The British cellist Guy Johnson, flying from London to his Eastman teaching position at Rochester, NY, was obliged by American Airlines to pay a first-class ticket for his cello.
Guy had booked British Airways, but the US leg – Chicago-Rochester – was taken over by AA.
Here’s what his folk say happened.
‘Before booking the AA flight, I called them to check that it would be possible to book a cello on these particular flights. I was advised that a cello seat could only be booked on these particular flights in First Class, due to dimensions/design of the seats/planes. This does not apply to all AA flights, but just to the specific planes involved in these routes on this occasion.
‘Both Guy and the cello each cost more for the Chicago-Rochester return ticket than Guy cost for the London-Chicago return ticket.’
Beware of flying AA and BA. They are out to screw you.
Evelyn Herlitzius has told opera houses this week that she is done with Wagner’s big heroine.
Vienna has replaced her in the forthcoming Ring with the experienced Swedish soprano, Iréne Theorin.
We’ve been hearing of a new range of Associate positions being created within the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a pool of players who can be called on to play when the real RPO players are doing something else.
A colleague of ours inquired, only to be told ‘As our Associate roles are not full shareholder positions, they are not always advertised.’ Meaning: any musician of any level of competence can put in to be an associate player of the RPO. This statement of policy to an inquiring musician is signed by the RPO’s Digital Marketing Manager, Joseph Woods.
Why are the RPO doing this?
The Arts Council requires a certain percentage of members to appear on stage for all RPO concerts. As members do not want to do regional work in places like Scunthorpe and Lowestoft, the appointment of extra ‘members’ solves the problem.
Back to the bad old days.
In an interview on the festival podcast, he seems quite pleased to have gone unseen.
Watch.
Tiffany Poon, a Juilliard pianist now studying at Yale, tells us that Instagram has invoked copyright reasons for stopping musicians from playing classical music on live streams.
Tiff is not taking this quietly.
She has posted a video on Youtube and a petition, right here.
Four thousand have signed already. You should, too.
While the BBC Proms approach their climax, the kid-brother season in Britten’s Snape has scored a new record:
As Snape Proms approaches the last of its 31 concerts, Snape Maltings (est. 1982) has announced that this year’s season is the highest selling ever, with 23,000 tickets sold, the hall at 92% of capacity and 36% of bookers new to Snape. More than 3,000 of the tickets sold cost just £6.50.
A truly horrific story from St Petersburg.
At 93, rehearsal pianist Nina Matsina was the oldest employee of Gergiev’s Mariinsky Theatre. Although she no longer played, she prepared scores for others in the music library.
Thieves broke into her apartment, tortured and killed her. It appears they were after her meagre savings for her funeral expenses – and a signed photograph she owned of the great bass singer Chaliapin.
Her carer has been arrested as an accomplice to the murder.
Nina had many friends around the music world who are devastated by her passing. God rest her gentle soul.
Here’s the classical substitute, about to be announced:
The OPUS KLASSIK, a new award for classical music, will be awarded for the first time in Konzerthaus Berlin on Sunday, 14 October, 2018. After the Echo was ended this spring, exceptional achievements in the classical music genre will once again be recognized this year. The Opus is organized by the new association Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen
Musik e.V.will be broadcasted on ZDF on 14 October, 2018 at 10 PM The OPUS KLASSIK, a new award for classical music, will be awarded for the first time in Konzerthaus Berlin on Sunday, 14 October, 2018. After the Echo was ended this spring, exceptional achievements in the classical music genre will once again be recognized this year. The Opus is organized by the new association Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e.V. The awards ceremony will be broadcasted on 14 October at 10 PM by the media partner ZDF.
“Classical music in Germany should be acknowledged with its very own award,” said Burkhard Glashoff, chairman of the Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e.V. “We, the founding members, have made it our goal to recognize and award exceptional achievements in classical music. We have developed a concept for a new music award that is more broadly
positioned than in the past and reflects the branch in all its diversity.”
The founding members of the Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e.V. embody the basis of the award in the wide-ranging music business: CLASS – Association of Classical Independents in Germany e.V., Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft GmbH Konzertdirektion Dr. Rudolf Goette GmbH, Dagmar Sikorski (Sikorski Musikverlage), Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH, Benedikt Stampa (designated director of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden) and Warner Music Group Germany Holding GmbH. The board consists of Burkhard Glashoff, Konzertdirektion Dr. Rudolf Goette GmbH, who serves as the chairman of the board, and Dr. Clemens Trautmann, Deutsche Grammophon.
The association was founded after the organizer of the Echo, the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), announced the termination of all Echo awards in the categories Pop, Classical and Jazz. In this transition year, the rules and jury for the new award will still be based on those of the Echo Klassik; however, the association will strive to continually refine the new prize for classical music on the basis of feedback from the music industry.
