From a media release just in (sorry about the clumsy syntax):

Askonas Holt Ltd. announces today the creation of a new position on its leadership team, Director, Global Head of Strategy & Innovation, and the appointment of Sean Michael Gross to it. With his arrival in London this December, Sean will become the first external hire immediately to join the Askonas Holt Board of Directors and will report to Chief Executive Donagh Collins.

Sean comes to Askonas Holt from 21C Media Group, where he is currently one of four principals and serves as Executive Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer. In his new role as Askonas Holt’s lead strategist, he will work alongside Donagh and the board to realise a future for the company that strengthens its position as a global leader in artist management and touring, while also developing new and innovative ways to serve its clients and the international performing arts community….

Named one of Musical America’s 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017, Sean is credited with spearheading 21C Media Group’s transformation over the past decade into a fully integrated public relations and digital agency, allowing the leading New York- based firm and its clients to flourish in a rapidly changing environment. In his 11 years with 21C, Sean contributed to the firm’s consistent growth by diversifying its services beyond publicity and forging relationships with prominent artists including Daniel Barenboim, Plácido Domingo, Elīna Garanča, the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, Anna Netrebko, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Askonas, although increasingly aggressive, has never gone head-hunting before. This could mark the start of a transatlantic trade war.

 

Ariane Matiakh, 38, has been named GMD of Halle, birthplace of Georg Frideric Handel.

She starts next year.

 

She tweets:

This recital was supposed to replace one that she cancelled in the winter. Se is presently rehearsing Medée with Barenboim in Berlin.

Still, she definitely won’t want to miss the Rolex Ambassadors Gala.

 

Pierre-Marie Dizier, head of chorus at the Francis Poulenc conservatoire in Tours, was arrested in February on charges of sexual relations with minors, which he strongly denied.

He was remanded in custody awaiting trial.

This weekend he committed suicide in his cell. He was 60 years old.

Report here.

Katherine Needleman, principal oboe of the Baltimore Symphony, has filed a civil complaint against the orchestra claiming that it ‘failed to take meaningful action against repeated allegations of harassment and retaliation’ by the concertmaster, Jonathan Carney.

Anne Midgette and Peggy McGlone report:

In an interview with The Washington Post, principal oboe player Katherine Needleman said that Jonathan Carney, the orchestra’s concertmaster, approached her for sex when the orchestra was on tour in 2005 and, since she rejected him, has engaged in a consistent pattern of retaliation: ‘daily hostility and efforts to undermine [my] work and authority,’  she said, ‘combined with physical intimidation and threats.’ According to the complaint, Needleman reported the harassment to the orchestra several times, starting immediately after the 2005 incident. This March, the orchestra engaged an independent law firm to conduct an investigation, which concluded this month.

‘The report indicated that there has not been a hostile work environment,’ said Peter T. Kjome, the orchestra’s president and chief executive….

Read on here.