Sting and his wife Trudie are having a  house clearance in London. Lots of fine art. And the family grand. Story here by Mark Beech.

sting steinway

Jon Limbacher, head fund-raiser at the Cleveland Orchestra, is the new president of Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He replaces Bruce Coppock who yesterday announced his retirement.

Jon, who has been with Cleveland since 1991 in varied roles, has been the orch’s Chief Development Officer for the past four years.

He is the latest of a stream of Clevies who have been headhunted by wannabees. Both Atlanta and Chicago have recently raided Cleveland cookie jar for exec talent.

His departure marks a further team transition, ahead of Gary Hanson’s imminent retirement from the orch.

limbacher_main

 

We regret to report the death of John Adie, co-founder with his wife Penny of the wonderful Two Moors Festival in the west of England. John, who was 69, died two days after this year’s festival ended.

John and Penny founded the festival in 2001 when their region was dotted with funeral mounds of cattle, slaughtered during a foot-and-mouth epidemic, and farmers were taking their own lives in despair.

Over the years he raised £1.5 million for music ansd gave countless young artists the opportunity to cultivate a new audience.

Born into an army family in India, John had a military career until 1984.. Three years later, he purchased an old farm on Exmoor and turned it into a family business. He was also a talented painter.

Our condolences to Penny and their three daughters.

john adie

Marek Janowski has resigned from today as artistic director and chief conductor of the Berlin radio symphony orchestra ( Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB)). He was expected to continue in office to the end of the season.

Janowski, 76, says he has decided to step down to make a ‘swift and smooth transition’ to his successor, Vladimir Jurowski, who is due to take over in 2017. Until the end of this season, Janowski will conduct all his scheduled concerts.

marek janowski

Daniel Hope had his resin confisacted on leaving Shanghai earlier this month.

Cellist Trey Lee and another string player from Hong Kong suffered a similar experience on leaving the same airport. Every string player carries resin for bow maintenance.

The restrictions  appear to be enforced at the moment only in Shanghai and Guangzhou. But under 2015 China rules resin is considered a potentially explosive substance. The advice is: do not carry resin in your hand luggage, until further notice.

Daniel_Hope_MAIN_PHOTO_credit__Harald_Hoffmann_2

 

 

Thanks to Rudolph Tang for the research.

The diva called off last night’s concert at a few hours notice with a heavy cold.

Ms Bartoli issued the following statement:

‘I feel sad and disappointed to give up this concert, which was so important to me.  I have been hoping until the last moment to be able to sing tonight. I thank all those who bought tickets and were waiting for this evening. Mr Pereira and I are looking for a new date to reschedule the concert as soon as possible.’

La Scala arranged for a concert to go ahead with her accompanying ensemble, I Barocchisti and Diego Fasolis, but refunds were offered to those who requested.

Details from Graham Spicer at Gramilano.

Cecilia+Bartoli+tophat

The Brazilian media are reporting that Roberto Minczuk’s contract as principal conduct0r of the Brazil Symphony Orchestra (OSB) has ended. He will be known as conductor emeritus and a successor will be announced next year.

Minczuk aroused international attention four years ago when he dismissed 33 players from the orchestra and called international auditions to replace them.

The auditions were subjected to a boycott and Minczuk had to back down, but his authority was shaken and the OSB has never fulfilled its promise.

minczuk

 

The Long-Thibaud-Crespin competition ended a few minutes ago with a shock result.

The jury, led by Stephen Kovacevich, withheld first prize.

The secon prize went to Julian Trevelyan, a 16 year-old English pianist.

Julian also won best concerto awarrd for his Bartok 3rd.

That young man is going up in the world (and you read it here first).

julian trevelyan

Full results:

Premier Grand Prix-Groupe Casino 25 000 €
(non décerné)

Deuxième Grand Prix-Marguerite Long 12 000 €
Julian Trevelyan, 16 ans (Royaume-Uni)

Troisième Grand Prix-Ville de Nîmes 6 000 €
Kaoru Jitsukawa, 26 ans (Japon)

Quatrième Prix-Groupe Henner 4 000 €
Joo Hyeon Park, 27 ans (Corée du sud)

Cinquième Prix « Albert Roussel » décerné par l’amicale de l’Ecole normale
de musique de Paris 3 000 €
Madoka Fukami, 27 ans (Japon)

Sixième Prix-Marguerite Long 2 000
Daria Kiseleva, 26 ans (Russie)

 

PRIX SPECIAUX

Prix de SAS Albert II de Monaco (pour la meilleure interprétation du concerto) 6 100 €
Julian Trevelyan

Prix de la Sacem (pour la meilleure interprétation de l’œuvre commandée par le concours) 3 000 €
Kaoru Jitsukawa

Prix de l’Association des amis du concours (pour la meilleure interprétation du récital) 3 000 €
Kaoru Jitsukawa

Prix Fondation Ravel (pour la meilleure interprétation d’une œuvre de Ravel) 6 000 €
Madoka Fukami

The Lucerne Festival has announced a summer of at least nine women conductors. Rub your eyes, it is the dawning of an age of equality.

Or is it?

The headline act is the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by the French baroque leader Emmanuelle Haim. That’s gesture politics. The Vienna Phil are working overtime to annul their anti-women image. There are still fewer than 10 women players in the orchestra.

emmanuelle haim

The rest?

The conductors will include Marin Alsop (with the Sao Paulo Symphony Ochestra), Susanna Mälkki, Elim Chan and Barbara Hannigan.

 

So far, so obvious. The remainder are women working their way up the system: Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Anu Tali, Maria Schneider, and Konstantia Gourzi.

It looks tremendously exciting and it could be a game-changer.

Except that it’s happening in Lucerne, in front of the world’s wealthiest audience paying the highest ticket prices and assuring one another that nothing will ever change.

Great idea, maybe in the wrong place.

UPDATE: One of the conductors has objected privately to the marketing concept.

The supreme court in Turkey yesterday annulled the conviction of Fazil Say for ‘insulting’ God and Islam. The court voted 4-1 that Fazil’s tweets should be regarded as freedom of thought and expression and should not be punished with 10 months in jail. Fazil’s original sentence provoked an international outcry.

fazil-say

After the decision, Fazil popped up in Paris to receive the international secularism prize from the Mayor of Paris.

Fazil said: ‘Secularism is a concept identified with the Republic [of Turkey] founded by the courageous leader [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk, in my home country, Turkey. It stood as an upper justice, which has given freedom to a range of philosophical approaches ensuring equal rights to its people dispersed under different beliefs and ethnic origins, both to believers and non-believers, aiming at taking part in the international scene competition in science, arts, sports and many others. However, as you all know, this state of Turkey has been dragged to a tragic change.’

It’s the World Series showdown.

KC music director Michael Stern has flung down a challenge to Alan Gilbert and the NY Phil.

Place your bets now.

Oh, a picture from the KC Royals subs bench.

joyce didonato kansas

 

It costs $65.

It’s called progress.

It’s horrible.

3d violin