The hall that Daniel Barenboim is dedicating to the memory of his late lamented friend won’t be ready for concerts for another nine months. But they are starting to give guided tours and the prospect of an infinitely flexible musical space is more than a little enticing.
Check the website for tour details.
Press release, just in:
Tanglewood’s 2016 season, June 17-September 3—which features an all-star Popular Artists lineup, alongside Boston Symphony Orchestra performances throughout the summer—kicks off with a performance by country music icon Dolly Parton on Friday, June 17, at 7 p.m., as part of a season-opening weekend also featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legends Earth, Wind & Fire on Saturday, June 18, at 7 p.m., and a cover-to-cover performance of Pet Sounds headlined by Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson with Blondie Chaplin and Al Jardine on Sunday, June 19, at 2:30 p.m. In addition, Tanglewood welcomes the return of prolific singer-songwriter Jackson Browne to the Shed on Tuesday, June 21, at 7 p.m.
The following weekend will open with a performance by Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti on Friday, June 24, at 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall. The 19th consecutive live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion with host Garrison Keillor will take place on Saturday, June 25, at 5:45 p.m.
Tanglewood’s Fourth of July holiday weekend will open with celebrated guitaristWarren Haynes performing the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration with theBoston Pops under conductor Keith Lockhart on Friday, July 1, at 8 p.m. Bob Dylan and special guest Mavis Staples perform a concert in the Shed on Saturday, July 2, at 7 p.m., followed by two sold-out performances of James Taylor and his All-Star Band on Sunday, July 3, and Monday, July 4, at 8 p.m. Unless otherwise specified, all performances take place in the Koussevitzky Music Shed.
A legendary Kundry in the 1980s and 1990s, the outstanding German soprano fell out with the elderly and irascible Wolfgang Wagner and swore never to return.
Today, Waltraud Meier agreed to come back as Ortrud in 2018, when she will be 62.
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has appointed Aram Demirjian to be its next music director, after a year-long trawl of nine candidates.
Demirjian, 29, is currently associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony.
The writer and critic Janusz Ekiert died today in Warsaw, aged 85, the Chopin Insitute has announced.
A foreign correspondent for state media for many years, he was an influential backstage figure at several Chopin competitions. Janusz Ekiert wrote several books about Chopin, hosted a television series and married the soprano and film actress Violetta Villas.
This EU press release has just landed. It’s an instant fudge that admits no error and patches over the recent chaos. An appalling piece of misgovernance from start to finish.
Brussels, 1 June 2016
Today, the European Commission has found short and long term solutions to keep the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) alive. The Orchestra has been a symbol of Europe’s cultural diversity for the last 40 years.
The EUYO has been supported by the European institutions since its beginning in 1976. The Commission wants to keep the spirit of the Orchestra alive, by allowing it to train the best European musicians in Europe for the benefit of all European territories. We count on the Orchestra in these challenging times to adapt their activities and to spread the European spirit of freedom, creativity and openness in Europe and for Europe.
The President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who gave his patronage to the EUYO when he took office, said: “For the last 40 years, the European Union Youth Orchestra has symbolised Europe’s cultural diversity. The Commission has been proud to support the Orchestra from the very beginning. When I learned that the Orchestra had financial problems, I was very worried and I immediately asked my Commissioners to find a solution. Today, I am happy to announce that we have found a solution, which will allow the European Union Youth Orchestra to continue in 2016 and 2017 and even beyond. I want to thank the European Parliament for helping us to find the solution and notably MEPs Silvia Costa and José Manuel Fernandes. Together we have shown that we can find creative solutions by overcoming bureaucratic procedures when something is in the interest of our citizens. I wish the European Union Youth Orchestra a very successful future.”
Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, in charge of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, Commissioner Günther Oettinger, in charge of the Digital economy and Society and Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva, in charge of Budget and Human Resources, will implement the solutions found. These solutions are also the result of a close cooperation with the European Parliament.
Background information
A solution for 2016 to prevent the Orchestra from closing down would be based on an amendment of the Creative Europe programme’scurrent work programme, the main EU funding instrument for the cultural sector, by the implementation of an action grant for the amount of EUR 600.000.
For 2017, the European Parliament is proposing a “pilot project” to ensure that the EUYO has operational funding by amending the Commission’s general budget proposal. The Commission will support this amendment. Several Member States expressed their support for the EUYO during the EU Culture and Audiovisual Council which took place on 31 May.
In the long run, the Commission will propose to the European Parliament and to the Council sustainable solutions in the framework of the Creative Europe Programme which will provide certainty for the EUYO to continue its activities. In parallel, the Orchestra is invited to seek additional, complementary sources of financing to expand its activities.
The services of the Commission will work on the details to ensure that the activities and expenditures of the EUYO are managed according to the rules and to ensure there is tight control over how funds are used and that the money is spent in a transparent, accountable manner.
Laura Bretan, 13, sang Nessun Dorma.
Laura is from Bucharest. She was recruited from Romania’s Got Talent.
Keanon Kyles, 27, is a maintenance man at ABC News in Chicago.
Among other things.
This summer he’s landed a role at Scottish Opera.
Report below.
Marks & Spencer are to stop playing music in response to protests from older customers.
Read here.
A spokesman from Pipedown said: “Millions of customers will be delighted by this news. So will thousands, probably tens of thousands, of people working in M&S who have had to tolerate non-stop music not of their choice all day for years.”
However John Munroe, a senior external events advisor at the British Retail Consortium, which represents retailers in the UK, said most shops taking the decision to cut music were doing so for “cost purposes” as the cost of providing music is increasing.
He added that older customers with impaired hearing and dementia may prefer shopping in outlets where there is no background music.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung dedicated its letters page this weekend to supporters of Siegfried Mauser, the former rector of the Academy of Music who was found guilty of groping a resisting female colleague. His supporters include such eminent intellectuals as Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Michael Krüger.
Mauser has issued notice of appeal.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has attacked the supporters’ campaign, wondering how these ivory-tower academics could know more about the sexual assaults than 16 witnesses whose testimony the court believed. Doch der ehemalige Rektor der Münchner Musikhochschule hat Berufung eingelegt. Und hat berühmte Unterstützer auf seiner Seite, die es aus irgendeinem Grund besser wissen als 16 Zeugen.
And more here.
Allan Yang, 51, has said he will plead guilty to 16 offences involving indecent assaults on four underage girls between 2006 and 2013.
Yang, a saxophonist, ran the so-called Melbourne Music Academy in Kew from 2014-15.
More here.
The former Bolshoi Theatre soloist Paul Dmitrichenko, who organised an acid attack on artistic director Sergei Filin, walked free today on parole after serving half his sentence.
The motive was believed to be connected to resentment over casting decisions for the dancer’s former girlfriend, the ballerina Angelina Vorontsova.
