The national broadcaster YLE has come up with some record statistics for classical concertgoing in Finland.
In 2015 The Finnish Radio SO under Hannu Lintu – often programming avant-garde and contemporary music – sold 97% of all seats at the new (1704-seat) Helsinki Music Centre.
In the same hall, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra sold over 90 percent.
The Turku Philharmonic with Leif Segerstam hit an all-time high of 91% (1000 seats).
Jyväskylä Sinfonia with young conductor Ville Matvejeff, 29, sold 100 percent of all concert seats. Their Christmas concert was sold out by the end of June.
Lintu observes that in some smaller towns, one-third of the population turns out for a concert.
What the fff are the Finns doing right?
The charming Floriane Cottet, administrator of the Verbier Festival orchestras, has been named director of the orchestra of Dijon-Bourgogne.
It’s not an unmixed blessing. The ODB went bust two years ago. Floriane will have to rebuild from scratch.
Here’s how she puts it:
Lors du concert du 12 septembre 2014, entouré de musiciens de la France entière et bénéficiant d’un soutien dépassant largement les frontières, l’ODB a démontré sa légitimité dans le paysage musical national. Un peu moins de deux ans plus tard, son Directeur Musical Gergely Madaras, son Président Daniel Exartier, les musiciens, le bureau et l’administration sont animés de cette même soif et énergie et c’est un honneur de les rejoindre dans la bonne poursuite de cette mission. Le rôle d’un orchestre s’étend bien au-delà de son activité artistique, il fait partie intégrante du tissu social, culturel et économique d’une ville et de sa région. C’est cette mission même que les pouvoirs publics nous confient et qu’il nous faut honorer.
De nouveaux défis se présentent aujourd’hui à l’ODB : affirmer une présence élargie dans la nouvelle région, irriguer l’ensemble du territoire, ses publics actuels et en devenir… Je souhaite mener l’orchestre vers un projet d’ancrage solide dans la communauté dijonnaise et dans la région Bourgogne-Franche-Comté en continuant à développer et diversifier les activités de l’ODB, notamment par des collaborations actives et renforcées avec les acteurs sociaux et culturels. La stabilité de ces liens de partenariats artistiques, économiques et institutionnels est capitale au bon développement d’un organisme culturel. La convention signée avec l’Opéra et la Ville de Dijon l’an dernier est l’exemple même de la nécessité de ce dialogue. Aujourd’hui, la fonction de tout orchestre réside au-delà de la barrière de la scène, dans sa capacité à être un vecteur de musique et des valeurs qu’elle incarne.
Floriane Cottet, Directrice de l’Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne
…. actually, the Leipzig Wagner prize … goes to the mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier who, at 60, is gradually retiring her roles. Last month in Berlin, she sang her last Kundry.
The 10,000-Euro award was given last year to Christian Thielemann.
The late Lord Menuhin, who would have been 100 years old on April 22, vacillated all his life between a Stradivarius and a Guarnerius del Gesu, acquiring or borrowing several exemplars of each maker.
The history of his violins is nicely traced in a centennial article here by Tully Potter.
Had he been alive, those who knew Yehudi would have greeted him today with Happy Passover.
Little known fact: Yehudi took care not to appear in concert on the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur and Seder night, asking a family of observant Jews to advise him on diary clashes.
If you’re bored by finance you may look away, but this is important.
‘The stable outlook reflects our view of the return to full-accrual surplus operating results in fiscal 2015, as expected,’ said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Charlene Butterfield.
The NY Times has put a positive spin on it, adding a booster to public confidence.
However, if you saw the movie The Big Short you will have a measure of scepticism about credit rating agencies.
And if you follow the Met more closely than just reading the numbers on its last set of accounts, you will know that Peter Gelb has to pull a $100 million rabbit out of somewhere in order to balance the books this July.
Good news for the Met? Not yet.
Czech-based Paul Mauffray made his debut this week in St Petersburg, conducting Dvorak’s Rusalka.
Paul, originally from New Orleans, has previously helped out at the Mariinsky, coaching singers for Valery Gergiev in the Janacek operas, his speciality study.
Fiona Stevens has nailed it:
I had a very pleasant conversation today with Frau Unger from Airberlin head office who has helped many of us violinists in the past. She allows me to post the following procedure for taking violins on board until the wording of Airberlin terms & conditions is changed.
Anyone wishing to take a violin/viola on board should write to medspecialrequest@airberlin.com stating their flight & booking number, and the dimensions & weight of their instrument case. They should then receive written confirmation that they will be able to take the instrument as handluggage at no extra cost.
For anyone wondering why, whilst top management has decided to change policy in favour of musicians, it is taking so long for the official wording to be changed: this is (much the same as my recent post re Eurowings) because changing the wording of general terms & conditions requires every department (including legal) to ok the new wording, and this simply takes time.
Thanks, Fiona!
The Milan prosecutor has issued proceedings against the Teatro alla Scala and eight named individuals for the death of eight staff members from asbestos-related illnesses between the years 1986 and 2002.
Among those cited are four ex-mayors of Milan, former La Scala sovrintendente Carlo Fontana and members of his technical staff.
Composer of five symphonies and 11 string quartets, Frédérick Martin negotiated the vacant middle ground between Boulezian modernism, French traditionalism and American minimalism.
A prolific composer for solo piano, he died of undisclosed causes on April 18.
It has been announced that the contralto Marian Anderson, racially barred from US opera stages until she was 57 years old, will appear on US banknotes.
Anderson sang Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera at the Metropolitan Opera on January 5, 1955, the only stage role of her noble public life.
She lived on until 1993, playing a full role in the civil rights campaigns of the 1960s.
If there’s one thing that will take me to Moscow it’s a chance to visit the home shared by the great pianist and his partner, Nina Dorliak.
The apartment, at Bolshaya Bronnaya, 2/6, will be open for guided tours on the last Sunday of each month.
The opera world remains stunned by the death this week, aged 49, of one of its brightest countertenors, the delightful Operalia winner Brian Asawa.
Friends have set up a fund in his memory to support rising talent.
Photo by Lisa Kohler; Brian Asawa, Merola Opera Program 1991 participant, preparing for his role in the opera The Bartered Bride at Stern Grove.
(San Francisco) To honor the legacy of Brian Asawa, 1991 Merola Opera Program participant, who passed away on Monday, April 18, 2016, a fund has been established in his memory to support future opera artists. You may donate by visiting the Merola Opera Program webpage here and clicking the “Donate” button or by calling the Merola development office at (415) 936-2311.
The Brian Asawa Memorial Fund will benefit incoming Merola Opera Program participants, with a particular preference given to countertenors. Mr. Asawa was a much beloved international opera performer, known for his big personality and big heart.
In 1991, he was selected to participate in the prestigious Merola Opera Program, becoming one of the few countertenors admitted. He was lauded for his performance in The Bartered Bride, which was performed at Stern Grove. Following Merola, Asawa was offered a position with the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship program.
He was the first countertenor to win both the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Plácido Domingo’s Operalia International Opera Competition. His career spanned the globe with performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Australia, Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Hamburg State Opera among others.
Jean Kellogg, Merola Executive Director, says, “Brian Asawa was in the vanguard of the countertenor resurgence which continues to this day. He will be greatly missed in the opera world, and by all of us at Merola in particular.”
