In an initiative apparently without precedent in America, a major city orchestra has created a structure for adult amateur string players to form an associated ensemble.
The new orchestra is open to all adult string musicians with two years’ experience. The first rehearsal is due on Oct. 11 at the Max M. and Marjorie Fisher Music Center.
A German, a Czech and a Frenchman shared second prize.
Full results now in:
Harp: 1. Agnés Clément (26), France (+ Audience prize)
2. Anaïs Gaudemard (25), France
3. Rino Kageyama (26), Japan
Doublebass: 1. Wies de Boevé (28), Belgium (+ Audience prize)
2. Michael Karg (24), Germany
3. Dominik Wagner (19) Ger/Austria
String quartet: 1. Quatuor Arod, France
2. Aris Quartett, Germany (+ Audience prize)
3. Quartet Amabile, Japan
Horn: 1. Withheld
=2 Marc Gruber (23), Germany (+ Audience) =2. Kateřina Javůrková (25), Czechia;
3. Félix Dervaux (26), France
The Brazil Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra plagued by controversy, has scrapped the rest of its season after admitting an eight-digit shortfall.
Twelve concerts have been cancelled. Next season is in doubt.
First report here.
For the last ten years of life Claudio Abbado rented a house in Bologna with a rood terrace and view over the city. He died there on January 20, 2014.
Last week, the owners opened a luxury Bed & Breakfast in his apartment, with four rooms (nine beds) of which the most coveted is the Abbado Room.
Luca Baccolini has broken the story in La Repubblica.
Would you stay there? Could you?
In case you missed it.
Cape Town Opera has dismissed 12 chorus singers from this summer’s Cosi fan tutte at the Aix-en-Provence festival, accusing them of theft and breach of contract.
The singers are counter-suing for unfair dismissal, arguing that they were financially exploited by the company and sacked when they spoke up against abuses.
The international SA baritone Njabulo Madlala speaks of ‘the harshest levels of exploitation & treatment. This has been going on for years unchallenged. Those who retaliate are sued immediately and a clear message is sent to all others who are thinking of ever challenging the system.’
Lawyers expect the case to set a major precedent for singers in SA. Report here.
Anthea Kreston, an American violinist in Berlin, is finding that life in the Artemis Quartet takes her to places other ensembles cannot reach.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of my position with the Artemis Quartet is traveling to beautiful or unusual locations. This week we met with our manager, and were given a list of concerts from now until 2020, which included Asia, North and South America, and extensive European destinations. What adventures await!
In addition to visiting new cities, the variety of venue is surprising. From ultra-modern stages (I swear we played in the Death Star earlier this year) to stages steeped in history (such as Wigmore and Gewandhaus), each space has a special place in history – both as a building and as a place which has welcomed legendary performers.
This last week we spent much time in one of the most unusual concert venues I could have ever imagined. The concert hall is inside of what was once the largest military airfield in Europe. A former Soviet cold-war airfield – now home to both the largest thin-film solar plant in Europe and an auto park (including testing grounds for Audi and a race-track for sports cars). Originally built by the Soviets in the 50’s, the area was a blank spot on any map – heavily forested, secret, and impenetrable. It housed 80,000 Soviet military personnel in large flimsy beige monstrosities (the final 3 remain because they are inhabited by an endangered species of bat). 60 hangars are hidden throughout the woods – covered completely by trees and grass. It was in one of these former hangars that the Bebersee Festival is based. 4 other hangars have been reclaimed – inside are glitzy showrooms for Audi test cars. Directly outside of the hangars are racetracks and test driving courses, complete with built-in spraying water features and screeching brakes. Our rehearsals were punctuated by the screeching of tires and gunning of engines.
Inside these hangars, until the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1994, were bombers, transporters, helicopters, fighters, and even a unit with nuclear tasking, able to bomb West Germany. It was in this space that our quartet performed the Shostakovich 5th String Quartet. Music and history intermingle in a tangible way here, making the mind race and heart pound during performance.
Jason and I stayed the rest of the week to play mixed chamber music – and we met new wonderful, funny, interesting friends and musicians. We all stayed together at a grand old hotel on a lake – our girls enjoying swimming and exploring the woods and watching cars race with the babysitter as Jason and I rehearsed. After-concert meals on the terrace with large steins of beer and traditional German food rounded out our last week of our first summer in Germany.
Tomorrow the Quartet plays a benefit concert for the Refugee Music Program in Berlin. 300,000 new refugees are expected in Berlin alone this year. So glad we can extend a musical hand to them.
Parkinson’s Disease has claimed the life of John Gibson, one of Ireland’s most prolific pianist-composers.
A Dubliner by birth, devoutly religious and a lifelong bachelor, he settled in Cork and applied himself to composing for national ensembles, often sourcing music of great beauty from Irish folklore.
His last years were clouded by malignant illness.
The one on the house in Plas Gwyn, Hereford, where he lived in the fertile years of 1904 to 1911, got nicked.
Hereford Council has quickly replaced it.
Call the council if you’re offered it for sale.
The musicians’ contract expires tonight.
‘We’re not very close at the moment, but are going to allow some time to let both parties figure out how to get close, and we are optimistic we can be closer in a couple of weeks,’ said cellist John Koen, chairman of the members’ committee.
Peter Dobrin reports that the deadline has been pushed back indefinitely. The first concert is on September 21.
