The Sinfonietta concertmaster, James Cuddeford, has been discharged from hospital without lasting damage after falling off stage in the middle of a concerto on Saturday, landing on top of his violin.
News of the instrument is less happy. A violinist in the orchestra who picked it up after the accident tells Slipped Disc that ‘the violin is pretty badly damaged with two long cracks on the top and a gash on the top right rib… It will need major repairs (and may never sound the same again). James must be heartbroken.’
The golden baritone has given an interview to Welsh media, ahead of his 50th birthday tomorrow (Monday).
The best advice he’s ever been given? ‘Grow your hair (I looked like a farmer early on).’ But he’s counting no chickens.
Andrei Eshpay (r.), a classic Soviet-era composer, died today aged 90.
He leaves 9 symphonies, 4 violin concertos, 2 piano concertos and a host of film scores and patriotic songs.
He won both the Lenin Prize and the Order of Lenin in the 1980s, just before Lenin became irrelevant.
The Chicago music director is in colourful mood, chatting in Milan at the opening of a Toscanini exhibition.
He complains that young conductors urn up unprepared and insufficiently aware of their responsibilities. ‘We have forgotten the lessons of Toscanini, his way of thinking about theatre.’
David Ferree Jenkins was music director at the Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and conductor of a host of national and international touring shows.
David, who was 39, died in his sleep on Thursday, three weeks after getting married.
Our sympathies to his widow, family and wide circle of friends and colleagues.
A big personality in Cleveland and beyond, the cellist Merry Peckham has a heterogenous career as a soloist, teacher, quartet player and radio host. She does not hold back on her opinions, some of them startlingly original.
Meet Merry, a one-off, here on the latest episode of Zsolt Bognar’s Living the Classical Life.
The great baritone, who has been receiving treatment for brain cancer, gave a full concert last week with Elina Garanca. The Latvian mezzo is returning from several months mourning for the death of her mother. The concert has just been uploaded.
Fashion notes from cellist Inbal Segev:
When I play, I can’t wear any buttons, unless they’re covered, because they’re going to buzz on the cello, and you also don’t want to ruin the wood. You need soft fabric, at least on the front of your shirt. You can’t wear tight skirts, or mini skirts, because you have to sit with the cello between your legs. With heels, if they’re super high, you’re also uncomfortable because the whole angle of the legs with the chair. It’s tricky. And since I travel a lot, I always look for things that don’t wrinkle easily.
