We have been alerted belatedly to the death of Henrike Grohs, a former education staffer at the Berlin Philharmonic who was murdered during the terrorist attack in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, on March 13th.

After leaving Berlin in 2009, Henrike joined the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg, co-founding digital concept of Music in Africa with support from the Siemens Foundation. In December 2013 she was appointed head of the Goethe Institute in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan.

Henrike was 51.

Tomorrow’s concert by Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion honours the 90th birthday of bassoon player Mordechai Rechtman, who will step up to conduct Beethoven’s fourth symphony.

Rechtman, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, was principal bassoon of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra from 1946 to 1991. He went on to become  music director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra Wind Ensemble. He is a widely performed composer and a teacher of practically everyone in Israel who makes a living on the basoon.

Zubin Mehta will be sitting front row tomorrow.

The Minnesota Orchestra is coming to Europe this summer, its first long-haul tour since the 2012 musicians lockout that almost destroyed the organisation.

The resilience of the musicians and the steadfastness of music director Osmo Vänskä (pictured) have given the orchestra a gloss of legend. Their Carnegie Hall visit last month drew unqualified raves.

It will be good to hear the Minnesotans in Lahti, Finland (August 21st) and at the Edinburgh International Festival (23rd), Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (24th) and the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen (26th).

But not at the BBC Proms.

Why not? The tour will surely have been offered to the BBC, which must have turned it down. Just as it turned down the chance this summer to hear Europe’s most sought-after conductor, Kirill Petrenko.

Next week, we’ll find out what else is missing at the 2016 Proms.

The Siberian city of Omsk is paying tribute to Semyon Kogan who, as a young conductor, formed a symphony orchestra in the early 1960s and stayed on as its artistic director for 13 years.

Kogan has died after a long illness, aged 88.

After leaving Omsk, Kogan was appointed chief conductor in Rostov-on-the-Don.

He conducted the Tchaikovsky Competition finals in 1994. Ten years later, he gave a concert in Athens at the opening of the Olympic Games.

photo: classicalmusicnews.ru

Susanna Mälkki was named principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She’s an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music. New York, eat your hearts out.

Speranza Scappucci, it was announced, will make her debut at the Vienna Opera, the first Italian woman to enter that bearpit. Speranza, a former assistant of Riccardo Muti, will be fine.

The glass ceiling is well and truly cracked.

The Australian Monique Lapins has been appointed second violinist in the New Zealand String Quartet.

She replaces Douglas Beilman who retired at the end of 2015 after 26 years.

The NZSQ will tour England, the United States and Canada in June and July.

The international ballerina Alina Cojocaru tweets:

I will be be performing ONLY under the management that made this ballet happen for our audience to enjoy, with @KOBBORG as our leader!!

Johan Kobborg was sacked yesterday as artistic director by an interim general manager.

The company is in uproar.

Alina Cojocaru and Kobborg have been partners since 2005.

Minutes after the new season announcement, this was the box-office queue in Vienna today.

Not for opera tickets.

For the chance to buy a new-season brochure (price: 6 €).

Wien, du allein…

Another New York manager and two managerial staff have left the ailing artists’ agency.

Andrew Elsesser, Special Projects Manager, left IMG yesterday and starts today at Lincoln Center as Temporary Associate Director of Programming.  Andrew was an experienced, well-liked manager who used to work with Audra McDonald, Renee Fleming, Alan Gilbert, John Adams and Thomas Ades.

Also gone are Stephanie Torok, Managerial Associate, who has joined the New World Symphony, and Alexander Koster, Booking Associate, who has gone to law school.  Alex was the last junior left from the Elizabeth Sobol era. All remaining junior staff have received limited training, and most are in their first 12 months.

Here’s who’s left:

UPDATE: Message from Alexander Koster:

I am still at IMG and will remain with the company into the summer. IMG has been very supportive of my decision to go to school in the fall. 

The inaugural Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition, with a $100,000 first prize, is feeling its way into the murky waters of international contests.

Among the 36 selected entrants, announced last night, are few names we recognise. One that leaps out is Sergei Dogadin, the Russian who won the 50,000 Euro first prize at the Joachim competition last October.

He did so without declaring that he had been a student of one of the judges, Boris Kushnir, who also failed to acknowledge the relationship. Dogadin had previously come second at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow.

Kushnir will be one of the judges at Shanghai.

That’s how the circuit works.

Here’s the list of 36 contestants, selected from their DVD entries.

Takamori Arai (Japan)

Yu-Ting Chen (Taiwan, China)

Alexandra Conunova (Romania)

Sergei Dogadin (Russia)

Elvin Ganiyev (Azerbaijan)

Fangyue He (China)

Sirena Huang (United States)

Petteri Iivonen (Finland)

Yoo Jin Jang (South Korea)

Yiliang Jiang (China)

Bomsori Kim (South Korea)

Gyehee Kim (South Korea)

Jee Won Kim (South Korea)

Mayu Kishima (Japan)

Alina Kobialka (United States)

Erzhan Kulibaev (Russia)

Zeyu Li (China)

Richard Lin (United States)

Fanglei Liu (China)

Ming Liu (China)

Kyung Ji Min (South Korea)

Raphaëlle Moreau (France)

Andrea Obiso (Italy)

Dongfang Ouyang (China)

Yoo Min Seo (South Korea)

Ji Won Song (South Korea)

Kristie Su (United States)

Yun Tang (China)

Stefan Tarara (Germany)

Boyang Tian (China)

Danbi Um (South Korea)

Xiao Wang (China)

Wendi Wang (China)

Jinru Zhang (China)

Yang Zhang (China)

Stephanie Zyzak (United States)

When the Royal Opera advertised for its next director, the post was stated in the Guardian to be a permanent one.

Not so.

Our chap in the wings says the Grauniad got it wrong.

I am afraid The Guardian have incorrectly filled in the job ad template, the post of Director of Opera is a five year contract not permanent. A small but important point. We are getting the Guardian to change it.

An invitation from Cressida Pollock: Chief Executive ENO

Dear Opera lover,

I am pleased to invite you to “Devoted and Disgruntled: How can we change Opera for the better?”

Is Opera a big part of your life? Does it play any part in your life (and if not, why not)? Do you love it? Hate it? Are you indifferent to it or even not sure why it’s relevant at all? Do you think it has a future? Is it elitist? Is it too expensive? Should it receive public subsidy?  Does what is happening to it make you furious or don’t you care? If so, then perhaps you know what it’s like to be devoted and disgruntled.

This is a hugely challenging time for the arts and no art-form more than Opera has the ability to provoke such passion and controversy. When the stakes are so high and many of us in big and small companies are fighting to keep our heads above water, this is an opportunity for your voice to be heard. Would you like to change things? How can we all work together to make sure that Opera survives and prospers way into the future? Would you like to connect with others who share your passion, talk to them, listen to them, change how Opera is for the better, or help secure its future?

Come together with a large cross-section of our operatic community; movers, makers, shakers, consumers, activists, reactionaries, revolutionaries, workers on the factory floor, creators on the edge, at the core, critics, newcomers, old hands, audiences and supporters across the board.

Air your ideas, share your frustrations, listen, and contribute to a myriad of discussions created and determined by you the operatic community.

Devoted and Disgruntled uses Open Space Technology to allow the group itself to determine the topics and flow of the discussion, and to take action on the urgent issues. Nothing is censored, and all participants are free to call sessions, attend whichever are of interest, or meet informally over a coffee. It will be facilitated and archived by Improbable who now have an 11 year history of running great events like this; conferences which have helped change the way the arts community communicates with itself.

I look forward to seeing you there to help shape the future of Opera.

Best wishes

Cressida Pollock: Chief Executive ENO

Details here.