Apparently concertmasters are the only group to lose out. They are down 0.19% year on year.
Still, it’s not that bad. Five concertmasters are making a cool half-million bucks:
1 New York Philharmonic: $615,924
2 San Francisco Symphony: $563,745
3 Los Angeles Philharmonic: $554,209
4 Chicago Symphony: $549,794
5 Cleveland Orchestra: $503,573 ….. full list here.
The NY Phil concertmaster in the year concerned was the retiring Glenn Dicterow. Frank Huang (pictured), who has recently transferred from Houston (under $300k) to the New York seat, will be smiling all the way to the bank.
The Annecy Classic Festival, scheduled for August 23-27, has been called off ‘due to the economic situation’.
A decision is pending whether it can resume next year, or at all.
The festival was founded 45 years ago by Eliane Richepin and combined performances and academy.
Its artistic directors are Pascal Escande and the Russian Denis Matsuev.
First reviews of the tenor singing both parts of Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic are decidedly mixed. Gustav Mahler specified a tenor for three songs and an alto or baritone for the other three. Kaufmann decided to do the lot himself. Substitute Jonathan Nott conducted.
Kaufmann had no problem with the top notes. But, according to some reports, he transposed the closing ‘ewig, ewig’ one octave upwards.
Other questions: Could one singer capture the entire gamut of emotions? Is the dramatic intensity sustained? Why did Kaufmann decide to do it at all?
From historian Joseph Horowitz’s summary of his address to the League of American Orchestras:
Our orchestras are facing a perfect storm moving at high velocity. How fast can they adapt? The most adaptive orchestra I know is the South Dakota Symphony. Its music director, Delta David Gier, began his tenure by initiating a Lakota Music Project linking to nine Indian reservations; most recently, he took Dvorak’s New World Symphony to Native American audiences in remote Sisseton. With its enterprising nine-member “core,” the South Dakota Symphony is positioned to maximize personal interaction with Sioux Falls residents and institutions.
The Detroit Symphony, energized by a crippling strike, is another orchestra making strides toward showing the culture of the community. That Detroit is the host orchestra for the League’s 2017 conference, next June, is auspicious. The League’s sense of urgency will likely be sustained. Will the conference again identify a single focused goal? How about expanding the role of individual musicians in every facet of orchestral life?
In most places, we fear, his proposal will go unheeded. Too many boards have too much to lose if they let musicians out of their seats.
At the annual Encaenia ceremony held today, Arvo Pärt received an honorary degree in Music from Oxford University.
At a ceremony held at the Sheldonian Theatre the University of Oxford conferred honorary degrees on nine distinguished figures from the fields of theology, law, economics, architecture, film, science, engineering and music. The honorary doctorates of Letters were awarded to the economist Paul Krugman, the film director Pedro Almodóvar and the architect Kazuyo Sejima. The honorary doctorate in Divinity was awarded to the philosopher and theologian Tomáš Halík; the honorary doctorate in Civil Law was awarded to a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Lord Johathan Mance, and honorary doctorates in Science were awarded to the neurobiologist Cornelia Bargmann, the physicist Mildred Dresselhaus and Sir Jonathan Ive, the Chief Design Officer of Apple Inc.
Kim Gaynor, the festival’s managing director for the past 11 years, is leaving next week to become head of Vancouver Opera.
Her replacement was announced today.
She is Laurence Marchand, head of production at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris for the past 17 years.
Martin Engstrom, the founder, stays on as executive director.
The violinist, in Jerusalem to receive the Genesis Prize, has told AP of his shock at the candidate’s mocking gesture at a disabled newspaperman.
“Horrible, horrible, horrible … That was a mindless kind of decision,’ said Perlman. ‘It was terrible. You don’t do that … it’s so outrageous.’
After singing at the Orlando vigil two days ago, the chorus have rush-released a two-track single, all proceeds to the Orlando victims and Galop (an anti LGBT-hate crime charity).
Watch those diverse faces in the choir.
About London Gay Men’s Chorus www.lgmc.org.uk
In 1991, nine friends came together to sing a few Christmas carols at Angel Underground Station
hoping to raise a few pounds for the Terrence Higgins Trust. London was in the midst of the AIDS crisis
and the men, who belonged to a social group called London Friend sang together to find a place of
support, of friendship and of brotherhood. Little did they know what they had kickstarted.
Fastforward 25 years later, and this once small band of singers now calls itself the London Gay Men’s
Chorus. Boasting over 200 members, the LGMC is the largest gay choir in Europe and regularly plays
to sellout crowds at Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall and the Roundhouse. Over the years, the chorus
has been lucky enough to have worked with a diverse range of artists including pop stars Mark Ronson
and Elton John, soprano Lesley Garrett, country legend Dolly Parton, musical theatre star Hannah
Waddingham, actor Simon Callow and comedienne Sandi Toksvig. The LGMC has also appeared on
Children In Need, Comic Relief, The One Show, The Graham Norton Show and Top of the Pops.
Richard Mantle, general director of Opera North says:
‘I think you can certainly see over the last 40 years the real value of being part of an enormous talent pool which is Europe… This natural exchange of ideas, of people, of talent that has gone on over 30 or 40 years has really strengthened and enriched our cultural sector to an extent that possibly wouldn’t have been there in the past. So many young artists, singers musicians, directors, designers, all sorts of things, have exported their talents into Europe, they often go and work there and they come back. Art does transcend borders and my concern is that I don’t want to see us become more isolationist again because I think there is a great richness and diversity in freedom of movement.’
Yeah, but he’s a specialist and Brexit voters don’t listen to experts, right?
Leeds, by the way, is bidding to be Europe’s culture capital in 2023. Forget that, if Brexit wins.
The Music Director’s salary for 2013 was $1,788,997, with the bulk of the remainder being a signing bonus for a long-term contract extension executed in 2013… The long-term contract extension now goes through the 20/21 season and includes three years as conductor laureate. The bonus amount was funded entirely by a restricted gift given exclusively for this one-time occurrence. The bottom line operating budget of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra was not affected at all.
Are they out of their Texan minds?
There is no known precedent in orchestral history for paying a conductor a sweetener to stay put. He wants to go? Let him go. There are plenty more sticks on the shelf.
What Dallas did is way out of line with industry practice. It has also inflated Van Zweden’s value into some kind of South Sea Bubble, forcing the New York Philharmonic to pay over the odds for a conductor who was not their first choice – or anybody else’s, except Dallas.
Van Man and his IMG agent have proved themselves ace negotiators.
He’s also drawing down a hefty salary in Hong Kong, where he has just renewed.
