A trustee of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is so excited by the new music director, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, that he has given quarter of a million pounds to support her position.
The man’s name is John Osborn.
Mirga will be known henceforth as the Osborn Music Director.
Details here.
We’ve been given to understand that tonight’s Lebrecht…
Pablo Casals conducts a gloriously old-fashioned 1971 performance…
From the last Lebrecht Album of the Week…
The Chinese-Australian pair of comedy fiddlers have called…
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Marvellous news! It’s great to see people ready to back excellence with the funds it needs.
More $s than sense.
Will it make her a better conductor?
It gives her more of a free hand to pursue her artistic vision.
It helps the orchestra’s budget.
Providing adequate rehearsal time prevents the “race to the bottom”. Players everywhere (not only Birmingham) are increasingly sick of “top-and-tail” rehearsals – which cover only the potentially shaky moments of a piece – since there isn’t time to do all of it.
Since the Birmingham players are on contract, it won’t have any bearing on rehearsal time: the music director always gets as much as they ask for, in any case. But this will certainly help subsidise loss-making (ie adventurous) programmes, and offset costs more generally.
It’s not that simple. If British orchestras are anything like their US colleagues, having more money to spend in the budget can indeed help with getting additional rehearsal time, precisely *because* of musicians’ contract. Even though MDs are usually treated better than guest conductors, it doesn’t mean that they can always get anywhere near everything they want.
What an awkward photograph on the given link: the three look like footballers protecting their goal during a free kick. That aside, let us hope the CBSO continue their excellent form.
This is fantastic news for the CBSO, John Osborn is a terrific guy, can spot a winner a
mile away and in our new MD is certainly supporting yet another amazingly talented
conductor.
Having heard both Mirga’s concerts I can say with total confidence that the CBSO have “done it” yet again!!
Sorry London!
While there is undoubtedly potential, and two good concerts are an encouraging start, perhaps we should wait a year-or-two before we proclaim the appointment a success.
Poor London indeed: they had to settle for that knighted nobody who is currently conducting some barely known band from Berlin.