Live testimony from Jorge Costa, in Mexico City:

I was about to start teaching a class when the earthquake struck. I’ve gone through quakes in Los Angeles, here in Mexico and a tsunami in Thailand, and this was by far the worst. It was violent right off the bat.

Entire buildings collapsed. Windows were shattering and falling into the street.

I only had to go down two floors. We had a drill about 2 hours earlier, at 11 a.m., and it made a huge difference. The drill is held every year on the anniversary of the 1985 quake. People were more aware not to run and not panic. But nobody wants to go back into buildings. I’ve never seen so many people in the street….

More here.

The death is reported of Francesc Bonastre, founding father of Catalan musicology and a baroque scholar of international repute.

A prolific composer, he also directed the Schola Cantorum of the University of Barcelona, the Gaudium Musicae choir and other ensembles.

The  German soprano Anett Fritsch has withdrawn from singing Micaëla in the ROH Barrie Kosky Carmen due to an anticipated happy event. She will be replaced by the Russian Kristina Mkhitaryan (pictured).

Once upon a time, when pregnancy was coyly referred to as a ‘happy event’ or ‘a certain condition’, sopranos sang on until the last moment and sometimes gave birth in the wings. That’s how Malibran was born.

We now live in safer, healthier times.

And after Brexit, we may hear a lot of British Micaelas.

from the ASO press release:

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra welcomes seven new musicians for the 2017-18 season: Julianne Lee, Principal Second Violin; Madeline Sharp, viola; Anthony Georgeson, Associate Principal Bassoon; Sissi Yuqing Zhang, violin; Joseph Petrasek, Principal Percussion; Michael Stubbart, percussion; Thomas Carpenter, cello.

Julianne Lee joins from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where she served as the Assistant Principal Second Violin.

Madeline Sharp and Thomas Carpenter were previously members of the New World Symphony.

Principal bassoonist of the Florida Orchestra, 2007-17, Anthony Georgeson has also been a member of the New World Symphony.

Michael Stubbart was Acting Principal Percussion with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra in Honolulu.

Joseph Petrasek most recently served as Associate Principal Percussionist of the Kansas City Symphony for eight seasons, and as a percussion fellow in the New World Symphony.

Sissi Yuqing Zhang is a founding member of the Hsin Trio.