Musicians of the Las Vegas Philharmonic have rejected the orchestra management’s ‘Last and Best
Offer’ and authorised their union to call a strike.

The musicians have been out of contract since August 1, 2018. A December meeting with a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service failed to bring the sides together.

The musicians say the are continuing to work with the mediator in search of a solution.

 

The critic Bill Wyman has ranked all 213 Beatles tracks from worst to best.

You might be slightly surprised by his choice of the best.

And even more surprised that the worst is not by Ringo.

Read here.

The incoming chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic will not give any interviews or make commercial recordings.

But he will allow the orchestra to live-stream his performances on subscription, and some of the concerts that are closest to his heart will go out free.

Starting tomorrow evening with the national youth orchestra.

Click here to watch.

 

The rising conductor Gemma New has been signed up by Charlotte Lee’s boutique Primo Artists, where she will share services with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Nicola Benedetti.

Gemma, 32, a New Zealander, is music director at Hamilton, Ontario, and is about to become principal guest with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She is also resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and music director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra.

 

The composer John Joubert, whose carols decorate many an English Christmas, is being widely mourned today.

He leaves more than 160 works including three symphonies, four concertos and seven operas.

Born in South Africa of French an Dutch descent, he won a post-War scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, followed by teaching positions at the universities of Hull and Birmingham.

His opera Jane Eyre was premiered in 2016 by the English Symphony Orchestra.


The Artemis Quartet has chosen violinist Suyoen Kim and cellist Harriet Krijgh to replace two departing members – the American violinist Anthea Kreston and cellist Eckart Runge, the quartet’s last founding member.

Kim, 31, German born, has been concertmaster of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin for the past year.

Krijgh, 27, who is Dutch, will release her debut recording on Deutsche Grammophon later this year.

The remaining members are violinist Vineta Sareika and violist Gregor Sigl. The reconstituted quartet will play its 30th anniversary concerts later this year.

China has just upped the ante in music contests with an unprecedented first prize for a piano contest winner.

The First China International Music Competition will be held in Beijing from May 4 to 21, 2019. Entry is by invitation only.

The competition president is Li-guang Wang, head of the China Conservatory of Music. The jury will consist mostly of professors, chaired by Juilliard’s influential Yoheved Kaplinsky.

UPDATE: we understand that no student of any jury member has been invited.

The final round will be accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra, with it music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The general director is Richard Rodzinski, former head of the Van Cliburn and the Tchaikovsky competitions.

 

Hamburg State Opera has put out a call for refugees to join the chorus for Verdi’s Nabucco. Rehearsals start on January 30.

The production is to be directed at a distance by Kirill Serebrennikov, who has been held under house arrest in Russia for the past 18 months over alleged fraud charges, triggered by his criticisms of the Putin regime.

A Hamburg spokesman said they were still hopeful he would be released to take part in the production.

Paolo Carignani conducts.