More issues at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music:

An article published on Northwestern University’swebsite details a stipend increase for students enrolled in the University’s Graduate School (TGS) this Fall. A considerable increase, TGS stipends will be raised to $29,000 a year from the current $22,992. While this seems to be good news, this increase will not be extended to the graduate students of the Bienen School of Music. As music students we find this news very disheartening. On average, Bienen School of Music graduate stipends are approximately $6,750, an amount that is in no way substantial enough to cover even the most basic living expenses.

Read more here.

bienen school of music

We’re delighted to announce the birth of a baby girl, their first child, to the pianist and harpsichordist Tamar Halperin and her husband, the countertenor Andreas Scholl.

Tamar tells us: ‘For now, let us just reveal that it’s a healthy and very cute baby girl. Other details (her name, favorite composer, instrument, and field of expertise) to come later….’

tamar halperin andreas scholl
(very recent pic)

 

The actor, whose run-up to Hamlet has been hounded by parasitic press hacks, has implored fans not to take pictures inside the theatre. He warned that new devices were being installed that would identify picture takers.

Cumberbatch said: ‘I can’t give you what I want to give you, which is a live performance that you will remember and hopefully in your minds and brains, whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, rather than on your phones. So please don’t…’

He is very well mannered.

Benedict_Cumberbatch_stops_by_Barbican_stage_door_to_ask_fans_not_to_film_Hamlet

Frances Wilson, pianist and teacher, finds the chamber music venue a little too precious. She has twice been ordered to take off her watch.

If, on this exquisite basis, Wigmore patrons were required to leave their pacemakers at the door, the hall would be half empty (or half-dead).

Read here.

Wigmore Hall

We’re used to sopranos missing the mattress in Tosca, but this sounds like incompetence verging on criminal negligence.

Marco Voleri, playing the emperor, was sitting on the throne in Turandot at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago when part of the stage collapsed. He fell a distance of six feet, fracturing his spine. Rushed to hospital, he will undergo surgery in the coming days.

Marco said: ‘The collapse was so sudden that there was nothing I could do to avoid falling; I felt the ground disappearing from under my feet.’

More here from Gramilano.

marco valeri

The concert he was down to conduct tomorrow will be led instead by John Butt. The Edinburgh International Festival did not see fit to post notice of  his cancellation.

Sources in Les Arts Florissants tell Slipped Disc that Christie took offence when EIF refused to meet his fee demand. Very serious offence. He has also cancelled next year’s plans for a production of Rameau’s Platée.

william christie