We hear that the Singapore conductor Kahchun Wong will make his New York Philharmonic debut next February 6.

Wong, 32, won the 2016 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and has gone on to become music director in Nuremburg.

Press release, just in:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced the selection of four Honorees who will receive the 2018 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements, and a special Honors distinction for a work of art and its co-creators. Recipients to be honored at the 41st annual national celebration of the arts are: singer and actress Cher, composer and pianistPhilip Glass, Country music entertainer Reba McEntire, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. This year, the co-creators of Hamilton—writer and actorLin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, and music director Alex Lacamoire—will receive a unique Kennedy Center Honors as trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category.   

Do not expect the President to attend.

 

The outgoing music director of the Orchestre de Paris has been named artistic director of the Anima Mundi Festival in Pisa, Italy.

He succeeds Sir John Eliot Gardiner who held the post for 12 years.

 

The Israeli-American director is discussing ambivalence in a DW interview:

It may sound diplomatic, but honestly, I feel wonderful here. That difficult history was of course a terrible tragedy, and it affected my family as well. But it’s clear that people here are coming to terms with that history and probing ever deeper into it. That wonderful exhibition Silenced Voices just below the Festspielhaus for example, right next to the bust of Wagner. It portrays Jewish artists and theater personnel who once worked at the Bayreuth Festival and describes their fates. Every day I go by there and look at another one. I feel so honored to be able to stand on their shoulders and work here as an independent stage director without it being a major issue. My religion and heritage are irrelevant to my work anyway. It only comes up in conversation.

That’s not quite right.

When I was in Bayreuth, I was strongly assured by Festival staff that the Silenced Voices exhibition was put up by the town hall, and that the Wagners and the Festival had nothing to do with it.

 

The German violinist Julia Fischer now runs her own streaming service.

She tell the NZZ: ‘I’m not interested in this format either as an artist or as a consumer. Of course, there are still people who shove a CD into a player at home. But I do not know if they will be around in twenty years’ time. All I know is that I have not bought a CD myself for ten years. And that goes also for my whole circle of acquaintances – musicians and non-musicians alike.’

Sagen wir, es interessiert mich in dieser Form nicht. Weder als Künstlerin noch als Käuferin. Es gibt natürlich noch Menschen, die sich eine CD zu Hause in den Player schieben. Aber ob es sie in zwanzig Jahren noch geben wird, weiss ich nicht. Ich weiss nur, dass ich selbst seit zehn Jahren keine CD mehr gekauft habe. Und in meinem ganzen Bekanntenkreis – bei Musikern wie Nichtmusikern – ist es ähnlich.

Read on here.

 

At a fundraiser last night.

 

 

Mr Kelce is a noted saxophonist among football players.

 

UPDATE from Peter Dobrin: ‘We have the Philadelphia Orchestra, the epitome of high culture, sophistication, art, celebrating a bunch of grown men beatin’ the crap out of each other,’ Kelce told the audience.

From 4pm Germany/ 3pm London/ 10am New York today.

Click here.

Let’s hear your comments, too.

 

Having refused to appear in tonight’s new Lohengrin, Anna Netrebko will sing two performances next summer – according to Katharina Wagner.

Anna knows the role, having sung it with Beczala and Thielemann at Dresden (below).

Whether she will do it again is another matter.

Bayreuth’s bookies are not taking bets.

Angela Merkel is expected tonight. She has seen a few Elsas in her time.