Marcelo Lehninger, 36, has been named music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony.

The EUYO has published its response to the EU’s decision to reinstate its funding, calling for speed and precision to enable it to plan for a stable future. The statement:

We welcome the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s 1 June 2016 announcement of proposals to enable the European Union to return to core funding the EUYO. We are very appreciative of President Juncker’s kind words about the EUYO and about its role in the past 40 years as a symbol of Europe. We also join President Juncker in thanking the European Parliament, and in particular MEPs Silvia Costa and Jose Manuel Fernandez, for help in reaching a solution, and showing “that we can find creative solutions by overcoming bureaucratic procedures when something is in the interest of our citizens”.

Yesterday’s announcement contains funding proposals for 2016, 2017 and beyond, and the Orchestra looks forward to working in detail on these proposals in direct dialogue with the European Commission. The Orchestra is aware that only when the precise details of these proposals are confirmed by both the Commission and the EUYO can the future of the Orchestra be said to be assured. Given the long lead time of the classical music industry, in which commitments have to be made 2-3 years ahead, we hope to complete this work with urgency and speed.

In the meantime we offer huge thanks to the quite astounding array of individuals and organisations throughout the world who have supported the #SaveEUYO Campaign. With far too many to mention individually in the space of a press release, we refer to the many examples of support which can be seen on our online support page. Once funding is in place and confirmed, the Orchestra looks forward to continuing its role as a Cultural Ambassador for the EU and as a beacon for the European spirit of excellence, freedom and creativity, both in Europe and also in the rest of the world.

Yale, who like to be first, are claiming that their Concert Band’s performance for Afghan and Syrian migrants yesterday at the Eleonas Refugee Camp was the first of its kind.

Be that as it may, it was a good thing to do.

Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director, said: ‘The Yale Concert Band is genuinely grateful for the opportunity to perform exciting, contemplative, exuberant and spiritually uplifting music for audiences throughout Greece. The Concert Band is humbled to have the opportunity to perform at the Eleonas Refugee Camp in Athens. Its residents should not be denied the pleasure of hearing great music, nor this experience with visiting musicians – an experience so different from their daily routines. We hope that our music can help to drown out the sounds of a world gone mad with war.’

The paper has summarily shut down ArtsBeat, its attempt to compete on arts news with the blogosphere.

ArtsBeat was slow, stiff and unedifying.

Few will mourn its passing.

The Times will survive a while yet.

Here’s the Times ArtsBeat obit.

Zurich Opera has lost both its conductor and its Hermann from Tchaikovky’s opera.

The veteran Russian conductor Michail Jurowski, 70, is said to be seriously ill with a suspected heart condition.

He’s being replaced at short notice by Stanislav Kochanovsky.

The US tenor Brandon Jovanovich has also cancelled the entire run for health reasons. His substitute is Maxim Aksenov.

UPDATE: Good news of Jurowski. He’s feeling much better and will conduct in Zurich on June 16 and 17.

James Ross will succeed Rubén Gimeno in September 2017 as music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Vallés, it was announced today.

Hed Yaron Mayersohn of the Berlin Philharmonic Akademie, has arrived as assistant concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Hed, who is 27, has been an academy member since 2013.

It was around the turn of the year that Peter Gelb received instructions from his board to sign Yannick Nézet-Séguin as the next music director.

No other name was on the table.

Gustavo Dudamel might have been considered, but he has refused to work at the Met until he can control his own video rights.

Antonio Pappano, the experienced Covent Garden director, did not go down well in New York.

The leading European opera house music directors – Ricardo Chailly, Christian Thielemann, Kirill Petrenko, Philippe Jordan – did not get a call.

It was Yannick, or bust.

But why the rush?

Everyone knew that Yannick was not going to be available before the decade was out. That left plenty of time to try out a few other names before reaching a final decision.

Someone, it seems, panicked over Yannick. He may, in the final reckoning, be the best person for the job, but the manner of his appointment is messy and the delay before he starts work unsatisfactory.

An unseemly panic.

To no surprise at all, the Metropolitan Opera has just announced Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its next music director.

As we foretold, the incoming music director will not take up his duties until 2020-21, leaving the company in an uncomfortable state of interregnum.

Even more complicated, Yannick let it be known today that he has renewed with the Philadelphia Orchestra until 2025-26, an exceptionally long contract and one which seems to declare that his first loyalty is with Philly.

And there is no suggestion of the Montreal maestro giving up his association with his hometown Orchestre Métropolitain.

All of which indicates that the Met has replaced a unique music director, James Levine, with a younger man who is not available for several years to come and whose affinities will often lie elsewhere.

Not a great deal.

UPDATE: The panic over Yannick.

Typically, the Met released the news first through its press office, the New York Times, which followed up with a choreographed hallelujah by Zachary Woolf, describing his body art and life partner.

A press release followed a while later:

New York, NY  (June 2, 2016) – The Metropolitan Opera announced that the acclaimed conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be the company’s new Music Director. The position has previously been held by only two artists in the company’s storied 133-year history—James Levine, who after 40 years in the position stepped down at the end of the recently concluded season to become the company’s first Music Director Emeritus, and Rafael Kubelik, who held the title briefly in the company’s 1973-74 season.

In the Met’s 2017-18 season, Nézet-Séguin will assume the interim title of Music Director Designate. He will become Music Director in the 2020-21 season, the first season in which he is available to take over the full responsibilities of the position. However, he will immediately become involved in the company’s artistic planning, which happens many years in advance. As Music Director, Nézet-Séguin will be responsible for the overall musical quality of the Met. He will have artistic authority over the company’s orchestra, chorus, and music staff, and will work in tandem with Met General Manager Peter Gelb to oversee the planning and casting of each Met season, including repertoire choices, new productions (including the selection of creative teams), revivals, and commissions.

Nézet-Séguin will initially conduct five different operas each season he is Music Director, as well as concerts with the Met Orchestra. In each of the seasons in which he is Music Director Designate, Nézet-Séguin will conduct two operas. Next season at the Met, he will conduct his first Wagner opera with the company, a revival of Der Fliegende Holländer. “Becoming the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me,” said Nézet-Séguin. “I am truly honored and humbled by the opportunity to succeed the legendary James Levine and to work with the extraordinary orchestra, chorus, and staff of what I believe is the greatest opera company in the world. I will make it my mission to passionately preserve the highest artistic standards while imagining a new, bright future for our art form.”

“Yannick was the clear choice of the Company,” said Gelb. “He is the right artist at the right time to lead us forward into a new and what I believe will be a glorious chapter in the history of the Met.”

“The Metropolitan Opera has been the great artistic love of my life, and it has been tremendously rewarding to see the company develop and improve over the past 45 years,” said Levine. “I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Yannick on taking the musical reins, and I look forward to seeing the good work continue under his watch.”

“The MET Orchestra enjoys a tremendously fruitful, positive relationship with Maestro Nézet-Séguin, and we are delighted in his appointment as Music Director,” said Jessica Phillips, clarinetist and chair of the Met’s Orchestra committee. “He embodies the artistic leadership, musical excellence, and respect for rich tradition that opera lovers around the world have come to cherish. We eagerly look forward to working together to shape this new era at the Met.”

“The singers and stage performers at the Met welcome Yannick Nézet-Séguin, joining the historic line of artists from James Levine’s great tenure back to Toscanini and Mahler,” said David Frye, tenor and chair of the Met’s chorus committee. “Yannick has led great performances with the company, and we’re eager to expand our collaboration.”

Nézet-Séguin made his Met debut in the 2009-10 season, conducting a new production of Bizet’s Carmen. He has returned in every subsequent season, leading acclaimed performances of Verdi’s Don Carlo, Gounod’s Faust, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Dvořák’s Rusalka. He led the opening night performance of the Met’s 2015-16 season, a new production of Verdi’s Otello.

Nézet-Séguin’s operatic career was launched when he was appointed Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor of the Montreal Opera at age 23. Since then, he has conducted a wide breadth of repertoire at a number of the leading companies, including the Vienna State Opera; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; La Scala; Dutch National Opera; and the Salzburg Festival, in addition to the Met. He is also a frequent guest conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Since 2012, Nézet-Séguin has been Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which announced today that he has extended his contract with them through 2025-26. (A separate press release on that announcement is available.) Given the close proximity of New York and Philadelphia, Nézet-Séguin will be able to easily commute between his two posts, and the Met and the Philadelphia Orchestra will also be exploring the possibilities for artistic collaboration between the two institutions.

He is also the Music Director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain and of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, a position he will resign at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.

Mike Vincent has come up with an achievable wishlist for improving the concert experience here on MusicalToronto.

We agree with most of his reforms.

Here’s a few more:

11 Allow drinks into the concert hall

12 Stop female soloists dressing like 1950s Hardy Amies mannequins. Dress normal, fffs sake.

13 Disperse critics around the hall, instead of cramming them into the top-price ghetto

14 Abolish agent-written artist biographies from programme booklets

15 Abolish printed booklets. Attach the content to online ticket bookings.

Any more?

There’s a whisper backstage that Peter Gelb may jump ship.

Lincoln Center is desperate to find a new president after the last one was dumped for promoting his lover.

Gelb is in ever-deepening mire at the Met. He has done ten years and run out of ideas.

What could be more convenient than a job switch?

At this stage, this is no more than canteen chat. But stranger things have happened.

We’ve heard from the Alfred Brendel Remain camp today.

Are any UK musicians suffiiently sceptical or fed up to vote Leave?

Or brave enough to declare their intention?

English Music Festival, anyone?