Statistics for the first ten days, released exclusively to Slipped Disc, show considerable impact for medici.tv’s live streaming.

Over that period, there have been 3.5 million views across more than 160 countries.

On social media, there have been 420,00 actions and 160,000 additional video views.

All this, without a single controversy or headline-grabbing event.

Let’s see what happens next.

UPDATE: 6 million views up to 29 June, and rising.

The great Russian baritone has just issued the following statement on his website:

It is with great regret that Dmitri must cancel all performances from now until the end of August. He has recently been suffering from serious health issues, and a brain tumor has just been diagnosed. Although his voice and vocal condition are normal, his sense of balance has been severely affected. Dmitri will begin treatment this week and remains very optimistic for the future.

We wish Dmitri a full recovery.

Winner of the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World, Dmitri has gone on to sing at all major opera houses. In Russia he commands the highest fees of any recitalist, while steering clear of paying homage to the Putin regime. Dmitri, 52, is one of the most popular singers among his colleagues. 

This is a supposedly objective list, based on the following criteria:

Teaching Quality / Professor Ratings (10%)

Staff / Student Ratio (15%)

Median Salary of Graduates (10%)

SAT / ACT Test Scores (15%)

Graduation Rate Performance (10%)

Undergraduate Academic Reputation (20%)

Student Selectivity (5%)

Alumni (5%) Academic (Undergraduate) / Research (Graduate) Performance (5%) G-factor (5%).

It gives the following as the ‘best’ music colleges for 2015:

1 Eastman          Rochester

2 Juilliard           New York

2nd best

3 NEC                  Boston

4 Oberlin             Ohio

5 Curtis                Philadelphia

6 IU                      Bloomington

7 U Mich             Ann Arbor

More here.

We are saddened to learn of the death today of Marina Veniaminova Wolf, aged 87.

Her students in St Petersburg included Stanislav Igolinsky, Pavel Yegorov, Grigory Gruzman, Polina Osetinskaya, Alexandre Pirojenko, Eduard Kiprsky and Rustam Muradov.

We hear from Verona that Julian Kovatchev, music director in Lucca, collapsed with a heart attack last night during a rehearsal at the Arena.

An emergency team administered CPR and intubated the maestro on the stage before rushing him to hospital, where he lies in an induced coma.

Kovatchev, 55, a Bulgarian, is a busy international conductor. He recently underwent heart surgery during a tour in South Korea. We pray for his recovery.

Two months ago Nicholas Carter, 29, became the first Australian-born chief conductor of a local orchestra in three decades.  He has now landed international management with Askonas Holt.

Also joining Holt is  Stanislav Kochanovsky, a Gergiev protégé from St Pete.

Clemens Schuldt is described by his agent as ‘one of the most exciting young conductors emerging from Germany’.

After that, his official website bio goes into gobbledygook.

– Hey what the assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for one year…

– He is Conducting investigation orchestras as the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin…

– Born in Bremen, Clemens Schuldt of studied violin at the Robert Schumann Hochschule…

Oh, dear. They ust assume no-one reads the rubbish that agents put out.

Read here.

UPDATE: The maestro got one. We’ve heard from KDSchmid, who have updated Clemens’s site. They suggest it might have been hacked. New, cleaned-up site here.

There are virtually no audio recordings of the incoming Berlin Philharmonic chief, and such video as exists is mostly opera.

Happily, Alexandros Rigas has come up with this 2004 Berlin performance of Mahler’s 4th symphony – not the Berlin Philharmonic, but a beautifully phrased and delicately shaped interpretation. Mischa Horenstein has just posted it on Youtube. Hear what all the fuss is about here:

Albert Evans, a principal dancer at New York City Ballet until his retirement in 2010, has died in hospital, the company has announced.

Evans was one of only two African-American principal dancers in NYCB’s history.

Deborah Rutter has appointed Robert van Leer as Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., completing her top team.

Robert was head of music at London’s Barbican Centre for 15 years, managing a £6 million budget.

A joint US-Dutch national, he went on to become managing director of the Nederlands Dans Theater in The Hague in August 2011, before turning into an arts consultant. Kennedy desperately needs new creative thinking. Let’s hope’s he brings it.

press release:

(WASHINGTON)—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced Robert van Leer as Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning. The newly created and key artistic position will supervise a large team of creative artistic administrators, and will provide cross-organizational focus, collaboration, and inspiration to the Center’s interdisciplinary programming. Van Leer’s purview will include management of seven senior programming staff from various disciplines, as well as coordination with the artistic planning of the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera. Among several recent senior-level hires, this position completes Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter’s senior management team.

“As the nation’s performing arts center, I believe it is fundamentally important that the Kennedy Center exemplifies and champions a cohesive, powerful message on the role of the performing arts in our society,” commented Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter. “Robert brings a wealth of multidisciplinary arts experience and creative leadership to the table, and I am excited to partner with him and our creative curatorial team of administrators and artistic leaders to shape an artistic vision for the Center in the years to come. His commitment and innovative approach to the artistic endeavor will build and expand on our mission to provide innovative programming that reflects the core of John F. Kennedy’s legacy.”  

Four months ago, the Royal Academy of Music in London scrapped a valuable course in mental training by Professor Inger Murray. The Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova led the outcry and Slipped Disc took up the cause.

Today, Ksenija tells us:

I am very happy to report that Inger will continue her Mental Training for Musicians workshops at the RAM. And it has been upgraded to be more part of the main stream Academy work.

A secretary will arrange the workshops and liaise with Dept. Heads and Professors. I am very happy. The concept Inger has developed is brilliant and will continue to help musicians to be able to realize their full potential on the concert platform. Her book has received wonderful reviews in Denmark and is widely used. The English language version is being translated now and should be available in approximately three months’ time.

Earlier this week, we reported the the Van Cliburn competition had lost a juror because the US authorities were unable to issue visas due to a computer crash.

Now, our colleague Lawrence Johnson learns that four British singers have had to pull out of Chicago’s  Grant Park Music Festival for exactly the same reason.

The UK4 – David James, Steven Harrold, Mark Dobell and Eamonn Dougan – had been due to perform James MacMillan’s Quickening this weekend. Grant Park is scrambling up replacements. Read Larry’s report here.

The visa crash won’t be fixed for next week, at the earliest.