Hamburg’s 800 million-Euro concert hall has called back the builders for emergency repairs. Part of the building will be shut while the work is carried out.
The foyer of the small hall has suffered extensive water damage, apparently a leak from the heating system.
It is reported that the hall’s management covered up the damage with blow-dryers until the end of the season but are now having to face structural issues. At least one wall will need to be demolished and rebuilt. They will start relaying the floor of the foyer next week.
The family of Halim el-Dabh have posted:
It is with the deepest sorrow that I announce the death of my beloved husband Halim who died peacefully and gracefully in his home in Kent, Ohio on Sept. 2, 2017.
Halim was a prolific composer as well as a performer, professor and ethnomusicologist. One of his most famous works is his collaboration with Martha Graham for a work entitled “Clytemnestra”. He has written scores for world wide orchestras, dance companies, chamber orchestras and solo works.
Halim is survived by his beloved wife Deborah and his children Habeeb, Shadia and Amira.
Originally from Cairo, Halim studied in the US with Krenek, Copland, Fine and Dallapiccola. After his eye-catching involvement with Martha Graham, he joined the electronic pioneers Luening and Ussachevsky in experiments with computers and synthesizers before applying himself to ethnomusicological expeditions in Africa.
He taught at Kent State University, 1969-1991, and leaves a large body of publsihed works.
The Columbus Symphony* has released sad news of the death of Gene Standley, its principal horn since 1990.
Gene was involved in an auto accident on August 25.
The son of two French Horn players in the Pittsburgh Symphony, Gene studied at Curtis and played in the Philadelphia Orchestra in the 1980s before moving to Ohio.
He survived a bout of cancer three years ago.
Our sympathies to his grieving family and colleagues.
* An earlier version of this post mistakenly stated ‘Columbia Symphony’. We apologise for the unfortunate error. A GoFundMe appeal on behalf of the family to help with hospital expenses has now been taken down.
A message from the musicians:
We are sharing the gift of music where we can.#HoustonStrong#MusicForAll🎻💛 Musicians include Rebecca Reale, violin; Sophia Silivos, violin; Linda Goldstein, viola; and Brinton Smith, cello.
Photo by Joel Luks
Message from the Houston Symphony:
During this difficult time, we are sorry to share the disappointing news that, due to repairs at Jones Hall as a result of complications from Hurricane Harvey, we are cancelling the following concerts: Ella at 100, The Best of John Williams, Opening Night Concert + Gala with Susan Graham, and Fiesta Sinfónica.
The Patron Services Center will reopen on Tuesday, September 5.
Message from the diva:
Dear friends, I am very sorry but I have caught a cold that forces me to cancel my first performance of Il trovatore in Vienna on September 4. I really hate to cancel and to disappoint my audience, as you all know, but I need to take care of myself so that I can be healthy for the two other performances of the run. I cannot wait to sing for you on Thursday.
Her replacement on Monday will be Maria José Siri.
The formative film-score composer was consultant in 1954 on a Wagner biopic, titled Magic Fire.
He got to cover the playing whenever Wagner sat down at the piano.
The 400 square metre residences are priced, apparently, for sopranos and music directors.
Without fixtures and fittings.
Every since we broke the story of St Sepulchre’s, the National Musicians Church, telling musicians they are unwelcome, signs have appeared of a civil war in London churches between traditional Anglicans and Evangelicals.
The battle has just taken a nasty new turn with a salvo from St Sep’s former director of music, Andrew Earis, describing how the church’s mission is being traduced.
Dr Earis writes: Gradually, PCC members left and were replaced with those from the new ministries. The “Henry Wood” meeting- and rehearsal-room was restyled the 24/7 prayer room. And the church was used for a whole host of new activities, including a notable youth event with caged football in the church nave. Many felt that this was deeply unfaithful to the legacy and history that had been inherited.
The Stamford Symphony in Connecticut has recruited Russell Jones, presently with the New York Philharmonic, as president and CEO.
Jones, a former head of the Association of British Orchestras, worked as director of major gifts at the NY Phil.
The dancer Tamara Tchinarova died yesterday at her daughter’s home in Spain at the age of 98.
Of Armenian, Georgian and Ukrainian descent, she trained with Olga Preobrazhenskaya and in 1932 was recruited by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo where she was known as one of Balanchine’s Baby Ballerinas.
She decided to stay in Australia at the end of her second tour in 1939. Four years later, she married the hell-raising actor Peter Finch. After their divorce in 1959, she settled in London as a dance writer and interpreter.
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
No label generates such a buzz around new releases as the quirky Munich-based ECM which, after 48 years of high output, still manages to produce the unexpected, and at high quality. To find the senescent music of C.P.E. Bach in a series that specialises in living composers is surprise enough. To hear him played on an esoteric Tangent piano is altogether a delight…
