Hyeyoon Park, youngest winner of the ARD International Music Competition in 2009, has signed up with the UK-based Hazard Chase.
She is now 25, and busy.
Quite by chance, I came across two articles I wrote in 2010 on criticism in crisis. I had just given up the last of my editorial responsibilities for hiring and firing critics and I was free to speak my mind.
Pressures were mounting on newspapers to cut review space and costs.
The first piece warns of declining standards among critics.
The second describes the arts critic as an endangered species, almost a write-off.
However, compared to present circumstances, 2010 seems a distant paradise.
The composer has responded angrily to reports that a Yorkshire school is making a £5 weekly charge for music.
‘I am a passionate believer in the importance of the arts in schools, particularly music, which transcends all languages, shades of politics, race and creeds,’ he told The Stage.
‘In our increasingly dangerous and fractured world, the arts have never been as vital as they are today and they should be free.’
More here.
The Austrian guitarist and lutenist Konrad Ragossnig died in Antwerp on New Year’s Day.
He was a pillar of the Archiv record catalogue.
We’ve had issues with LATAM Airlines before, but this appears to be a case of staff callousness elevated to a business model.
From Annie McGee of the Sydney Conservatorium:
I am so enraged by my experience travelling LATAM Airlines that I thought I should share.
My flights have been delayed, staff have refused to make themselves available to speak with, I’ve missed connecting flights, I’ve queued in line for four hours to arrange new flights, I’ve been given measly food vouchers as compensation that aren’t accepted by the airport, I’ve had to stay at the airport gates overnight rather than in a hotel. The list goes on.
I would have put up with all of that, no complaint, had they not lost my luggage – my suitcase and my cello. Only with the help of my gorgeous Brazilian friend on the phone could I communicate with airport staff in São Paulo to complete a lost baggage form.
After they informed me my luggage had been located in Santiago and would be on the next flight to São Paulo and delivered to my accommodation, I calmed down a little. Alas, after 30 hours here in São Paulo my luggage status is now ‘missing’. After initially saying they would get in touch with me, customer service says I should call back after 36 hours as there’s nothing they can do for me before then. Otherwise I should just keep checking online using my luggage reference number. No apology for the inconvenience has yet been given.
I’ve come to Brazil to play in a music festival with fabulous musicians, teachers and conductors. I arrived a week early to adjust to the time zone and continue preparing some very difficult repertoire. Now I’m in doubt whether I will receive my cello before the festival and even get a chance to play.
See also: World’s worst airlines, 2018
Simon Rattle is putting together a parallel orchestra of 100 amateur players.
Applications close tomorrow.
Get those videos in now. Apply here.
We hear that Luiza Borac’s performance of the Liszt concerto at Bad Kissingen this weekend had more than its usual share of Blitz und Donner.
As the conductor pointed to the triangle section, a huge spotlight blew out with a bang.
Neither Luiza nor the National Theatre Orchestra of Prague batted an eyelid.
Review here.
From an article in Strings magazine:
The biggest mistake musicians make is denying they feel anxiety, says Patricia Thornton, a New York psychologist who specializes in anxiety disorders. “If you tell yourself not to be anxious and feel anxious anyway, you’ll feel even worse,” she explains. “Denial makes the thought more resistant.”
The solution: Embrace the anxiety.
“Instead of trying to relax, energize yourself,” Thornton says. “Get your heart-rate up. If you’re performing with other people, cheer each other on. Then you can attribute that elevated heart rate to excitement rather than anxiety.”
Read on here.
Page\Park Architects from Glasgow have been awarded the £12m contract to bring the public spaces around the excellent concert hall up to contemporary standards.
The hall opened in 1991.
Here’s the new look:
No clue yet how long the facility will be out of action.
In what appears to be a rogue precedent, Bingley Grammar School in Yorkshire is charging students £5 a week to study music to GCSE level.
The school says 25 kids have signed up despite the fee.
The Incorporated Society of Musicians calls the move ‘shocking and deeply troubling’.
Read on here.
Nothing if not ambitious.
Press release:
Irish National Opera opens its 2018 season with Thomas Adès’s compelling chamber opera Powder Her Face, given in a touring co-production with Northern Ireland Opera (24 February – 9 March). Patrick Mason’s new staging of The Marriage of Figaro, with Tara Erraught (pic), Jonathan Lemalu, Ben McAteer, Máire Flavin and Suzanne Murphy among its stellar cast, marks the company’s first full production, opening at Wexford’s National Opera House on 13 April before transferring to the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin for four performances (17, 18, 20 & 21 April). In the summer, Irish National Opera presents Gluck’s moving telling of the myth of Orfeo ed Euridice in association with Galway International Arts Festival (23 – 29 July); mezzo soprano Sharon Carty stars in a production directed by leading dance theatre director Emma Martin.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for us to create something new,” comments Fergus Sheil, Artistic Director of Irish National Opera. “It is also about defining fresh parameters for what opera could and should be. We are starting at a remarkable time for Irish singers, with so many exceptional artists on the international scene. We have the chance to make a bold statement to the public in Ireland about our world-class artists and bring as many of them as possible to the broadest of audiences.”
Annual results are in for the first year of the Elbphilharmonie and they make pretty good reading.
A planned half-million deficit has turned into a surplus of 374,000 euros. Some 4.5 million people have visited the site. Tickets are in high demand.
One stat: for some concerts, the demand is more than 20 times higher than the number of seats available.
