have been swamped with online complaints about one of their two Moscow television presenters.

Irina Tushintseva is praised for looking good, sounding knowledgeable and speaking immaculate Russian and English.

Her co-presenter, Eric Dahan, is criticised for wearing rose-tinted glasses, sporting a paunch and making fundamental errors.

‘When did Bono let himself go and why is he presenting # tch15?’ carped one tweeter.

‘I am muting the sound whenever the male host is speaking; I am sorry but he is unbearable! Can someone warn him not to make bad jokes?’ wrote another.

Dahan, a French music critic, specialises in rap and rock.

 

eric-dahan.

 

Matthias Schulz, artistic and finance director of Salzburg’s Mozart Foundation, is to be the next intendant of Berlin’s Sataatsoper.

Schulz, 38, succeeds Jürgen Flimm, who is retiring at 73.

The switch will be officially announced this afternoon.

Schulz is described as a pianist and economist. Barenboim, the music director, will have tested him out on four-hand.

 

Matthias_SchulzNEU1

Among his successful Salzburg initiatives is a Mozarteum residency in Cuba.

Severe back pain has obliged Gustavo Dudamel to cancel concerts for the rest of June in Sweden, with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra where he used to be music director, and in Switzerland with the Zurich Tonhalle.

Zurich music director Lionel Bringuier will take over the latter dates with pianist Yuja Wang (both are managed by Dude’s agent, Mark Newbanks).

dudamel yuja

The sudden withdrawal of Deutsche Post DHL has left advanced plans for a new concert hall in Bonn in tatters. The postal company said there was ‘no public solidarity for the project’ and no obvious benefit for sponsors.

The organising committee, which had persuaded the city to allocate land for the hall and commissioned a David Chipperfield design, described the Post’s withdrawal as ‘a gigantic embarrassment’.

The hall was due to be opened in 2020, on the composer’s 250th birthday. That plan is now dead.

On the plus side, the proposed design was really dull – London’s South Bank, only sleepier.

BDCfestspielhaus-chipperfield-02