Anna Netrebko started the trend.

Now her label-sister Anne-Sophie Mutter follows suit:

I’d like to invite you all to join me in the creation process of my upcoming album on Deutsche Grammophon. I’ve come up with a track list and a title. Now I’d be thrilled if I could open up the floor to you for the album cover design. Join the contest on 99designs!

The beleaguered Toronto Symphony Orchestra have appointed an interim chief executive to dig them out of several holes of their own making.

The new man is Gary Hanson, who retired last year as head of the Cleveland Orchestra, where he spent almost his entire career.

Hanson, whose origins are in Toronto, is a safe pair of hands at the tiller, allied to a strong strategic mind. He secured Cleveland’s various residencies at European festivals and in Florida, and he formed a secure partnership with music director Franz Welser-Most.

His first task will be to conduct a music director search. Peter Oundjian departs next year.

The next fires he will have to fight are the detritus left behind by his capricious predecessor, Jeff Melanson, who departed after a issues of staff relations and a social scandal.

It’s a big job. But Gary Hanson wears big shoes.

UPDATE:

waffly press release:

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) announces that Gary Hanson has been named Interim CEO of the TSO. Gary Hanson, a Toronto native, was chief executive of The Cleveland Orchestra until his retirement at the end of 2015. Mr. Hanson was appointed at a special meeting of the TSO Board of Directors, on Wednesday, August 17, and will begin his term on September 26, 2016. He will serve in the role for up to two years.

Mr. Hanson joins the TSO following the successful 2015/16 season and the achievement of a third consecutive year-end surplus of revenues over expenses.

Going forward, Mr. Hanson will champion and continue the TSO’s successful work in fundraising and community outreach, and will play a key role alongside the Board of Directors in creating a comprehensive vision and strategy for the TSO’s future. Mr. Hanson will manage the ongoing search for the TSO’s next artistic leader in collaboration with the Music Director Search Committee. He will also support the TSO Board in engaging a leader to succeed him as permanent CEO.

“On behalf of the Board, I am very pleased to welcome Mr. Hanson to the TSO family. Gary’s superb track record, the esteem he has across the industry, and his well-proven management skills will help sustain and advance our positive momentum as we prepare for the future,” said Richard Phillips, Chair of the TSO Board of Directors.

In addition to working with the Board, Mr. Hanson will lead the TSO staff and will partner with the Orchestra’s musicians to ensure continuing artistic excellence, collaborating closely with Peter Oundjian during his final two seasons as Music Director.

Mr. Hanson said, “I am deeply honoured to accept this position and feel privileged that I can play a role in ‎the future success of my hometown orchestra. I look forward very much to working with the outstanding musicians and staff of the Toronto Symphony. Likewise, I am excited by the opportunity to partner with my long-time friend Peter Oundjian and joining in the celebration of his extraordinary tenure.”

Board Chair Richard Phillips thanked Sonia Baxendale who temporarily stepped off the TSO Board of Directors in March 2016 to lead the organization. “Sonia’s leadership and dedication at the TSO this year was instrumental in achieving our third year of positive results and in supporting the growing engagement of the Orchestra with the community. The organization is on a strong footing financially and operationally and her contribution has positioned us to select the right transitional leadership for the TSO. With Gary Hanson in that role, the Board now has ample time to identify a permanent CEO and ensure that the TSO continues the successful momentum we’ve established,” said Mr. Phillips.

Ms. Baxendale responded, “I was pleased to step in and assist the TSO as it becomes the vibrant organization that we all desire. I was privileged to work alongside a very talented team of senior leaders and musicians and I look forward to returning to the Board of Directors and continuing to support Gary and the TSO in the years ahead. It’s a very exciting time at the TSO and there are many wonderful initiatives ahead.”

In addition to finishing its 2015/16 fiscal year with an operating surplus, the TSO also reduced its accumulated deficit by approximately $4 million (from $12 million to under $8 million). These results were possible through an increase of more than 1,000 new donors versus last season, growth in all donor categories, the donation of a 1703 Amati viola, and strong support from the Toronto Symphony Foundation. In 2015/16, the TSO was able to achieve a 20-year record high in donations.

The summer news drought is over.

Finnish National Opera and Ballet has just announced that it has appointed composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen to be Artist in Association, a newly created, five-year position.

‘In this capacity, Salonen will have a broad remit: conducting performances, introducing his compositions into the repertoire and acting as artistic advisor. The Artist in Association relationship includes duties beyond artistic tasks, as Salonen will act as an ambassador for the FNOB in developing new partnerships.’

Salonen, 58, is principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

UPDATE: Salonen’s statement:

‘During the last thirty years, the majority of my work as a conductor and composer has taken place abroad. It feels good to finally make long-term plans in my native country, and especially at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, where the flame of artistic ambition is bright and powerful.

In an interview with tomorrow’s Paris Match, the Georgian pianist says Putin’s Russia ‘is like the Soviet Union, with imperialism and dictatorship.’

The best of British ballet critics, Ismene Brown, has signed off her last review.

Formerly with the Telegraph, lately with the Spectator, she was a founder of the ArtsDesk website and a close observer of Russian affairs.

Ismene writes:

This is my last column as The Spectator’s dance spectator. It’s been the deepest pleasure to wander on your behalf around the fertile landscape of dance, but I’m off to Oxford University to do some research. Thank you for bearing with my thoughts and I hope you bought a few tickets as a result.

No UK ballet critic comes close.

In a significant career change Elizabeth Sobol, who resigned in April as president of Universal Music Classics in the US, is to be president of Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate New York, starting October.

Elizabeth, who was previously chief exec of IMG Artists, has an unrivalled contacts book and a fertile mind. She has taken a few months to think through her next move and has decided she wants to be more of an arts initiator than a cog in a global business. At 57, she is looking for challenge and fulfilment.

At Saratoga, she has an idyllic setting and a clean sheet. The site is summer home to New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It runs on a $10.3 million in 2015.

She succeeds Marcia White, who held the fort for 11 years.

This is seriously promising.

Peter Gelb has been putting on a brave face today on his accounts for the Wall Street Journal but the annual numbers you need to know are the ones he’s playing down.

Percentage of seats sold last season: 72

Percentage of box-office potential: 66

Met budget: $300m

Funds raised from donors: $140 million (down from $150m)

Total endowment: $255 million (down from $266m)

Unfunded pension obligations: $88.2 million

Achievement: Avoided deficit (phew, that was close)

Prognosis: Difficult

Full article here.

BrittenPears.org reports the death of Wulff Scherchen, son of the the German conductor, Hermann Scherchen.

Wulff was 14 when he formed an attachment in 1937 to Benjamin Britten, then 23.

During the Second World War, Britten lived in the US and Scherchen was interned in Britain as an enemy alien.

When they met again, they no longer interested one another.

Scherchen married Pauline Woolford in October 1943 and took her surname, becoming John Woolford. Much of what is known about his relationship with Britten is known from an interview he gave to John Bridcut for his 2006 book, Britten’s Children.

From our colleague Vesa Siren in Helsinki:
Valery Gergiev held a masterclass at Turku Music Festival yesterday. Two minutes before the concert he asked talented young Eero Lehtimäki to conduct the first piece in the concert, Mother Goose by Maurice Ravel.

“Sure”, Lehtimäki agreed. Managing Director Liisa Ketomäki asked artistic director, conductor VIlle Matvejeff to double-check this with Gergiev. “I know he can do it. He has good hands and he knows the piece”, said Gergiev.

One minute before the concert, the orchestra didn’t know. Lehtimäki walked on stage and conducted well, with Gergiev in the audience. “I told you”, Gergiev grinned and conducted the rest of the concert himself.

Later Gergiev raised a toast “to my new colleague Eero”. Previously, Eero was the “artistic misleader” of well known humour band Retuperän WPK but also a conducting student in Vienna and Helsinki and the winner of international NWBC conducting competition. 

Next Finn on the block? Eero is 27.

Short video of his performance here.

The following video has been posted today on Youtube by ‘AV Daniel Violin’, who has posted other videos about Daniel Olsen Violins. We are trying to establish if there is a connection.

The accompanying message reads: ‘SOS HELP. コメントを残して、広げてください。
日本でのマイホーム元奥さんにやらねだ
House demage by ex-wife
ショック！日本の皆さん見てください！！Shock, must see.’

It was decided today to convert the Old Royal High School building in Edinburgh, vacant since 1968, into new premises for St Mary’s Music School, the only independent music school in Scotland.

The building dates from 1825 and was once considered as a site for the Scottish Parliament.

The Bach-Archiv is planning to buy the original score of the cantata ‘O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort’, composed in 1724 and first sung on June 11 that year.

The manuscript, twelve sheets long, is being sold by the Paul Sacher Foundation, which specialises in 20th century music, and Leipzig has been given first refusal on the acquisition until the end of this year.

The asking price is just under two million Euros and it is reported that the archive has already organised the money from public and private funds.