One year in as music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic, Susanna Mälkki has signed a contract renewal, committing to the orchestra until 2021.

They caught her signature just before Helsinki freezes over.

Here’s what she said today: ‘I am truly happy to be able to continue planning our journey together with the orchestra – including concerts, tours and recordings. The richness of our repertoire and the quality of our teamwork will allow us to continue to create refined and moving art.’

Hannu Lintu, chief conductor of Finnish Radio, has been given the Finland Prize.

Lintu, 50, is cited as ‘one of the most prominent Finnish conductors of his generation.’

 

An assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music is being investigated for an online class exchange with a student, Fay Alwattari, in which he expressed heated opinions on Muslims in the US, none of them to do with music.

Professor Clifford Adams, who has taught at the college since 2003, said he was unaware the exchange had been released on social media and was unable to comment.

 

CCM Tribunal President Connor Howard said: ‘I’m very disappointed, albeit not surprised, that such an incident has occurred within CCM.’

Some CCM alumni are rallying a petition for Adams to be dismissed. Alt-right groups are lining up behind him. An irascible tutor-student conversation on an off-syllabus topic has got completely out of hand.

Full story here. A tale of our times.

 

From our weekly diarist, Anthea Kreston, an American iolinist in Berlin:

Back to the grindstone (in the most exuberant definition of). This week my quartet (Artemis) is hard at work – our modified sabbatical is over, and we have work to do. I just finished filling out our our calendar on our website until the end of 2018, and it is frighteningly, thrillingly full. Concert after concert, in some of the best halls in the world. A dizzying (endless) list of cities – an abridged list includes Paris, Vienna, Lisbon, London, Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Budapest, Zurich……

Our repertoire is huge – exciting, adventurous plans are solidifying for the Beethoven year (2019-20), multiple recordings for Warner, repertoire planned, guest artists booked, publicity, travel and new photos are being rolled out.

We headed into our first rehearsals like four bulls, eyes on the prize. Each player is razor-sharp – fresh from solo projects, our techniques have all been sharpened, our work with other artists widens our pallets – creates new colors and fusions.

We began this week with the Mendelssohn Op 44 #1 – what a great selection on which to begin our next phase. A mature work of his – bubbling with optimism, and sentimental good vibes. Let’s hope the beginning of my third season brings only goodness and light.

Mendelssohn is buried in Berlin – to learn these works in Europe gives them such a different perspective.  What used to be an appreciation from afar is now something tangible – the conflicts of wars and struggles with nationalism and religious background is here and now, not “over there”. Next we begin a new Shostakovich in preparation for my first Artemis recording – their first Shostakovich CD. We are now living just a handful of meters away from the remains of the wall – the past Soviet and German history is very much alive. I have many playing partners and friends who grew up on the other side – in the DDR days.

My pianist, this week, said a couple of funny things – after an espresso from his office machine, he shook his head like a dog coming from the lake and said “it’s so invigorating – like taking a visit to the West in the DDR days”, and “Anthea – we can balance better here – this is not communism – we don’t all have to have the same sized house!”.

As Jason was driving me to the first rehearsal at the Universität der Künste, where I can now officially call myself Professor, I was scrolling through my iPhone, playing the first bars of the Mendelssohn Op. 44 #1 which was on the docket that day. Jason said – “oh that’s an easy one – you can recognize Arnold’s vibrato a mile away” (Steinhardt – Guarneri Quartet), or a nostalgic “Gosh, we should write to Phil – I miss those guys” (Setzer of Emerson). Then another – a crisp account filled with surprising twists and turns – dazzling in clarity, and Jason says – “Who is that?” – and I answer “Artemis, my quartet”. What a first week back!

 

Duncan McTier, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to indecent assault on women students from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the Purcell School, has lost his appeal against an indefinite ban on him teaching.

McTier, 62, resigned from the Royal Academy of Music when the accusations became known. He received a three-month suspended sentence and a lifetime teaching ban. A National College for Teaching & Leadership tribunal yesterday reinforced the ban.

He may apply again for the ban to be lifted in 2021.

 

Houston Grand Opera has been forced to extend its lease on temporary accommodation due to continuing restoration of its home after flood damage.

Press release:

Houston, November 2, 2017— Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its winter productions of R. Strauss’s Elektra (January 19–February 2, 2018) and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (January 26–February 10, 2018) in the HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center. HGO had previously announced that its fall productions and world premiere holiday opera The House without a Christmas Tree (November 30–December 17) would take place in the convention center. The extended schedule is possible because Houston First, the corporation that manages the facility, was able to relocate events previously scheduled for that period into other spaces within the building. 

 

Te Mendelssohn  House has bought two portraits of the composer’s older sister, herself a prolific musician, with financial aid from the Siemens Foundation.

The pencil drawings are by Fanny’s husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, who was so stricken by her early death that he gave up art altogether.

 

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual deficit has risen to $1.4 million for the year to June 2017, from $1.1 million in 2016, it was announced last night.

Ticket sales were down $32,000, to $22.17 million. Major gifts also slowed down.

photo (c) Todd Rosenberg

The epic violinist stole the show again this week on a Dutch TV programme. He talks about John Lennon, Yoko One (whom he couldn’t abide) and others from his past and present.

Watch here. Ivry segment starts at around 5:00.

Rider University, home to Westminster Choir College, has delivered layoff notices to the entire teaching staff of the college, around 70 musicians. The lay-offs will take effect next August.

Rider’s president Gregory Dell’Omo has been trying to get rid of the college for a while. He claims to have found a buyer for Westminster College, which has been at the heart of American music for more than 90 years.

The university says the layoffs are designed to ‘secure the future’ of the College.

Believe that if you like.

Read more here.

UPDATE: China to buy America’s top choir college?

 

Since the issue has been trivialised to the point where a minister resigns for a hand on a journalist’s knee, let’s try to haul it back to serious criminal abuse. I’ve seen and heard plenty over 40 years, but these are probably the worst.

1 The conductor who raped a teenage soloist in his green room, destroying her confidence and career.

2 The conductor who had teenage boys delivered to his room.

3 The magazine editor who forced male PRs into sex.

4 The orchestra boss who preyed on female admin staff.

5 The opera star who demanded sex from female PRs.

I’m not naming names, nor will I permit any names to be posted in Comments. This is not a witch-hunt. It’s a summons to the classical music world to recognise that abuses have persisted in full public view for several decades and no-one said a word because the perpetrators were – still are – considered too important.