A woman has finally been admitted as a full adult member to the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir in London.
She is Carris Jones from south London and her title is Alto Vicar Choral.
Carris sings regularly with Stile Antico, Gabrieli Consort and Tenebrae, as well as opera groups.
The death has been reported of Anatoly Nikitin, principal cellist of the St Petersburg Philharmonic for around 40 years and a noted soloist and teacher. He also conducted masterclasses in the US, Italy and Switzerland, leaving an international trail of students. He taught in the style of his own teacher, Mstislav Rostropovich.
Anatoly Nikitin was 85.
It is reported that the pianist Markus Hinterhäuser lost his cool with a page-turner during a Wigmore Hall recital with the baritone Matthias Goerne.
According to Jenna Douglas on Schmopera:
Hinterhäuser stopped playing in the middle of the first song (Mahler’s “Der Tamboursg’sell”), visibly frustrated with his page-turner… Not only did Hinterhäuser make for an uneasy start to a recital, but he behaved in poor, selfish taste. Goerne seemed prepared to continue singing, even if Hinterhäuser needed to scramble to save the missed page-turn; yet this pianist decided to stop the whole thing entirely, draw attention to the human error that may have happened beside him, and force Goerne to restart.
These things happen, and Jenna’s right: artists need to get over it. Read on here.
(Hinterhäuser is, aside from his pianistic career, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival.)
While the Met plays one-third empty across the season, the Vienna Opera has reported 98.6 percent sales in its latest statistical briefing:
In the 2015/2016 season, a total of 394 performances was watched by 610,516 visitors. The 290 performances on the main stage of the Wiener Staatsoper achieved an average attendance of 98.59% of seating capacity.
Vienna Opera queue
Eight premières (opera, ballet, children’s opera) and 66 different works as well as two tours (opera and ballet) were staged. The total expenditure in 2015/2016 came to €114.8m, the subsidy by the republic of Austria amounted to €60.4m. Ticket sales achieved record revenues of €34.8m. Self-generated revenue amounted to 43.8%.
Interim result for the 2016/2017 season: As of February 27th, 2017, average attendance in the main house (opera, ballet, recitals) amounts to 98.84% (99.43% just for opera). Ticket sale revenue is €20,091,187.73. Average revenue per performance is €122.507,24.
Louis Langrée has been extended at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to 2022, a two-year addition.
And Kayoko Dan has been given five more years at the Chattanooga Symphony, also to 2022.
The hope is there might yet be life after Trump.
Matt Buckman is stepping down as general director both of Fresno Grand Opera and of Modesto Townsend Opera.
The two companies share productions and staff while maintaining separate governing boards.
Buckman has been in charge at Modesto for nine years and at Fresno for two. He is leaving for personal reasons – his fiancée, Deleana Quan, lives in Sacramento and that’s just too far to commute from his two jobs.
Love triumphs again over opera.
Germany has too many music conservatories. They need to attract foreign students, mostly on full scholarship, in order to stay open.
The Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, one of the more reputable schools, has published a video on the services in provides for foreign students.
It is worth watching, chiefly for the incongruity of the music track to the video, which bears little relation to the music that is taught at the college.
Click here to watch.
Rediscovered home movies, published this week, contain a brief clip of the composer joking with friends. There is also a shot of him dancing in a ring.
The narrator is 1930s Steinway executive Sasha Greiner.
The thoughtful and influential James Sellars died last week at the age of 76, or 73 (his date of birth in Arkansas is variously given as October 1940 and 1943).
A chamber music specialist, often dwelling on American themes, Sellars taught for most of his career at Hartt College, where thousands of students came to know and play his crafted, intense works.
The death has been announced of the Danish jazz composer and bass player Nicolai Munch-Hansen. No cause has been specified.
His wife, singer Kira Skrov, posted in English:
My dearly beloved, darling husband, father to Nora and Morgan, sadly passed away Monday evening. I loved Nicolai with all of my heart and the grief is unbearable. Searching for strength to overcome this tragic loss. I’m surrounded by friends and family who are helping to carry me through this. I thank you all for the love and support!
The iconic venue has been fined A$15,000 for noise violations after complaints by its neighbours.
Residents of the so-called Toaster building objected to four concerts in 2015 by Florence And The Machine, claiming it was far too loud.
The New South Wales government has now slapped an order on the opera house, prohibiting all noise above 70 decibels on all days after 4pm.
Opus 3 Artists has added Dr Marcus Felsner as joint managing director of its Berlin operation with Katharina Ronnefeld, its leader since 2012.
Felsner, 48, is described as ‘a German lawyer and classical music essayist (who) has been the managing partner of a global professional service firm.
So, not an agent or talent scout.
