Philipp Kochheim, artistic director at Staatstheater Braunschweig, is the new head of Aarhus opera, the second largest in Denmark.
Kochheim, 46, succeeds Annilese Miskimmon, who has got the plum job at Oslo.
An opera personage, writing on the Schmopera site under conditions of anonymity, is about to set off on the annual season of auditions – possibly for the last time.
Too many rejections, too much unnecessary advice, unwarranted abuse. Time to call it quits? Or one last go…?
If it satisfies to continue along this path, go forth and let none of the idiots hold you back. Similarly, why feel compelled by guilt or a misplaced sense of shame to stay in the hunt when in brings about nothing but misery? Quit with pride and do something better for the world and for yourself.
Whatever you do, you oughtn’t give a damn about a callback.
The business of opera is at times wonderful and at other times loathsome. It is, sadly, mostly run by the ill-informed and the ill-equipped. It is therefore oftentimes arbitrary and frivolous though it can sometimes be sublime.
What it should never be is your whole life.
At this time of year, regardless of what happens, it’s worth remembering that and finding a little bit of perspective.
Happy Feast of the Shattered Dreams to you all.
Read the full article here.
Much of it hits nails hard on the head.
It’s a lovely human gesture.
Atlanta Opera are offering free seats to The Abduction from the Seraglio to anyone blown out of house and home by Hurricane Matthew.
So far, it says, seven couples have accepted.
Which is even lovelier.
But I can’t help wondering if opera is the first place I’d go if I’d been caught in a natural disaster.
Results of the commendably transparent Hong Kong International Piano Competition:
1. Mr. Luka Okrostsvaridze (Georgia) – known as Luka Okros and a student at London’s Royal College of Music
2. Mr. Jeong-Hyun Yoon (South Korea)
3. Mr. Andrey Dubov (Russia)
4. Mr. Hin Yat Tsang (Hong Kong)
5. Ms. Lin Zi Pan (China)
6. Ms. Yedam Kim (South Korea)
That’s the claim being made for the first DVD release of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult at Canterbury Cathedral on March 29, 1968.
The soloists were Janet Baker, Peter Pears and John Shirley-Quirk; the orchestra was the London Philharmonic, with its choir. Vernon Handley was the assistant conductor and the Canterbury organ was out of order. The BBC organist Charlie Spinks was set up in a parish church two miles away with a closed-ciruit television link.
According to the publicity material (quoting Sir Adrian’s memoirs), the director Brian Large commandeered eight of the nine colour television cameras known to be in the UK at that time.
The performance was broadcast on Easter Sunday, 1968.
Does anyone have memories of the film session?
Recognise themselves in the orchestra and chorus?
Or know of an earlier colour-filmed concert?
See also: How to be a lazy conductor.
Photographer Wolf Suschitzky has Passed Away
Clockwise from left: Amsterdam Canal (Prisengracht), 1934. Female dancer in traditional Javanese dress, Bali, 1956. Shoe shiner polishes man’s shoes on Charing Cross Road, London, 1936.
Wolf Suschitzky, photographer, passed away on 7th October aged 104. Even at this advanced age he was still exhibiting (Unseen, July 2016 at the Ben Uri Art Gallery). He was also blessed to remain the same person he had always been, still engaging and interested in the world around him. I still remember being amazed bumping into him a couple of years ago at the local Sainsburys in Kilburn where he was doing his weekly shopping.
His work has been represented by Lebrecht for many years. His acute eye for the world around him transformed into black and white created shimmering portraits of bygone times. The 1930s, 1940s and 1950s are faithfully transmitted in his outstanding photographic work.
Born in Vienna in 1912, Wolfgang first came to London in 1934, fleeing Fascism in Austria. Having trained as a photographer in Austria and later as a cinematographer in the UK, he created many thousands of photographs during his career and became well known as a film cameraman on documentaries and feature films. He worked on over 200 films, including the 1971 gangster classic Get Carter.
Go to www.lebrecht.co.uk to see iconic and unusual images from the early stages of his career featuring London’s Charing Cross Road, images of Bali from the 1950s and San Francisco cable cars to name a few.
The Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, 70 next year, has been awarded the Leone d’Oro.
Previous recipients are Pierre Boulez (2012), Steve Reich (2014) and Georghes Aperghis (2015).
A brilliant student, David Grotberg was riding his bike with his girlfriend beside him when he was hit by a vehicle travelling at speed. David, a student at a Christian private university in Texas, was being taught by some of the best trumpet players in the orchestral world.
Baylor University have issued the following announcement:
The Baylor University Golden Wave Band woke up this morning to shocking news that one of their own, David Grotberg, a sophomore trumpet player, was killed in a hit and run accident late last night.
The band released this statement on their facebook page:
“David Grotberg, a sophomore University Scholar from Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and trumpet player in the Baylor University Golden Wave Band, passed away last night from injuries in a hit-and-run bicycle accident.”
“We are devastated by the news of David’s passing. David was an integral part of the Golden Wave Band. He was a bright shining star within our band family.
He was a selfless young man, a giver of enormous positivity and energy. He was a servant leader within the band. He loved the Band, he loved Baylor, and above all else, he loved the Lord.”
“We mourn this profound loss. We offer our prayers to his family and friends and we ask for your thoughts and prayers as we proceed through this difficult time. David, we love you and we will miss you dearly.”
The composer Alexander Goldscheider wrote this instrumental setting of the prayer to reflect, as it should, on individual and family history.
He writes:
Tonight starts the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, synonymous with the famous prayer Kol Nidre. I wrote my music version 25 years ago, upon the death of my beloved father František, and recorded it with our son Chris, who plays the violin and viola, and beautifully so. The video (in the Czech version of this text below) is very recent and it is not really linked to Yom Kippur, but it is very much connected with the life of my dad, his family and with millions of other families within European Jewry. The very end of the video is also, in a very different spirit, linked to the family of our daughter Lisa, whose three wonderful boys resemble the trio that peacefully prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
I find the setting, and the embedded images, exquisitely moving.
Share if you agree.