The incoming music director will go live on the NY Phil Facebook site at 1815 New York time, showing the changes he plans to make to the turbulent band.
We’ll update you in the morning.
The outgoing music director at St Louis Symphony, David Robertson, has been named director of conducting studies at the Juilliard School in New York.
Robertson, 59, will be the principal teacher for conducting degree students, working with three or four students each academic year and choosing future candidates.
Juilliard president Joseph W. Polisi said: ‘David’s professional expertise and experience will allow our conducting students and our orchestral players to benefit enormously from his artistry. Of course, David will build on the exceptional work of Alan Gilbert, who transformed Juilliard’s program during his tenure and has helped shape the next generation of eminent conductors.’
Robertson remains chief conductor at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He is married to the Israeli pianist Orli Shaham, who is based with their twin sons in New York.
The San Diego Symphony has named Rafael Payare as its music director, starting next year. Payare, 37, is presently music director of the Ulster Orchestra. He lives in Berlin with his wife, the American cellist Alisa Weilerstein and their daughter.
San Diego will be a significant career upgrade, ten weeks a year, on a four-year contract.
He succeeds Jahja Ling, who bows out after 13 years.
One of the first female conductors in Italy, Giovanna Sorbi has died in the week of her 59th birthday after a long illness.
A graduate of the Conservatory of Brescia, she founded the choir Coro Lirico Città di Brescia and the Festival of Sacred Music.
The Philadelphia Orchestra has just announced what will be only its second trip to Israel.
Its conductor will enjoy Tel Aviv. He has the perfect wardrobe.
(Philadelphia, February 13, 2018)—As part of its commitment to cultural diplomacy, The Philadelphia Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will tour Europe and Israel from May 24 through June 5, 2018. The visit to Israel—in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia—coincides with the country’s 70th anniversary and marks only the second time The Philadelphia Orchestra has traveled there since its inaugural visit in 1992. The Philadelphia Orchestra is the only major American symphony orchestra to travel to Israel during this anniversary year and only the third to ever visit the country; the last time an American orchestra visited Israel was in 1996.
Following a highly successful 2015 European tour, Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestra will return to the continent, bringing the renowned “Philadelphia Sound” to devoted fans in important musical cities, including debut performances at the Jean Nouvel-designed Philharmonie de Paris and the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Other cities on the tour include Brussels, Luxembourg City, Düsseldorf, and Vienna. From there, the Orchestra will travel to Israel for performances in Haifa (Philadelphia Orchestra debut), Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem. Pianists Hélène Grimaud and Jean-Yves Thibaudet will join the Orchestra as soloists.
“To have this remarkable opportunity to travel to Israel with the extraordinary Philadelphia Orchestra is a dream come true,” said Nézet-Séguin, who will make his first visit to Israel on this tour. “I also look forward to returning to Europe, where classical music is so deeply admired, and where we will bring our distinctive sound to some of the world’s most esteemed concert halls. It is incredibly fulfilling to represent our Philadelphia community abroad as cultural ambassadors. We look forward to bringing the spirit of our hometown audiences with us on our journey, as we share our magnificent music-making with those around the globe.”
The Paris home of Pierre Henry, who died last July, is scheduled for imminent demilotion.
Henry was the father of musique concrète. He lived at 32 rue de Toul, in the 12th arrondissement, from 1971 and described it as ‘a temple of electro-acoustic music.’
Admirers have raised a petition to the Culture Minister to keep the wreckers out.
I had an interview with Jonas Kaufmann on Sunday.
‘Hi, it’s Jonas.’
When the great tenor rings from Vienna, I ask if there are any topics he wants me to avoid, such are his minders’ anxieties. ‘Ask anything,’ laughs Jonas. ‘I’m not shy.’
So I did.
You will have to wait for the rest, which will appear in the Spectator on Thursday.
Lots of stuff he has never talked about before.
The National Endowment for the Arts has issued a quiet response to President Trump’s plans to defund it.
Statement from National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu
February 12, 2018
Today we learned that the President’s FY 2019 budget proposes elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts. We are disappointed because we see our funding actively making a difference with individuals in thousands of communities and in every Congressional District in the nation.
In FY 2018 to date, the NEA has awarded 1,134 grants totaling $26.68 million to organizations and individuals in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, launched a national songwriting competition for high school students, convened four summits across the country as part of Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, issued a research report on the economic impact of the arts in rural communities, and distributed emergency funding to arts agencies in Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, among other activities.
We understand that the President’s budget request is a first step in a very long budget process. We stand ready to assist in that process as we continue to operate as usual.
As a federal government agency, the NEA cannot engage in advocacy, either directly or indirectly. We will, however, continue our practice of educating about the NEA’s vital role in serving our nation’s communities.
Frankfurt Oper has ended its Norma co-production with director Sigrid Strøm Reibo and Norske Opera Oslo ‘for artistic reasons’
This would have been Reibo’s international debut.
Instead, they’ve called in Christof Loy to rescue the show, with a set designed by Raimund Orfeo Voigt and costumes by Ursula Renzenbrink.
Elza van den Heever will sing Norma and Gaëlle Arquez (Adalgisa).
A search has been launched online for Natalya Sheina, a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, who went out shopping yesterday in the Russian village of Roshchino and has not been seen since.
Natalya, 49, lives in Helsinki.
Share, and help if you can.
The turmoil at Tamara Rojo’s English National Ballet is documented in a fresh report, out today:
We talked to twelve ENB dancers past and present, as well as support staff, and had sight of relevant documents. And the answer we consistently got was “fear.”
“I’ve been wanting to talk about this for so long, but was so afraid,” said one.
It is hard to comprehend, let alone describe, the palpable sense of fear common to the sources we approached on a strictly confidential basis.
Think about it: fear, all-pervasive and paralysing… in a publicly subsidised company… in 21st century Britain…
Equally striking was the eagerness with which accounts that had been churning inside came pouring out once people had been assured of absolute confidentiality. Striking too, that as they spoke to Ballet Position and relived their time at ENB, many of those who are no longer there still broke down and cried.
“I was so depressed, I still cry remembering it,” said one former dancer.
Read on here.
