The Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard cellist Hugh McDowell, who has died of cancer at 65, won a scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School and went on to the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall.
After leaving ELO and Wizzard, the BBC reports, McDowell ‘continued to play classical music and worked on arrangements for films and theatre projects’.
From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
Another themed album, but for once a timely theme. Ian Bostridge has chosen sets by two composers who fell in the First World War and two who knew the terror of war without having experienced it. George Butterworth’s setting of A. E. Houseman’s A Shropshire Lad captures at once the timelessness of English landscape and the hopelessness of young men in the trenches. Bostridge wrenches the heart with his falsetto lines in ‘Is my team ploughing?’, the appeal of a fallen soldier. Butterworth fell on the Somme to a sniper’s bullet in August 1916….
Read on here.
And here.
Katherine Needleman, the Baltimore principal oboe who filed a complaint against concertmaster Jonathan Carney, is delighted at his suspension.
She tells the Baltimore Sun:
‘I do not know the woman who was threatened at the Midatlantic Symphony; I have never met her nor spoken to her. I have, however, had a similar threat directed at me by Jonathan Carney, and understand too clearly how frightening he can be. That Mr. Carney would threaten two women completely unrelated to my case in the way he did shows why other women may be unable to speak out, especially where they were not provided anonymity in the case of the BSO’s internal investigation, where three women declined to speak. I commend the Midatlantic Symphony for taking decisive action and firing Mr. Carney to protect the women who work for them. I stand with both women who were threatened and hope they get the peace they deserve.’
Ms Needleman has also posted a picture of her new tattoo, in solidarity with the Baltimore Symphony:
From the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra:
Baltimore (November 9, 2018) Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Jonathan Carney has been suspended without pay, effective today, according to BSO President and CEO Peter Kjome.
Given allegations of inappropriate behavior by Jonathan Carney towards an employee of another orchestra, which came to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s attention yesterday, BSO management made the decision to suspend its Concertmaster, effective immediately, with an initial term through November 13, 2018.
“After a comprehensive independent investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior towards another musician in our own orchestra, we made it clear to Jonathan Carney that we would not tolerate inappropriate behavior, whether verbal or physical,” said Kjome. “In our view, Mr. Carney was not forthcoming about this current allegation.”
Other BSO musicians, including Associate Concertmaster Audrey Wright, will serve as Concertmaster for upcoming Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performances.
Two months ago, the Baltimore principal oboe Katherine Needleman accused the orchestra of ‘failing to take meaningful action’ when she accused the concertmaster of visiting her room at night.
UPDATE: Baltimore oboe says, ‘I told you so’
UPDATE2: Baltimore civil war
You must watch this impressive address to Parliament by the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau:
In 1939, Canada turned its back on 907 Jewish refugees, deeming them unworthy of a home, and undeserving of our help. Today, I issue an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to the passengers of the MS St. Louis and their families for this injustice.
The St Louis has been the subject of an opera and several works of fiction.
Prime Minister Trudeau declares that the ship was turned away from Canada for no reason other than the anti-semitism of its Liberal prime minister at the time and his senior officials.
He pulls no punches. ‘These refugees would have made this country stronger and its people proud,’ he says. ‘Jews were viewed as a threat to be avoided… Of all the Allied countries, Canada would admit the fewest Jews…. We used our laws to mask our anti-semitism.’
