Mairi Pirie Rankin, who died last year aged 91, has left just under £3 million to protect the future of the Edinburgh International Festival.
Mairi Pirie was the first lecturer in drama appointed at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow in the late 1940s. In 1957 she married Roy Rankin, secretary of the Bank of Scotland.
Their home became an arts hub and together they founded a Pirie Ranking charitable trust to benefit the Edinburgh Festival.
The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera today appointed Samantha Teter as Executive Director.
Teter has been serving as Interim Executive Director since Molly Sasse French went on medical leave in November, eventually announcing her resignation, after eight years in the job.
Fifty leading figures in music and the humanities – led by Barenboim, Chailly, Domingo, Gatti, Mehta, Pappano, Pollini, Thielemann, along with leaders in Italian public life such as Dario Fo, Bernardo Bertolucci, Andrea Camilleri, Claudio Magris, and Umberto Veronesi – have signed an appeal to the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage regarding scholarly access to the archives of composers Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini.
These two important private archives – the Archivio Verdi in Sant’Agata (Piacenza) and the Archivio Puccini in Torre del Lago (Lucca) – belong to the composers’ heirs. Many important manuscripts, fundamental to the study of how these two composers lived and created their music, are stored in the two archives. But without proper access it is not possible to know where precisely, and in what condition, they are being preserved.
All over Europe, access is given to researchers to study manuscripts of important composers. Concerning Verdi and Puccini, it is not even possible to know precisely the content of their archives: the composers’ heirs refuse to allow researchers access to examine the manuscripts. This refusal violates art. n. 127 of the Cultural Heritage Code.
The appeal to the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage is published by the Italian monthly “Classic Voice” magazine. The fifty signatories are:
Roberto Abbado, Salvatore Accardo, Alberto Arbasino, Rosellina Archinto, Daniel Barenboim, Giorgio Battistelli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francesco Saverio Borrelli, Mario Brunello, Renato Bruson, Massimo Cacciari, Bruno Cagli, Andrea Camilleri, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, Azio Corghi, Plácido Domingo, Ivan Fedele, Juan Diego Flórez, Dario Fo, Carlo Fontana, Luca Francesconi, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Adriano Guarnieri, Philippe Jordan, Raina Kabaivanska, Fabio Luisi, Nicola Luisotti, Claudio Magris, Giacomo Manzoni, Michele Mariotti, Mario Martone, Zubin Mehta, Francesco Meli, Kent Nagano, Gianandrea Noseda, Anthony Pappano, Michele Pertusi, Maurizio Pollini, Salvatore Sciarrino, Renata Scotto, Alessandro Solbiati, Peter Stein, Christian Thielemann, Marco Tutino, Uto Ughi, Fabio Vacchi, Umberto Veronesi, Alberto Zedda.
Fifty leading figures in music and the humanities – led by Barenboim, Chailly, Domingo, Gatti, Mehta, Pappano, Pollini, Thielemann, along with leaders in Italian public life such as Dario Fo, Bernardo Bertolucci, Andrea Camilleri, Claudio Magris, and Umberto Veronesi – have signed an appeal to the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage regarding scholarly access to the archives of composers Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini.
These two important private archives – the Archivio Verdi in Sant’Agata (Piacenza) and the Archivio Puccini in Torre del Lago (Lucca) – belong to the composers’ heirs. Many important manuscripts, fundamental to the study of how these two composers lived and created their music, are stored in the two archives. But without proper access it is not possible to know where precisely, and in what condition, they are being preserved.
All over Europe, access is given to researchers to study manuscripts of important composers. Concerning Verdi and Puccini, it is not even possible to know precisely the content of their archives: the composers’ heirs refuse to allow researchers access to examine the manuscripts. This refusal violates art. n. 127 of the Cultural Heritage Code.
The appeal to the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage is published by the Italian monthly “Classic Voice” magazine. The fifty signatories are:
Roberto Abbado, Salvatore Accardo, Alberto Arbasino, Rosellina Archinto, Daniel Barenboim, Giorgio Battistelli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Francesco Saverio Borrelli, Mario Brunello, Renato Bruson, Massimo Cacciari, Bruno Cagli, Andrea Camilleri, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, Azio Corghi, Plácido Domingo, Ivan Fedele, Juan Diego Flórez, Dario Fo, Carlo Fontana, Luca Francesconi, Daniele Gatti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Adriano Guarnieri, Philippe Jordan, Raina Kabaivanska, Fabio Luisi, Nicola Luisotti, Claudio Magris, Giacomo Manzoni, Michele Mariotti, Mario Martone, Zubin Mehta, Francesco Meli, Kent Nagano, Gianandrea Noseda, Anthony Pappano, Michele Pertusi, Maurizio Pollini, Salvatore Sciarrino, Renata Scotto, Alessandro Solbiati, Peter Stein, Christian Thielemann, Marco Tutino, Uto Ughi, Fabio Vacchi, Umberto Veronesi, Alberto Zedda.
press release from the CBSO:
We are pleased to announce today that Kate Suthers has been appointed Section Leader Second Violin, and will join the orchestra in late May 2016.
Kate Suthers enjoys a busy and varied career across the UK. As well as leading the award-winning Artesian Quartet, Kate works in guest principal roles with a number of British orchestras. These include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Kate also works commercially, recording soundtracks for film and television, most recently for the BBC Three drama Thirteen. Her work has taken her around the world, touring to Europe, Scandinavia, the USA and the Far East…Born and raised in Sydney, Kate made the move to the UK in 2004 but loves getting back to Australia when she can to see her family.
Francisco Kraus Trujillo, older brother of the glorious tenor Alfredo Kraus, has died in Grancanaria at the age of 89.
Francisco spent most of his stage career in Spain and Venezuela
Alfredo died in 1999.
The Chopin International Piano Competition of Hartford, Connecticut, is not to be confused with the Warsaw original, but it does claim professional standards and it attracts international competitors.
So imagine their consternation when the results were published.
Yi-Yang Chen of Taiwan won the competition outright. But the judges’ marks for the next three competitors were added up wrong to produce a false final average.
Patrick Lechner of Austria, who ranked third, should have come second, while the second-placed American, Sherry Kim, would rightfully have been placed fourth.
It’s an absolute howler.
The Canadian Yannick Nézét-Seguin has pulled out of a prestige date with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival.
He has been diagnosed with ‘a short-term condition’ that requires medical treatment.
His replacement is Pittsburgh’s Manfred Honeck. The programme is olde-worlde: Brahms Tragic Overture, Schumann cello concerto (Yo Yo Ma) and Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony.
Our friend Elisabeth Braw has an extraordinary scoop on the Economist site. It appears that neither of Sweden’s opera colleges admitted a single tenor or bass applicant this year. Apparently, there are no men singers in Sweden worth teaching.
“Women have always been in the majority among our applicants, probably because Sweden has so many successful sopranos,” says Professor Anna Lindal, dean of the Stockholm University College of Opera, which along with the Gothenburg University College of Opera trains Sweden’s opera singers. “It’s rare that we get a bass, but this year was the first year that no tenor or bass passed the auditions.”
Read on here.
Ah, Jussi, where art thou now?
The crumbling mega-agency has lost its most flamboyant agent. Tanja actually resigned in December after prolonged friction. At the time it was not clear which artists would join her.
In the event some of her pianists have stayed put, but she has a healthy pack for starters with Jan Lisiecki and Alo de La Parra as the eye-catchers.
PR announcement:
TANJA DORN LAUNCHES NEW ARTIST MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DORN MUSIC
A new global artist management agency, Dorn Music, launches today, founded by leading artist manager, Tanja Dorn. Offering international, bespoke and holistic artist management, “Dorn Music was created to unite the interests of artists, presenters, labels, PR agencies and audiences in order to ensure high quality and exceptional musical experiences,” states Dorn. Dorn Music launches with an already rich roster of artists including conductors: Kristjan Järvi, Alondra de la Parra, Sergey Smbatyan and Christian Zacharias; pianists: Ran Jia, Jan Lisiecki and Christian Zacharias; violinists: Chad Hoopes and Arabella Steinbacher; cellist: Jan Vogler; and Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble.
Tanja Dorn founded Dorn Music in January 2016 after spending eight years at IMG Artists, first as Vice President in New York and later as Associate Director North & South America and Germany of the Conductors and Instrumentalists department, and finally as Director and Senior Vice President of IMG Artists Germany. Based in Hannover, Germany, Dorn Music consists of an initial team of four, including two full-time, multi-lingual artist managers working alongside Dorn. The agency is furthermore cooperating with specialists in the fields of travel, logistics, marketing, finance, law and IT. Dorn Music offers complete management support at the highest level, with a dedicated individual approach to developing a healthy, long-term career for each performing artist.
This year will also see the launch of the Young Artists Foundation, a non-profit organisation, conceived and spearheaded by Dorn.
The German organ builders Hermann Eule have created a 1.3 million Euro instrument for the concert hall of the Xi’an music school in northern China.
The organ has 63 registers, 4,083 pipes and a total weight of 14 tons.
It is thought to be the 25th concert organ in China.
Chicago Opera Theater – not to be confused with the Lyric – has unrolled a season of exceptional adventure.
Starting with Frank Martin’s Tristan-like Le Vin Herbe, COT moves on to the world premiere of Stewart Copeland’s The Invention of Morel and closes with Philip Glass’s The Perfect American on the life of Walt Disney.
How can they afford it? Thanks to the MacArthur Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and philanthropists Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson.
