Today’s statement follows pro-Palestinian protests about the orchestra’s inaugural trip to Israel.

(Philadelphia, May 7, 2018)—Using music to bring people and cultures together, musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra will participate in special residency activities in Israel, June 3-7, 2018, as part of the Orchestra’s 2018 Tour of Europe and Israel. The activities—ranging from master classes with students to chamber performances for Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens—are an integral part of the Orchestra’s commitment to cultural diplomacy, and will provide opportunities for musicians to connect with the people of Israel in meaningful ways. Musicians of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will also participate, joining a June 4 side-by-side concert with young musicians at Tel Aviv University.

“These residency activities have become a hallmark of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s tours, using music to bring people and cultures together in ways that would not otherwise take place,” said Orchestra Interim Co-President Ryan Fleur. “Through these unique activities, we have the opportunity to interact with Israeli citizens, including students and musicians, and to unite people of diverse backgrounds and beliefs through the universal language of music. We look forward to listening and learning from the people of Israel and using the power of music to engender dialogue and to express our hope for unity and tranquility in the region.”

Residency activities include:

Sunday, June 3: Performance at Oasis of Peace

An Orchestra ensemble will perform for the residents of Oasis of Peace, a community jointly established by Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. The Oasis of Peace community, which is not affiliated with any political party or movement, is based on the concepts of mutual acceptance, respect, and cooperation.

Monday, June 4: Side-by-side concert at Tel Aviv University

Approximately 15 Philadelphia Orchestra musicians and a complement of musicians of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra will collaborate with students of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music Symphony Orchestra and members of the Outstanding Musicians of the IDF Program, sitting side-by-side with them for a performance. The concert is free to the public and will take place at 1:00 PM in Tel Aviv University’s Smolarz Auditorium.

Monday, June 4: Master classes at Tel Aviv University

Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will give master classes to students of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music. Founded in 2005 as a unique partnership between Tel Aviv University and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music trains outstanding young musicians and prepares them for professional careers.

Monday, June 4: Arts Administration and Cultural Philanthropy Panel Discussions at the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv

In partnership with the Culture and Art Institutions Forum in Israel, a pair of panel discussions at the Rothschild Center of the Eretz Israel Museum will offer an exchange of ideas about arts administration (2:30 PM) and cultural philanthropy (4:00 PM) in Israel and the United States. These conversations are free and open to the public, including arts administrators, philanthropists, and students.

Tuesday, June 5: Master classes at Jerusalem Conservatory Hassadna

Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will give master classes to students of the Jerusalem Conservatory Hassadna, one of Israel’s premier institutes of music education for young people ages three to 18. The Conservatory strives to provide every student with musical instruction of the highest caliber while ensuring that every child longing to experience the gift of music has access to this life-changing opportunity.

Tuesday, June 5: Master classes at the Jerusalem Music Centre

Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will give master classes to students of the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Jerusalem Music Centre. Founded in 1973 by violinist Isaac Stern and Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, the Centre finds and nurtures the finest musical talents from across Israel. As a global center for musical excellence, it has hosted many pre-eminent musicians of the 20^th century, including Arthur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Alfred Brendel.

Wednesday, June 6: Master classes at the Israel Conservatory of Music

Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will give master classes to members of the Outstanding Musicians of the IDF Program. The program enables young soldiers with musical talent to continue developing their skills during army service.

Wednesday, June 6: Performance at the Jeanne and Bennet Tanenbaum Conservatory of Music

An Orchestra ensemble will perform at 5:00 PM for the public and for residents of the Jeanne and Bennet Tanenbaum Conservatory of Music in Netivot, Israel. The Sdot Negev Regional Council, which includes Netivot, is home to more than 40,000 residents, including many immigrants from North Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Ethiopia.

Thursday, June 7: Performance at the Lod Music School for the Gifted and Excellent

An Orchestra ensemble will perform for the children of the Lod Youth Concert Band. Established 40 years ago, the Lod Youth Concert Band is part of the Lod Music School for the Gifted and Excellent, operated by the Ministry of Education in Israel. The school’s music activities are for all segments of Lod’s population—Arabs, Christians, and Jews—as well as for newcomers from all over the world. Children between the ages of six and 18 study at the school, and graduates have gone on to enjoy professional careers with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and other orchestras around the world.

There are no British, French or German singers in the 40 chosen for this summer’s Operalia in Lisbon.

Here’s the list:

Zarina Abaeva, soprano, Russia, 32

Migran Agadzhanyan, tenor, Russia, 26

Cornelia Beskow, soprano, Sweden, 32

Nicole Brandolino, mezzo-soprano, Italy, 29

Rihab Chaieb, mezzo-soprano, Canada, 31

Chan Hee Cho, bass, South Korea, 25

Emily D’Angelo, mezzo-soprano, Canada/Italy, 23

Bekhzod Davronov, tenor, Uzbekistan, 24

Alejandro Del Angel, tenor, Mexico, 27

Monica Dewey, soprano, USA, 28

Kseniia Galitskaia, soprano, Russia, 25

Luis Gomes, tenor, Portugal, 31

Samantha Hankey, mezzo-soprano, USA, 26

Summer Hassan, soprano, USA/Egypt, 29

Elbenita Kajtazi, soprano, Kosovo, 27

Johannes Kammler, baritone, Germany, 30

Mingjie Lei, tenor, China, 30

Long Long, tenor, China, 27

Roberto Lorenzi, bass-baritone, Italy, 29

Mykhailo Malafii, tenor, Ukraine, 27

Rita Marques, soprano, Portugal, 28

Danylo Matviienko, baritone, Ukraine, 28

Alexander McKissick, tenor, USA, 26

Emma Moore, soprano, Australia, 30

Petr Nekoranec, tenor, Czech Republic, 26

Diana Nurmukhametova, soprano, Russia, 27

Carles Pachón, baritone, Spain, 23

Gleb Peryazev, bass, Russia, 24

Pavel Petrov, tenor, Belarus, 27

Martin Piskorski, tenor, Austria, 30

Sean Michael Plumb, baritone, 26, USA

Marigona Qerkezi, soprano, Kosovo, 25

Josy Santos, mezzo-soprano, Brazil, 29

Simon Shibambu, bass-baritone, South Africa, 31

Elizabeth Sutphen, soprano, USA, 27

Chiara Tirotta, mezzo-soprano, Italy, 28

Vanessa Vasquez, soprano, Colombia/USA, 28

Marina Viotti, mezzo-soprano, Switzerland/France, 32

Arseny Yakovlev, tenor, Russia, 26

Yajie Zhang, mezzo-soprano, China, 25

A very strange phrase in an NYRB review of Kaufmann’s Tristan Act 2 at Carnegie Hall.

As if a tenor exists only to give satisfaction in New York. Or that a critic’s job is to demand satisfaction.

Quite bizarre.

Here’s the full paragraph:

Tristan und Isolde is an opera about longing, with a prelude whose unresolved musical line expresses the intensity of unsatisfiable desire and a famous signature chord (F, B, D sharp, G sharp) whose chromatic tension suggests the impossibility of finding satisfaction. The longing in Carnegie Hall was focused on tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who has repeatedly failed to give satisfaction in New York over recent years, with several cancellations, notably at the Metropolitan Opera. He is easily the most celebrated tenor in the world today, sings to great acclaim in a variety of styles, from Wagner to Puccini, and presents as glamorously handsome in almost any operatic costume. At the end of this performance, he was collecting so many bouquets that it began to seem a little insulting to the marvelous Finnish soprano singing Isolde, Camilla Nylund.

Here are some earlier reviews.

Ivan Fischer, who has been touring his Budapest Festival Orchestra around Hungary’s abandoned synagogues, will hold a public debate in a London synagogue on June 12 on the topic of ‘the rise of antisemitism in Europe today’.

New French talent Astrig Siranossian, 29, gets serious in a trivial interview:

Tous mes arrières grands-parents étaient orphelins du génocide de 1915. Mes grands-parents sont nés en Syrie, ma mère au Liban et je suis née 10 jours après un tragique tremblement de terre qui a eu lieu en Arménie donc, je pense qu’au même titre que la musique, j’ai été imprégnée par mes origines très naturellement. Je retourne très souvent en Arménie …

All of my great-grandparents were orphans of the 1915 genocide. My grandparents were born in Syria, my mother in Lebanon and I was born 10 days after a tragic earthquake in Armenia so I think that, like music, I was naturally impregnated by my origins. I return very often to Armenia …

photo: Nikolaj Lund

The smoochy French pianist paved the way 30 years ago for western musicians to play in China.

Now he’s opening in Iran.

Details here.

We hear the Aizuri Quartet won the $100,000 M-Prize at the University of Michigan last night.

No announcement yet.

The New York-based quartet, which won the Osaka International a year ago, is made up of Ariana Kim, Miho Saegusa, Ayane Kozasa and Karen Ouzounian.

We reported last month that all is not well at the UK Wagner Society.

Well, it just got a whole lot worse.

The Society’s president, Dame Gwyneth Jones, has hit back in a Telegraph interview at member who threatened her for legal action for defamation and accused her of losing lots of money on unwanted masterclasses.

‘I am frankly surprised and dismayed,’ says Dame G.

Read on here.

This is La Scala, totally sold out.

It was yesterday’s performance of Barber of Seville.

Some kids brought their parents.

The next discounted children’s performance is L’elisir d’amore.

What is keeping English National Opera alive these days is the musicals that occupy the stage for a couple of months each year.

Musicals, however, are not opera. They attract a different crowd. Sometimes less decorous.

Where operagoers might sip discreetly from a water bottle, dabbing their mouth with a silk handkerchief, these uncouth hedonists fill their plastic bottles with gin or vodka and experience the kind of release that is definitely not included in their ticket price.

So ENO has now banned water bottles from all performances except opera.

That’ll stop ’em.

Report here.

The day ENO does something right, we’ll let you know.

The Denver composer Donald H. Keats, published by Boosey & Hawkes, has died after a long decline.

An Elegiac Symphony, written after the death of his infant firstborn, was performed by leading US orchestras.

What is keeping English National Opera alive these days is the musicals that occupy the stage for a couple of months each year.

Musicals, however, are not opera. They attract a different crowd. Sometimes less decorous.

Where operagoers might sip discreetly from a water bottle, dabbing their mouth with a silk handkerchief, these uncouth hedonists fill their plastic bottles with gin or vodka and experience the kind of release that is definitely not included in their ticket price.

So ENO has now banned water bottles from all performances except opera.

That’ll stop ’em.

Report here.

The day ENO does something right, we’ll let you know.