A Moscow court has added three months to the detention order against Kirill Serebrennikov, who is accused – for political reasons, his supporters say – of embezzlement..
The new order lasts to the end of July.
Serebrennikov (right in pic) has been prevented from pursuing his busy career at German opera houses. His ballet on the life of Nureyev was staged at the Bolshoi without his involvement.
A Moscow court has added three months to the detention order against Kirill Serebrennikov, who is accused – for political reasons, his supporters say – of embezzlement..
The new order lasts to the end of July.
Serebrennikov (right in pic) has been prevented from pursuing his busy career at German opera houses. His ballet on the life of Nureyev was staged at the Bolshoi without his involvement.
We hear that Eastman has appointed Guy Johnston to its vacant teaching position.
Guy, 36, is a former BBC Young Musician of the Year.
He leaves quite a few disappointed high-calibre contenders in his wake.
German social media are abuzz with news of the firing of Arno Lücker, a curator and dramaturg at the Konzerthaus Berlin, connecting his dismissal to a recent confrontation with the violinist and conductor Daniel Hope, who has a series at the Konzerthaus.
Lücker recently posted a musical shred video crossing a Daniel Hope performance with the snoozy-listening composer Ludovico Einaudi. Shreds were all the rage three years ago. Why they have just reached Berlin is a mystery, but I guess the Germans don’t always have to be first.
Daniel Hope, seeing the shred video, was upset by the content and got his lawyer to issue a Trump-like cease and desist letter, threatening heavy penalties if the shred was not taken down.
It promptly was.
Then, on January 12, the Konzerthaus fired Lücker.
His supporters are linking his dismissal to the Hope incident. A German music blogger, Moritz Eggert, took up the cudgels with an open letter to Hope.
Last night, Daniel Hope issued the following statement to Slipped Disc:
Gestern ist ein “offener Brief“ auf sozialen Netzwerken veröffentlicht worden, der folgende Richtigstellung veranlasst: Im Kern geht es um ein von Arno Lücker bearbeitetes Video („Shred“), das einem Moderations-Auftritt von mir eine andere als die originale Tonspur hinterlegt – und zwar explizite Worte über Genitalien, Exkremente und sexuelle Handlungen. Dem Zuschauer erscheint es so, als ob ich diese Worte über mich selbst spreche. Nach einer Entschuldigung durch Herrn Lücker in einem persönlichen Schreiben ist die Sache für mich nun geklärt. Ich würde mir wünschen, dass wir uns nun alle dem widmen, was unser Beruf und Berufung ist: der Musik.
Or:
Yesterday, an open letter was published on social networks, which prompts me to make the following correction: The heart of the matter is a Shred video, edited by Arno Lücker, which mixes a performance of mine with explicit words about genitalia, excrement, and sexual acts. It appears to the viewers that I am saying these things about myself. An apology by Mr. Lücker in a personal letter has settled the matter for me. I hope we can now all apply ourselves to our vocation, namely music.
Sometimes German humour gets hopelessly lost in translation.
UPDATE: Hope makes peace with shredder.
The ever-awake Finnish media have found court documents showing that Jane Price, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s wife, filed for divorce in Los Angeles last June.
The couple, who have been married for 26 years, have three children and live in LA, where Salonen used to be music director of the Philharmonic.
Lately, he has been spending time back in Finland, where he is artistic associate of the national opera and is planning to conduct a Ring cycle next year.
The couple met originally in London when Jane was a violinist in the Philharmonia Orchestra, where Salonen is long-serving music director.
Salonen will turn 60 this year.
You would have thought that, with Brexit looming, they would promote native talent. But no…
Here’s today’s press release:
The Royal Opera has announced the latest singers to join its professional development programme, the Jette Parker Young Artists.
Five new singers will join the Company in September 2018. They were chosen from more than 440 applicants from 59 countries and will join six others who continue on the Programme into their second year next Season. The new artists for 2018/19 are:
Chilean soprano Yaritza Véliz
Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu
American countertenor Patrick Terry
Argentinean baritone German E. Alcántara
Scottish-Iranian bass-baritone Michael Mofidian (pictured)
The Jette Parker Young Artist programme is designed to support the artistic development of talented singers at the beginning of their career. Young Artists are employed as salaried members of The Royal Opera over a two-year period, during which time they are immersed in the life of the Royal Opera House to help them form their own artistic identity and give them guidance on their trajectory through the business.
They give a free concert – today, at 4pm.
Members of the MET Orchestra will be joined by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer at The New York Public Library’s Harry Belafonte Branch to perform a “Musical Read-Aloud!” Robert Miller, husband of MET Orchestra violinist Elena Barere (pictured above), has composed an original score to accompany both “Buzzard and Wren Have a Race,” from A Ring of Tricksters by Virginia Hamilton and Icarus Swinebuckle by Michael Garland.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will be on hand to read these stories aloud to children and families.
This children’s read-aloud program has been organized by the MET Orchestra Musicians, who are engaging with communities across the city and advocating on issues that touch the lives of all New Yorkers, including a well-rounded cultural education, funding for arts organizations and artists, access to live music and increased diversity and equity in the arts.
When: Tuesday, January 16, 2018, 4:00 pm
This is the 80th birthday week of the composer Paavo Heininen, a man locally celebrated for two Finnish operas, six symphonies, eleven concertos.
More importantly, as professor of composition at the Sibelius Academy, he has been the teacher of Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen, Jukka Tiensuu and more – the most successful generation of composers Finland has ever produced.
Then journalist Asaf Harel in Haaretz has exposed one of the most respected teachers and conductors in Israel as a persistent predator on teenaged boys.
Harel, himself a former student of the conductor, says Menahem Nebenhaus was a revered figure at the elite Telma Yellin School and across Israeli musical life. He has collected testimonies from a number of former students. Some incidents were reported to the school and to the police, but no judicial action was taken.
Nebenhaus conducted the Telma Yellin school orchestra and took it on tours in Europe. He also conducted the IDF orchestra, the Ra’anana Sinfonietta and others.
He has not responded to the report.
You can read and watch the report here (in Hebrew).
The house in Orenburg, where Slava was evacuated with his family during the Second World War, had been turned by its owner into a museum dedicated to the great cellist and conductor.
But the owner want to sell and the artefacts are included.
Read here.
From the BIS record blurb:
Great-grandson of composer Jean Sibelius, Lauri Porra began playing the cello at the age of six, but later switched to bass guitar. In addition to his work as a composer for orchestra, film and media, he is a member of the heavy metal band Stratovarius with which he has recorded four albums and performed concerts in over 60 countries. Highly versatile, Porra also leads his own Lauri Porra Flyover Ensemble, combining musical styles ranging from rock and jazz to classical, electronic and film music. Entropia, his concerto for electric bass and orchestra, was premièred by the composer and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra …
Powell Symphony Hall in St Louis, Missouri, is marking its jubilee year.
The orchestra still has two players from opening day.
The hall still has its original name (unlike Avery Fisher and so many others).
And it still has its resident ghost.
Read here.
More recent halls mostly have mice, not ghosts.
