Valery Gergiev has named Sir Clive Gillinson, his former boss at the London Symphony Orchestra, as chairman of the cello jury at this summer’s contest.

Others on the jury are Karine Georgian, Ralph Kirshbaum, Jan Vogler and Sergei Roldugin.

 

 

A hair-raising story from a US chamber orchestra:

In April 2016, the management and board of the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra were unable to reach their music director, Nathan Madsen….

 In March 2016 in Tampa, he was arrested on charges of child trafficking and child pornography….

Madsen subsequently pleaded guilty, and on May 26, 2017, he was sentenced in federal court to 17 1/2 years in prison…

“Everybody was happy with him musically but he got himself into trouble and we had to let him go,” says … president of the board of the Woodstock Symphony…

Read on here.

 

From the Lebrecht Album of the Week:

There are so many misnomers about Ms Clarke that it’s worth taking a sentence or two to put them straight. Clarke (1886-1979) is widely regarded as one of the first English women composers. But…

Read on here.

 

 

And here.

press release:

Record number of applicants for the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition

The Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition received 475 applications from singers representing 62 nationalities worldwide by the deadline for entries on 31 December 2018. The largest numbers were from South Korea, Russia, China, Finland and the United States.

Says the delighted Executive Director Marja-Leena Pétas-Arjava, “The response has been really tremendous. The Mirjam Helin Competition has received more applications than at any other time in its history.”

The names of the successful applicants will be announced on Friday 25 January 2019, after the pre-selection process.

The next Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition will be held in Helsinki, Finland on 20–29 May 2019. The upper age limit is 30 for women and 32 for men. Prizes worth €173,000 will be awarded, and the prizewinners will also be offered engagements. The members of the Jury chaired by Jorma Silvasti will be Olaf Bär, Ben Heppner, Vesselina Kasarova, François Le Roux, Waltraud Meier, Deborah Polaski and Kiri Te Kanawa.

The Finnish Cultural Foundation has been organising the Mirjam Helin Competition at five-year intervals since 1984. Many former winners, such as Elina Garanča, Andrea Rost and René Pape, have later risen to the top of the world of singing.

 

A little-seen Austrian documentary in provincial Austrian style.