Paul Phillips has been named director of orchestral studies at Stanford, as well as music director of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Philharmonia. Phillips, 61, has been at Brown University since 1989.
Apart from the four big-stick cancellations, the Venezuelan Rafael Payare has just told the Luxembourg Phil he’s too sick to conduct. Dmitri Liss will stand in.
And the Czech Juraj Valcuha has cancelled on the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
Marzena Diakun is flying in from Warsaw to make her Merseyside debut.
Michael Tilson Thomas has just cancelled on the London Symphony Orchestra’s Finnish tour.
Dima Slobodeniouk will replace him on 13 June.
Here’s who else has cancelled today.
UPDATE: Health alert over maestro virus.
Paul Zukofsky, one of the most intelligent soloists on the US scene and perhaps the most challenging, died on June 6 in Hong Kong, aged 73. The cause was non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
A Galamian student at Juilliard, Paul Zukofsky made his Carnegie Hall debut in a Mozart concerto, aged nine. He went on to apply himself to new music, working closely with John Cage, Elliott Carter and the minimalists. He gave the world premiere of Philip Glass’s violin concerto and appeared in the role of Einstein in Einstein on the Beach.
He made at least 60 recordings, almost all of modern music. Among other composers in his portfolio were Milton Babbitt, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Ralph Shapey, Charles Wuorinen and Iannis Xenakis. He also taught at Julliard and elsewhere, greatly encouraging many young violinists.
In the early 1990s, Paul was head of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute when the University of Southern California decided to throw it off the campus. Paul assisted in the process by which the Schoenberg Nachlass was transferred to Vienna. He was also the custodian of the works of his own father, the poet Louis Zukofsky.
First, Yannick pulled out of the Berlin Philharmonic with a bad arm.
Then Kirill Petrenko cancelled the Concertgebouw.
Now we hear that Gustavo Dudamel is too unwell to conduct the Bavarian Radio Symphony.
His replacement is Juanjo Mena.
The substitutes’ bench is practically empty.
What the hell’s going on?
UPDATE: Make that four.
UPDATE: Health alert over maestro virus.
Just in, from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra:
Conductor Kirill Petrenko unfortunately has had to cancel his concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on 14, 15 and 16 June for health reasons.
The orchestra is very grateful to conductor Cristian Macelaru for stepping in on such short notice. He will make his debut with the orchestra.
The programme will undergo a few changes. Instead of Symphonia Domestica by Richard Strauss, the orchestra will perform Death and Transfiguration by the same composer, followed by Richard Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser. The programme before the intermission will remain unchanged: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, K. 491, featuring Radu Lupu.
Summer may be clearout time, but the Milwaukee Symphony is ushering out eight players at a go, which (as Damon Runyon would have said) is more than somewhat.
The departing players are former associate concertmaster Anne de Vroome Kamerling, violinists Andrea Wagoner, Les Kalkhof, and Taik-ki Kim, cellists Elizabeth Tuma and Margaret Wunsch, assistant principal flute Jeani Foster and pianist Wilanna Kalkhof.
Together they represent more than three centuries of playing experience.
More here.
Xian Zhang, who has been adding extra jobs in the past two years, is no longer music director of La Verdi Symphony Orchestra in Milan.
Her successor was named today. He’s the veteran Klaus Peter Flor.
Xian Zhang, 44, is music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and principal guest of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She is presently one of the judges at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
David Lan has resigned after 17 years as artistic director of the Young Vic.
He brought numerous directors to work in London for the first time, among them Patrice Chéreau, Luc Bondy, Ivo Van Hove, Benedict Andrews and Simon Stone.
Under David’s leadership, the Young Vic has been a cosmopolitan hub in London’s theatreland. We will need it more than ever after Brexit.
photo (c) Simon Annand
David, 65, has also been Consulting Artistic Director of the planned Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Centre at the World Trade Centre in New York.
The up-and-coming Manchester Camerata has upgraded its board.
Stephen Dauncey, Director of Finance at Manchester University, becomes chairman.
He takes over from Judith Watson, who set the orchestra on an upward curve since 2013.
Nigel Grainge, brother of Universal Music CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, has died in Los Angeles of post-operative complications. He was 70.
London born, Nigel Grainge ran his own record label, Ensign, signing The Boomtown Rats, Waterboys and Sinead O’Connor. After selling Ensign to Chrysalis, he remained in the music biz as a consultant.
Our sympathies to his family.
The Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has pulled out of this week’s Berlin Philharmonic concerts with an unspecified arm injury.
His replacement will be Ludovic Morlot, making his Berlin Phil debut.
The soloist is Joyce DiDonato.
UPDATE: Kirill cancels Concertgebouw.
UPDATE2: Dudamel dumps Munich.