Glenn Frey, founder of the pop phenomenon the Eagles, has died in New York, aged 67.
The cause given was complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia.
Glenn was co-writer of Hotel California.
‘It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our comrade, Eagles founder Glenn Frey, in New York City,’ says the band’s website. ‘The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery. Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide.’
At an introductory talk yesterday about South Pole, the Miroslav Srnka opera which will be premiered in Munich at the end of the month, the Staatsoper music director was asked what the difference was between conducting a work of a living composer or a dead one.
Petrenko: ‘If the composer is dead you’d like to to ask him questions, but you can’t. If the composer is alive you can ask him questions, but sometimes you’d prefer he would be already dead.’
(loud laughter and applause).
source: Miroslav Srnka
Classical guitarist André Simão flew last week from Nuremberg to Lisbon, via Paris with Air France.
André writes:
They didn’t allow me to take my guitar as hand baggage… So, the worst happened: my concert guitar and my carbon guitar case was destroyed, with several cracks and damage in the top innerside!
Look at the photos. They even didn’t have fragile stickers at the front desk to put on my case! It is impressive, how they don’t care for the musical instruments.
Orlando Opera went bust, along with many others, in 2008.
It is now back, under the direction of two local artists.
Gabriel Preisser (pictured), a lyric baritone with 35 roles under his belt, will be executive and artistic director.
Vincent Connor, a bass-baritone, will be the group’s general director.
The selection for the forthcoming Menuhin Competition has raised a few eyebrows for the huge preponderance of girls over boys – a ratio of 3 to 1, with only one male contestant in the senior finals.
Now the eyebrows rise a little higher on discovering that all four US finalists have connections to Brian Lewis, a judge at the 2014 Menuhin Competition. Mr Lewis was, we are informed, involved in ‘pre-selection’ for the 2016 competition. He is not on the final judging panel.
UPDATE: We have received the following denial from the Menuhin Competition publicist:
I would like to state on behalf of the Menuhin Competition London 2016, that Brian Lewis was not on the pre-selection jury for the Menuhin Competition London 2016. Your story is wrong.
In order to ensure clarity, the pre-selection jury for the Menuhin Competition are published here: http://menuhincompetition.org/pre-selection-jury/. Brian Lewis, as can be seen, was not on the pre-selection jury and had no influence whatsoever on the choice of the 44 competitors for the Menuhin Competition London 2016. The pre-selection jury has been on the Menuhin Competition Website since we announced the Menuhin Competition London 2016 was open for entries in April 2015.
We did not find the pre-selection link when we searched the Menuhin site.
UPDATE 2: The Menuhin Competition adds:
The Menuhin Competition London 2016 states categorically that Brian Lewis has not been involved in pre-selection or on any pre-selection jury or jury with the Menuhin Competition since February 2014. The Menuhin Competition has an artistic reputation for fairness and integrity. Applicants are chosen by their merit, and not by their gender, race, nationality, where they study or who teaches them, when assessing the entries.
Accepting that Brian Lewis was not involved in pre-selection, it seems odd that all four US finalists should declare a connection to the same teacher or masterclass tutor.
Mr Lewis describes himself as ‘one of the most versatile and charismatic violinists on the current scene… an exceptionally dedicated and gifted performer whose passionate artistry has been heard and embraced around the world…. As a dynamic and engaging teacher, Mr. Lewis is committed to growing the legacies of the great pedagogues Dorothy DeLay and Dr. Shin’ichi Suzuki for future generations.’
Here is the connective information from the Menuhin site:
Marley Erickson
Marley Erickson, age 12, is a student of Simon James and collaborative pianists, Hiro David and Li-Tan Hsu. She has been a part of the Coleman Violin Studio for almost five years. As a winner of the 2015 Seattle Symphony Young Artists Audition, Marley is honored to solo with the Seattle Symphony this December. At age 11, Marley made her solo orchestral debut with the Ottawa Chamber Symphony as part of the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program. She attended BLYAP again this past summer.
Yesong Sophie Lee
Yesong Sophie Lee, age 11, attends Cedarwood Elementary School. She started studying violin with Jan Coleman at age 4, and is currently studying with Simon James and piano collaborator Hiro David in the Coleman Violin Studio.
This past summer, Sophie attended the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program. Sophie has played in master classes for Brian Lewis.
Takumi Taguchi
He has been a student of Simon James of the Seattle Symphony and piano collaborator Hiro David at the Coleman Violin Studio, having previously studied with Mihoko Hirata. Takumi performed in the 2015 Symposium with Brian Lewis.
Elli Choi
Elli Choi has already performed extensively throughout the US, Europe and the Middle East. Elli Choi has been a student in the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School since she was 7. She studies with Ida Kavafian. … We understand that she has performed twice at a Brian Lewis Symposium.
Anthea Kreston makes a bold start to her new life in the Artemis Quartet.
Here’s the first line-up pic of one of Europe’s elite formations. In re-formation.
Some thoughts from Lidiya Yankovskaya, a conductor who now lives in New York. Lydia was one of six residents of the Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera.
In Russia, the music education and general culture of music appreciation is fantastic. Since the fall of communism, many things have gotten better for women and other things not so much. In the 1980’s there were more female doctors, engineers, and scientists than men. There were many women in positions of leadership, which is not currently case. When I go to Russia now, people openly tell me that women should not be conductors. How men see women intellectually is one thing, but when it then comes to something physical, like conducting, that’s when you really start to see the sexism come out.
Six months after the tragic death of violist Friedemann Weigle, the outstanding Artemis Quartet has picked an American violinist, Anthea Kreston, to replace him. Anthea will play second violin, while Gregor Sigl moves from violin to viola.
Official bio and quotes:
Andrea Kreston, born in Chicago, studied with Felix Galimir and Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, as well as chamber music with the Vermeer Quartet and Emerson String Quartet. Anthea Kreston was a member of the Avalon Quartet – with whom she won the ARD Competition in 2000 – for seven years. In 1999, she founded the Amelia Piano Trio. She has given many concerts in the United States and Europe with both ensembles.
Cellist Eckart Runge and Anthea Kreston have known each other for twenty years. They met, as members of different ensembles, at a masterclass given by the Juliiard String Quartet. Eckart Runge: “Already then, Anthea struck me as an extraordinarily brilliant musician and someone who has a big personality. She applied for the available position, travelled to the audition from the West Coast [of the United States] and impressed us with her warm-heartedness, boundless energy and – above all – her fantastic qualities as a musician and violinist. All three of us immediately felt that, in her own way, Anthea reflects the soul of Friedemann and will bring new energy to our quartet.”
Anthea Kreston: “It is with a full heart that I join the Artemis Quartet, my favourite quartet since we were all students together at the Juilliard Quartet Seminar 20 years ago. To share a life with these tremendous souls and musicians will be the fulfilment of a dream I never anticipated could be realized.”
The Artemis Quartet’s first European Tour in its new formation starts on March 12th in Holland.
Local media are reporting all sorts of insider dealing at the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, around the corner from the European Parliament.
Patrick Minard stepped down last summer as general director after 15 years, giving every indication internal and external that he’d done enough. Minard was promptly appointed to a salaried post as cultural adviser to the Mayor.
His successor – Francis Corpart, 59 – is the city’s former director of human resources. He has no experience of orchestral management, but has friends in all the right places. Musicians say he can’t tell one instrument from another.
You may wonder at this point why you’ve never heard great things of the Strasbourg Philharmonic. That’s about why.
The city has also managed to shut down its once-celebrated summer festival.
