Word has been out for some time that Stephen Jackson’s position as director of the BBC Chorus was in jeopardy. Singers have now received confirmation by email from Alan Davey, head of Radio 3, and BBC Symphony Orchestra general manager Paul Hughes that Jackson’s contract has not been renewed. No reason was given.
Jackson, who has led the choruys nsince 1989, is saying nothing. But we hear that the BBC decision has gone down badly with members of the Chorus who tell us they are disgusted and disillusioned at the loss of a brilliant and effective leader. The sacking has been handled badly by BBC standards. There are protests afooot.
photo (c) Carol Hartfree, Bright Images Photography
The violinist has been awarded the Genesis Prize, given annually to an individual who ‘achieved professional success, contributed to humanity and shown a strong commitment to Jewish causes and the state of Israel.’
Perlman said he was ‘humbled’ by the award. ‘I have always been very proud of my Jewish heritage, which has greatly influenced my music, my world view, and my work as an advocate for individuals whom society often leaves behind,’ he said in a statement.
In addition to his Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic, Krystian Jarvi has announced in Berlin the start of an adult version, the Baltic Philharmonic.
Its 100 musicians come from Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland and Poland. The aim is to ‘bring together people previously formerly divided by war and politics.’
The graduates of Dallas Opera’s pathbreaking course have been speaking out.
‘Not once in my life has it occurred to me to do anything else than conduct. It’s like a little miracle. Picking up a stick and turning paper into sound is without a doubt the most amazing experience of my life.’
L-r:: Jennifer Condon, Jessica Gethin, Stephanie Rhodes, Anna Skryleva, Natalie Murray Beale and Lidiya Yankovskaya.
The German tenor is launching a cinema release on 11 February of a Puccini film, directed by TV veteran Brian Large, in which he pushes ahead with his Puccini rebrand.
The film is built around a Kaufmann recital at La Scala, which the tenor described as one of the greatest nights of his life
Harriet Sherwood reports in the Guardian that Jeremy Davies, a priest for 42 years, has been refused permission to officiate by the bishop of Winchester following his marriage to an opera singer Simon McEnery.
Confused? Not as much as the Church appears to be …
The parallel occurred while writing my Album of the Week for sinfinimusic.com.
In the 2015 shoot-out between the Tchaikovsky and Chopin piano competitions, Warsaw won hands down. Its Korean gold medallist Seong-Jin Cho quickly captured the world’s attention with the fastest-selling DG piano debut in a decade and all-night queues at record outlets in Seoul and elsewhere.
Moscow’s winner, the pallid Dmitry Masleev, has vanished into media oblivion, but two of his runner-ups, both named Luke, are doing rather well….
The following announcement is due to be made tomorrow, we hear.
In a new initiative announced this morning in Shanghai, Hantang, an advertisement company based in Shanghai specialising in video productions of high-end lifestyle, laid out plans to bring the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival to China beginning in 2016.
The Young Singers Project, or YSP of Salzburg Festival, was inaugurated in 2008 with the goal of enabling young singers from all over the world to further their education on an international level. In each year 13 to 15 singers was selected by Evamaria Wieser, director of the Young Singers Project, from more than 200 auditions and vocal competitions during her extensive global trip. Each participant will be engaged to sing a minor role in the Festival’s opera productions. In 2015, 13 participants was selected from 10 countries. Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler revealed that there will be a Chinese singer studying in the USA in YSP 2016. YSP’s current international partners are the Kühne Foundation and L’Occitane.
YSP is one of the three Salzurg Festival’s launch pads for young artists, together with the Young Directors Project and Nestle Young Conductor’s Awards. Chinese conductor Yu Lu was the finalists of Young Conductor’s Awards in 2014 and remains the only Chinese laureates so far.
With the new initiative, Hantang aims to bring the YSP singers to China for concert tour or liederabend across four cities, thus extending their launch pad to Asia for the first time. Though not an artists management company, Hantang has drawn the international attention by giving out awards attached to several leading harp contests and bringing laureates for concert tour in China, primarily in association with the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Described as a win-win situation by Dr Helga Rabl-Stadler, the initiative is the latest partnership of the Salzburg Festival in China. The signing ceremony was participated by Mrs Chen Jingyun, General Manager of Hantang, Frau Silvia Neureiter, Consul General of Austia to China and Dr Rabl-Stadler. Programmes of the Festival’s 2016 edition was also briefly introduced at press conference, whose highlights include the Festival debut of Chinese pianist Yuja Wang.
This is the fourth year in a row since 2012 that the Salzburg Festival held a press conference in China. Hantang is the second Chinese partner of the Salzburg Festival since the Shanghai Grand Theatre was engaged a co-production of La boheme in 2013 directed by Damiano Michieletto. A second scheduled co-production of Il travatore planned at 2015 Festival was called off, leaving much speculation about SGT’s financial condition.
Norwegian Opera, which last week listed everyone who applied for its vacancies, has announcedKarl-Heinz Steffens of Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz as its next music director.
He will team up with the British theatre manager Annilese Miskimmon as general director and Ingrid Lorenzen as ballet chief.
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