Nina Stemme pulled out of the latest performance of Shostakovich’s opera, to be replaced at the last minute by  Evgenia Muraveva.

Evgenia had been cast in two minor roles in the opera.

photo: Salzburg Festival/Thomas Aurin

The Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has attacked the conductor Gustavo Dudamel for urging his government to bring peace to the country.

Appearing on television, Maduro told Dudamel: ‘I hope God forgives you.’

‘Welcome to politics, Gustavo Dudamel. But act with ethics, and don’t let yourself be deceived into attacking the architects of this beautiful movement of young boys and girls,’ he added, claiming regime ownership of the Sistema youth movement from which Dudamel sprang.

There has been no response from Dudamel, or from his mentor Abreu (pictured above with Maduro).

Peter Dobrin reports:

Musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra are ending the season in unison, contributing a total of $74,000 to the organization that employs them. The donation represents 100 percent participation by the orchestra’s 96 members, according to leaders of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association….

“I don’t remember another occasion in my nearly 40 years with the orchestra when the musicians have made such a significant financial contribution to the POA,” said orchestra cellist Gloria dePasquale….

Nonprofits strive for 100 percent participation in campaigns and annual funds because, beyond the money itself, the gesture signals unity.

Full report here.

This is a shout out on behalf of saxophonist Jess Gillam:

On Thursday morning at approx 11.30am, my soprano saxophone was stolen in Hammersmith, London.

It is a Yanagisawa S901U Unlaquered soprano. I would really appreciate it if this post could be shared so that I can try and trace it. It was in a black Yanagisawa case (as pictured) with 2 yellow reflective stickers on – some of my business cards were in the case. If you see this saxophone for sale or if you see it online, I would really appreciate it if you could message me. Thank you very much.

From Marshall Marcus, CEO of the EUYO:

KAFKA RULES AT LUFTHANSA! A wonderful few hours trying to get Christian Lindberg to his EUYO rehearsal and concert tomorrow in Bolzano.

Lufthansa cancel his Stockholm Munich flight today at little notice and without asking him, book him on a flight 24 hours later which is no use to him. There is not a single Lufthansa person in the airport to talk to, no one on the phone at Lufthansa, and the lovely lady at SAS in Stockholm explains that without talking to Lufthansa she cannot change his flight.

So on to Specialised Travel where the wonderful Nichole puts a hold on a better flight today, but hey presto, we can’t buy the ticket until the previous coupon is closed. The airport say we can’t close it at the airport and Lufthansa, who we get on the phone eventually, says we can’t change it on the phone. By this time Christian has missed the new flight and some Lufthansa idiots say there is no more space on it anyway (not true as we have a hold on the seats through Specialised). So we fire Lufthansa and very speedily and easily buy an SAS ticket online.

So, end of the saga? Not so quick: as Specialised say, if the outward coupon on the Lufthansa flight is not closed before tomorrow morning’s outbound flight then Christian also loses his return to Stockholm. So now Christian is told by us to go back to the Lufthansa check-in desk and argue the case with non-existent Lufthansa staff. Lufthansa WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!!!!!!

All 16 members of Donald Trump’s committee on the arts and humanities resigned today in a public letter, criticising his ‘support for hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans in Charlottesville.’

The letter, which you can read here, is impressive.

But you do have to wonder why these dignitaries agreed in the first place to serve a President who has pledged to abolish the National Endowment for the Arts.

These are the resignees:

Paula Boggs, Chuck Close, Richard Cohen, Fred Goldring, Howard L. Gottlieb, Vicki Kennedy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anne Luzzatto, Thom Mayne, Kalpen Modi, Eric Ortner,  Ken Solomon, Caroline Taylor, Jill Cooper Udall, Andrew Weinstein, John Lloyd Young

UPDATE: It was further announced today that President Donald Trump and the First Lady will not attend the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony this December to avert ‘any political distractions.’

It’s those naughty melodica men, again.