…. According to a reflective piece on Bloomberg by economics Professor Melvyn Krauss:
Once considered a protected male preserve, symphony orchestras are becoming the most gender-blind employers in the U.S. The St. Louis Symphony had 18 women out of 88 musicians in 1964. In 2016, more than half of its musicians were women.
During the same period, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra went from three women out of 104 to 41 out of 102. And the New York Philharmonic went from no women to 41 women out of 100. Today, over 50 percent of the chairs in the top 250 U.S. orchestras are filled by women.
From Krysia Osostowicz, 1st violin of the Dante Quartet and professor at the Guildhall:
Last night at 7pm my violin was stolen from outside Brixton tube station while I was unlocking my bike.
The violin is by Francesco Goffriller, but not labelled and is in an oblong brown Gewa case along with three bows: a Voirin, a Tubbs and an Ouchard.
The case contains a Kun shoulder rest and Melos rosin. The zip compartment has no music but one A4 sheet of handwritten paper.
As you can imagine, I am desperate to recover my violin and bows. Please share this with all your musician friends and colleagues and if you come across it please contact me on 07976755082 or 07917261441 (a reward is offered). PLEASE SHARE!
Terrific action pics of Andrew Davis by Chris Christodoulou/Lebrecht Music&Arts
The Vega Quartet have been resident at Emory University in Atlanta for the past decade.
In that time, they’ve kept changing leaders.
The new first is Elizabeth Fayette, 28, a Curtis and Juilliard grad.
The PSO have announced the winners of several months of auditions: Max Blair, associate principal oboe, is a graduate of the Juilliard School and was a fellow with the New World Symphony in Florida for two seasons.
Joseph Campagna, bass, joined the Pittsburgh Symphony in May. He is a former member of the New Jersey Symphony (2011-2016) and a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Will Chow, cello, is a 2016 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. This is his first professional orchestra position.
Jeffrey Dee, principal bass trombone, is a former member of the Buffalo Philharmonic (2007-2016) and the Jacksonville Symphony (2002-2007).
Victoria Luperi, associate principal clarinet, was principal clarinet with the Fort Worth Symphony from 2006 to 2016 and the Winnipeg Symphony from 2002 to 2006. She is the wife of Andrés Franco, assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Brandon McLean, associate principal bass, is the former principal bass (2015-2016) with the Colorado Symphony in Denver. He also served as associate principal bass with the Vancouver Symphony from 2013 to 2015, assistant principal bass with the Florida Orchestra from 2011 to 2013 and a fellow with the New World Symphony from 2008 to 2011.
Karissa Zadinsky, cello, is finishing her studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. This is her first professional orchestra position.
The show is a co-production with Aix-en-Provence, where the New York Times headline said it had been reimagined in a ‘violent, racist world’ (though its critic wished the director had gone further).
Edinburgh first circulated the glowing review to prospective ticket buyers, then got cold feet.
It has now alerted patrons that the opera contains ‘adult scenes’ that would be ‘totally unsuitable for children’.
A spokeswoman said: ‘We don’t want to offend anyone. If somebody has bought a ticket, doesn’t think the show will be suitable for them and doesn’t want to come then we will obviously try to help them.’
From a thoughtful essay in the New Statesman:
Notions of pluralism are under intense scrutiny in the current US presidential election. Now more than ever, diversity and difference are under attack from the narrow-minded politics of Donald Trump. Harvey Seifter and Peter Economy, the co-authors of Leadership Ensemble: Lessons in Collaborative Management from the World’s Only Conductorless Orchestras, think the Republican nominee could learn a few lessons from the tenets of conductorless orchestras.
“Leadership ensembles are high-performing multi-leader teams that share and rotate leadership roles based on knowledge and expertise, and operate collaboratively on trust, mutual respect, emotional intelligence and integrity,” Seifter says.
“In each of those respects, they are the antithesis of the politics of Donald Trump, and the ethos of Trumpism.”
This time with some difficulties in her lower register.
It didn’t matter. She got a standing ovation from Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, and Mel B, along with the obligatory audience hysteria.
‘This is why we made this show,’ said Cowell. ‘So that we can find people like you.’
Laura is now 14. Watch her performance below.
The Bayreuth music director has given a guarded interview to the London Times.
The feature appears to have been prompted by the BBC Proms, where Thielemann will appear with his Dresden orchestra in September, and by SkyArts, which is livecasting the Bayreuth Ring.
Thielemann, apparently at his most relaxed, says precisely nothing.
Why did Andris Nelsons walk out from Bayreuth? No idea, nothing to do with me. ‘An enigma.’
Why was Serge Dorny fired before he could start his job in Dresden? Blank.
Are you a dictator? ‘No. Not at all. I never was. I have a north German way, half-Saxonian and half-Prussian, and this is very direct; a little rude, but also nice.’
The interview is so guarded that even the photograph is credited on the page ‘courtesy of Christian Thielemann’.