Eight years ago, Jeff Beal was told he had multiple sclerosis.
His response is an a cappella work, The Salvage Men, ‘a meditation on suffering and catharsis’, which receives its U.S. premiere on Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Beal has also composed a symphonic work based on House of Cards. ‘Those lines between utilitarian music and art for art’s sake are starting to blur,’ he believes. ‘But I do feel something that was missing from my life, for sure, was this idea of a pure piece of music. It doesn’t need a picture. It can exist on its own terms.’
The airline cancelled 930 flights today.
It’s orchestra’s doing fine.
Seems there is some disconnect between total harmony after-hours and total conflict on the job.
Read here.
Elizabeth Braw reports from Leipzig that auditions have begun for the post of Cantor at St Thomas’s Church.
This week begins the auditions of four finalists from a pool of 41 applicants. The candidates are Markus Teutschbein, 44, who currently conducts the boys’ choir in Basel, Switzerland; Clemens Flämig, 39, who conducts the city choir in the city of Halle, near Leipzig; Markus Johannes Langer, 44, who leads the music at a church in the northern German city of Rostock and conducts a concert choir in the city; and Matthias Jung, 51, who conducts the Dresden Boys’ Choir as well as an adult concert choir. Each one has a week to sell himself in the job.
“It’s an immense pressure,” admitted Stefan Altner, a member of the search committee. “If we don’t find the right candidate among the finalists, we’ll start over again.”
We’ll try to keep you posted on the outcome.
At Bach’s grave
The Latvian mezzo, returning after a break of several months caring for and mourning her late mother, suggests that her voice is changing.
‘I think my time with Mozart is over,’ she tells Kurier. ‘Also Octavian in Rosenkavalier, after a farewell Met performance in a couple of eyars.’
Elina, still only 39, sings Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther at the Vienna State Opera tonight.
