The Orchestre Nationale de France has announced that Chrstiane Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, will accompany its forthcoming tour to the US and Canada.
That should bring in a few bankers.
Christine Lagarde, Présidente du Comité d’honneur de la tournée américaine de l’Orchestre National de France sous la direction de Daniele Gatti du 24 au 31 janvier 2016….Christine Lagarde a bien voulu accepter de parrainer cette tournée et de réunir dans un comité d’honneur les ambassadeurs de France à Washington, Ottawa et auprès des Nations unies ainsi que la Directrice générale de l’Amcham. Ce comité s’est donné pour mission d’accentuer le rayonnement de la tournée.
I met Stephen Endelman a few years back when he was working on Bruce Beresford’s biopic of Alma Mahler, Bride of the Wind. He had a long list of credits and a crammed diary.
What I did not know was that Stephen was a victim of a teacher’s abuse at school. He has since testified at the man’s trial and is now seeking funding to film a reconciliation with his lost childhood.
Here’s his account:
I was a victim of sexual abuse when I was a young boy from the age of 11 it went on for 2 and a half years. I want to tell my story so that other boys might come forward and tell their stories. We are not alone. 1 in 5 boys and 1 in 3 girls will be abused by the age of 18. The only way to end this is by exposing it and helping the victims! Read below and please donate so that I can make my film and launch my charity, Consent!
A BOY A MAN AND HIS KITE
My name is Stephen Endelman. I’ve spent the last 20 years writing music for films and television in Hollywood.
I was the victim of sexual abuse as a young boy. My abuser was sentenced to life in prison this past Novemeber. I went to London as a witness for the prosecution, it was the most empowering experience. I’m making a short film which I hope will launch a charity called Consent. My abuser without my consent sexually abused me for almost 3 years for his own sexual gratification. My film explores the effects of my abuse along with me confronting my abuser.
In 2009 whilst on a TV show for ABC and a movie for Gale Anne Hurd I got deathly sick and eventually found myself lying in a coma. My friends and family weren’t sure if I would live, or if I did live, how I would recover. I did live and I recovered. After I recovered I began to question why’d I gotten so very sick. During that process I explored many healing modalities. As part of that process I composed three pieces of music, a short film, and a book. Together they explore the reason for my sickness and what I’ve learnt from my near death experience. This campaign is to raise money for the film. The short film explores the reason I believe I got sick, the abuse I suffered as a child and the way I repressed those feelings for almost 30 years. I want to inspire others to come forward and share their stories and confront their demons.
My mission is to reach as many people as possible and inspire them to believe that there is life after abuse and illness. In supporting this film you will be enabling the recovery of abused victims.
If you can help Stephen, please click here.
Nicholas Daniel, oboist and conductor, informs us of his teacher’s death:
Today I heard that Lenore Reynell died. She was the Head of Music at the Purcell School for many years, during my whole time there, and I’ve often thought about her huge musical influence on me and so many others. Today is a good day to celebrate it.
She was someone who TOTALLY loved music. I remember her literally exploding at Pat Bloomfield (now Lady Haitink) when she declared she had to leave to go to a gig. Lenore spasmed in horror at the idea of earning money through music and almost hit her with a music stand!
But this is because she was an amateur in the very greatest sense, she loved music wholly and completely, and dedicated her whole life to it and to us, thought the school and Piggots Music camp. The Beethoven 1 we learned with her is still truly memorable for me, in fact so much so that I still know the whole work from memory and I’ve never played it or conducted it since. The same goes for Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. I’ve never forgotten the way she forced the whole school choir to sing my highly experimental, Penderecki influenced Gloria, berating people for laughing at it… And making something memorable (for me) from it.
When I did my audition for the school, I remember Richard Taylor the headmaster trying to be cool and keep my Mum guessing, and Lenore waltzed into the room and declared “yes marvellous, wonderfully musical, give him a scholarship”.
When she coached me in the Poulenc Sonata, she almost literally fell off her seat working with me on the last movement as the music hit her so hard. She was never afraid to show how the music affected her.
Later on it was she who taught me the Vaughan Williams concerto first of all, which I played when I won BBC Young Musician. She gave me her conducting score of it as a gift and wrote in it such inspiring and supportive words, and I was so happy to be able to write to her before I finally recorded it last year and thank her for her unique and most special insight into the piece.
When Lenore retired she spent some years teaching English to the Gujarati speaking community in Wembley and caring for her dear old Mum. I remember dropping in on her once and I felt that she had rather moved on from school, quite correctly, and yet her musical love and uncompromising manner with the music will be part of who I am for ever, and the same goes for so many of my contemporaries from school.
That woman is conducting a choir of angels right now, possibly throwing music stands at those who say they have to leave early for a paid gig.
Andris Nelsons was out of action early this month (he’s back now).
But Jiří Bĕlohlávek who was meant to conduct the Boston Symphony four times next week has come down with an unspecified illness ahead of his 70th birthday bash in Prague next month.
Jiří is replaced in Boston by Seattle’s Ludovic Morlot.
photo: (c) Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht
press release:
Conductor Jiří Bĕlohlávek has regrettably been forced to withdraw from the BSO concerts in Boston on January 21, 22, and 23, due to medical reasons. Seattle Symphony Orchestra Music Director and former BSO Assistant Conductor Ludovic Morlot will replace Mr. Bĕlohlávek as conductor for the all-Czech program also featuring cellist Johannes Moser. The program remains the same. Thursday, January 21, 10:35 a.m. (Open Rehearsal) Thursday, January 21 Friday, January 22, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, January 23 Ludovic Morlot, conductor Johannes Moser, cello SMETANA “The Moldau” from Má Vlast MARTINŮ Fantaisies symphoniques (Symphony No. 6) DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto
Not in London, unfortunately.
In San Diego.
At $25 million, it will cost approximately one-40th of the price of Simon Rattle’s half-billion pound dream.
We’ve just received this clip of Gustavo Dudamel sharing the baton with his alter ego in ‘Mozart and the Jungle’.
What we like best is the actress who plays Deborah Borda, prez of the LA Phil.
The outgoing chief conductor of the Berlin Phil has joined the board of the Bundesjugendorchester, signalling his intent to remain embedded in German musical life. He has conducted the BJO since 2008.
‘This ensemble is too important to risk losing it,’ said Rattle, according to a press release.
With a PhD from Peabody, Chuck Ellis conducted the Baltimore Symphony, as well as Syracuse, Columbus, Florida, Charlotte and Savannah orchestras.
He was music director of the Prince George’s Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alun Jones is to become head of Chetham’s School of Music from September, it was officially announced today.
He has been the Head of St. Gabriel’s School, Newbury, since 2001 and was President of the Girls’ Schools Association.
A former Choral Scholar, freelance singer and ad-hoc member of BBC Singers, Mr Jones began his teaching career at The Cathedral School, Llandaff; The United College of the Atlantic; St Donat’s Castle and the Welsh College of Music & Drama – says the press release.
(One Mum tells Slipped Disc: At least this one’s a musician.)
Chetham’s is a school dogged by past scandals that its board of governors has failed to lay to rest. We were first to report Mr Jones’s appointment, a month ago.
Former New York City Opera board member Roy Niederhoffer has won his court battle to be allowed to revive the enterprise after paying its creditors just under $1 million to buy their consent. City Opera (est. 1943) went belly-up in October 2013 after a prolonged comedy of woeful mismanagement.
Niederhoffer, a hedge-fund manager, aims to reopen with a Tosca at Lincoln Center in January.
You can see the way his mind ticks: first pack ’em in with a proven hit, then rebuild a People’s Opera.
But Tosca? One of the five most performed operas of all time.
Why should people support the return of City Opera when all it’s performing is the same as everyone else?
Where’s the new audience? Where’s the loyalty tug? What’s the USP?
These are serious questions. Mr Niederhoffer is invited to answer them here.
Martin, 48, a double-bass player, had been living with Miss Strelchenko in Newton Heath, Manchester, and acting as her agent. He appeared in court under his real name, Jon Skogsbakken, a Norwegian national.
He was remanded in custody until the trial begins on February 23.
London’s Wigmore Hall has announced its first live-streamed concert.
It takes place on Thursday 28 January 2016, together with the hall’s 2016/17 Season Launch, followed by performances from Berlin’s Armida Quartet, soprano Anna Lucia Richter with pianist Michael Gees, and baritone Andrè Schuen with pianist Daniel Heide.
