From the Chicago Symphony archives:

In 1941, Frederick Stock appointed Helen Kotas to the position of principal horn, making her the first woman to hold a rostered position in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She was the first female to secure such a position—in fact, the first woman to be hired as principal of any section, except harp—in a major U.S. orchestra.”

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(Kotas would serve as principal until 1947, when Philip Farkas returned to the orchestra (from a spell in Cleveland). She moved to third chair for one season and left in 1948; she married University of Chicago pathologist Edwin Hirsch the following year.)

source: CSO Archives.

H/t: Peter Witte

Frankie Flood, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has created  a new hand on a 3-D printer to help Shea Stollenwerk, 10, to play the viola.

Watch how he did it here.

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Long Yu, the all-conquering  music director of the China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Guangzhou Symphony orchestras and artistic director of the Beijing Music Festival, has cancelled this month’s engagements in Liverpool and Houston with a back injury.

Too much on his plate, perhaps? He is also principal guest conductor in Hong Kong and a regular with the New York Philharmonic.

We wish him a swift recovery.

 

 

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Official statement:

 

Due to a back injury, Maestro Long Yu had to cancel his upcoming November Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Houston Symphony dates. Aleksandar Marković will fill-in Nov. 19-22 in the U.K. while Perry So will take the baton in Houston Nov. 27-29.

Polish media are reporting the death of Jerzy Katlewicz, long-serving music director of the philharmonic orchestra in Krakow.

Katlewicz, who was 88, conducted premieres by Gorecki and Penderecki during his directorship in Krakow, which lasted from 1968 to 1980. He also served for three years as artistic director of the Noordhollands philharmonic in Haarlem, Netherlands.

His was the first recording of Gorecki’s million-selling third symphony.

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A joint charity concert they are giving tonight in Ufa has trawled in a phenomenal 30 million rubles.

Hvorostovsky has undergone treatment this year for brain cancer.

Ildar Abdrazakov said: ‘Last year a similar concert in Moscow, in the Kremlin, made 20 million rubles. In Ufa, we have raised half as much again – 30 million. I am so proud of my compatriots, and this not the final figure.’

Hvorostovsky Abdrazakov

source: classicalmusicnews.ru

 

Three artists, big in Japan, sing the praises of Suntory Hall, Tokyo, ahead of its 30th anniversary. Zubin Mehta sings the praises of his very good friends and benefactors. Anne-Sophie Mutter does a straight plug for her next season.

And Christian Thielemann takes the opportunity to declare that Suntory has the best acoustics in the world, superior to Berlin and Vienna.

Watch.

suntory hall