Turmoil at the San Luis Obispo Symphony, midway between San Francisco and LA.

Three months ago executive director Edmund Feingold terminated the music director Michael Nowak, who had served for 31 years.

This weekend, the board fired Feingold, who had been in the job for just over a year.

michael nowak

Australia’s star visitors had a rough night in Melbourne, we hear from the musicians.

Magdalena Kozena had to withdraw from the concert at the last minute when her voice went faint and her husband went on stage with a raging temperature. He battled on through the performance, sitting down.

Brett Dean’s new orchestration of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées, was cancelled.

Apparently one of the kids has flu and both parents caught it.

rattle kozena dg

More details as we hear.

 

This from our friend Erica Worth, editor of Pianist magazine.
erica worth

Here’s more.

Here’s one to warm the cockles of our hearts.

Don Liuzzi, principal timpanist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has been conductor of the Philadelphia All-City Orchestra for the past ten years. The players are high school kids from poor areas of the city, mostly Latino and African-American.

Don is about to step down from the podium, handing over to assistant principal bass Joseph Conyers.

A friend tells us: ‘Don’s love for the program and the students has been a constant. To close out his 10-year tenure, Don raised the funds to take the orchestra on an all-paid week-long tour of Italy. Many of the students had never left the country before; some had never been out of the Philadelphia area. A few were unable to obtain passports and could not go. It has been a life-changing experience for many of them.’

philly kids

Read Don’s travel journals here.