It’s the fast-rising Mexican, Alondra de la Parra, and she has named the baby, Luciano.
Congratulations all round.
Alondra is the newly appointed music director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia.
Gilles Henry is distraught.
His Lorenzo Storioni violin was last seen in an Autolib electric car returned on October 29 at 12.30 at Courbevoie/Arche/49 station.
The orchestra is offering a reward to the finder. Contact them here.
The pianist has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing where he was harshly treated as a boy. It’s the first Hon. Dr. ever granted by the CCM, a creeping sign of bad western habits.
Greta Bradman, granddaughter of the greatest batsman that ever held willow, is on tour in India – not with the cricket team but with the Australian World Orchestra and Zubin Mehta.
Like her illustrious grandfather, she does things in her own time.
Watch.
From the Oklahoma City Philharmonic:
press release:
Nigel Weatherill FREng, Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) has been appointed Chairman of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, following approval of the recommendation by the Board of Directors of his appointment at the company’s AGM on 2 November.
Professor Weatherill takes the chair from Lorraine Rogers, Director, Royal & Diplomatic Affairs for Jaguar Land Rover, who stepped down at the AGM after nine years’ service to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
The Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, whose alliance with chief exec Clive Gillinson at Carnegie Hall provoked the resignation of chairman Ron Perelman, has run into trouble at the University of Oxford.
The Guardian newspaper will tomorrow publish a protest by academics and Russian dissidents, calling on the university to stop work on the Blavatnik School of Government, by which it is ‘selling its reputation and prestige to Putin’s associates.’ The letter says Blavatnik belongs to ‘a consortium of Russian billionaires called Access-Alfa-Renova (AAR)’ which engages in harassment against western companies and anti-Putin individuals.
No evidence is brought in the letter to implicate Blavatnik in such activities. From the little we know, he seems to be a fairly benign oligarch, far less involved in pro-Putin activities than several prominent musicians and City bankers.
Universities, on the whole, are not choosy when someone offers them a few million. The letter is unlikely to have much effect.
Last week, Alan Gilbert took up a bet from Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony over which city would win the World Series. He lost. There’s a consignment of bagels and lox on its way to KC.
And much crow being eaten in Manhattan.
Gilbert concedes defeat below.
From my Album of the Week on sinfinimusic.com:
In the aftermath of the Chopin Competition, which takes place every five years, it’s hard to remember that the composer wrote for anything other than solo piano – two concertos excepted. The little cello-piano pieces of the great Pole don’t get heard often enough and this performance is pure pleasure.
Read full review here.
The pianist has issued a statement on his Chinese weibo account regretting his memory lapse in a Chopin concerto, played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Korea. The failure provoked a social-media storm in Asia.
Yundi writes:
‘I apologize for our mistakes in the Seoul concert and would like to issue a sincere apology to our fans and friends and thank the conductor and the orchestra for their support and forgiveness.
‘As a pianist, I know that, no matter what, my performance on stage must be perfect. Any kind of explanation is insufficient.
‘Thank you for your comments.’
The trombonist Nat Peck, last survivor of Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Orchestra, has died in England at 90.
After the war, Nat played in several German radio orchestras, married in Paris and finally became an orchestral contractor in London. He leaves a widow and two daughters.
Nat’s the one on the far left
From the press release:
Sunghee Choi (pictured) joined the Orchestra last week (October 26) for its U.S. tour, which included performances in Kansas City, MO; Ann Arbor, MI; and Chapel Hill, NC, with Muti. Before that Choi was a member of the viola section at Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2013–2015. A regular substitute with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Choi appeared as soloist in her native Korea with the Seoul and Sunhwa symphony orchestras.
Youming Chen joins the CSO’s viola section on February 1, 2016, from the Kansas City Symphony, where he has served as associate principal viola since 2013. He is also a member of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, and was principal viola with the Juilliard Orchestra in 2005, the year it made its centennial tour.