The funeral of Heather Harper, who died last night, will be held in London in a fortnight. Her ashes will then be taken to her home country, northern Ireland, where they will be scattered in Cushendun, where she was evacuated from Belfast during the War.

Her student Una Barry took the photo below in her London flat in Bow, on Christmas Day 2003. The bear was a gift from Bengali Muslim neighbours next door.

photo: Una Barry

Just in:

CHICAGO –The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) announces the cancellation of the Symphony Center Presents (SCP) Jazz series concert featuring Chick Corea and Béla Fleck scheduled for Friday, May 3, at 8:00 p.m. This performance at Symphony Center has been canceled due to uncertainty caused by the current strike by musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

 

Some of these contenders are already well launched on their careers.

 

We are proud to announce the singers who will participate in the Operalia Competition in Prague this summer

Angelina Akhmedova, soprano, Uzbekistan, 24
Germán Alcántara, baritone, Argentina, 31
Xabier Anduaga, tenor, Spain, 24
Mario Bahg, tenor, South Korea, 29
Dominic Barberi, bass, United Kingdom, 30
Claire Barnett-Jones, mezzo-soprano, United Kingdom, 29
Guadalupe Barrientos, mezzo-soprano, Argentina, 32
Lada Bočková, soprano, Czech Republic, 27
Amanda Lynn Bottoms, mezzo-soprano, USA, 27
Piotr Buszewski, tenor, Poland, 26
Neven Crnić, baritone, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 25
Lauren Decker, contralto, USA, 29
Otgonbat Erdene, baritone, Mongolia, 29
Adriana Gonzalez, soprano, Guatemala, 27
Alyona Guz, soprano, Ukraine, 30
Samuel Hasselhorn, baritone, Germany, 29


Maria Kataeva, mezzo-soprano, Russia, 32

Gihoon Kim, baritone, South Korea, 27
Sungho Kim, tenor, South Korea, 29
Bongani Justice Kubheka, baritone, South Africa, 28
Mykhailo Malafii, tenor, Ukraine, 28
Héloïse Mas, mezzo-soprano, France, 31
Luvuyo Mbundu, baritone, South Africa, 26
Felicia Moore, soprano, USA, 31
Julia Muzychenko, soprano, Russia, 25
Maria Nazarova, soprano, Russia, 30
Christina Nilsson, soprano, Sweden, 29
Daniel Noyola, bass, Mexico, 27
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, countertenor, USA/Germany, 25


Igor Onishchenko, baritone, Ukraine, 26
Christian Pursell, bass-baritone, USA, 28
Damir Rakhmonov, tenor, Uzbekistan, 30
Liv Redpath, soprano, USA, 27
Gabriella Reyes, soprano, USA/Nicaragua, 27
Mario Rojas, tenor, Mexico/Spain, 25
Carlos Enrique Santelli, tenor, USA, 27
Anna Shapovalova, soprano, Russia, 31
Grigorii Shkarupa, bass, Russia, 29
Carolyn Sproule, mezzo-soprano, Canada, 31
Robert Watson, tenor, USA, 31
Matthew White, tenor, USA, 27

 

Nussbaum Cohen writes: I am SO excited to share that I have been selected as one of this year’s competitors for Placido Domingo’s Operalia, the World Opera Competition!! I cannot wait to travel to Prague this summer alongside some amazing folks, including a number of dear friends and colleagues! This is a competition that I’ve admired for so many years, and I am so thrilled and honored to take part

Seattle Symphony’s principal flute, Demarre McGill, will become Associate Professor of Flute at CCM from August.

McGill, 43, has enjoyed a far-flung career as principal at Dallas, San Diego, the Florida Orchestra and Santa Fe Opera, as well as a stint as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

He’s a great catch for Cincinnati.

 

The death has just been made known of Heather Harper, one of the foremost sopranos of the mid-20th century and one of the best-liked. She was especially esteemed by Benjamin Britten and succeeded in maintaining his friendship amid the often-acrid Aldeburgh atomosphere.

Heather was the archetype Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, strong of will and principle, vulnerable at heart. She also sang in the first War Requiem after the Soviets stopped Galina Vishnevskaya from leaving the country.

She appeared two seasons at Bayreuth and was always busiest in oratorio season.

Never losing a trace of her Ulster accent, she was rooted in heritage and family. Her brother Ian was principal horn in the Royal Philharmonic and her sister Alison a cellist in the City of Birmingham SO.

She asked me over once for tea and baked what I think was the best English fruit cake I have ever tasted. I remember, too, that she did not have a bitter word for any of her former colleagues. She spent her retirement with her second husband, Eduardo, quietly on a northwest London suburban street.

What an artist.

UPDATE: Heather’s funeral

The city’s longest-serving pianist is 102.

It is 20 years this week since the school shooting at Columbine, Colorado, where two senior students murdered ten others and a teacher in an unexplained gun rampage.

In the immediate aftermath, local composer Frank Ticheli was asked to write a piece of music for the school band.

He called it American Elegy. It has been performed more than 10,000 times, according to the publisher.

And still the shootings continue.

In this radio feature, Ticheli talks about the process of healing through music.

 

 

The Vienna newspaper Der Standard has a feature on Christian Thieleman who spends his down time hunting art and antiques from the lost German territories of East Prussia. He is now considered an authority on its treasures. Read here.

And here’s Thielemann in his own words, talking about his collecting habit.

German media have reported the death of Martin Böttcher, composer of ten films based on the Native American sagas of Karl May.

This is probably his most celebrated melody:


photo courtesy Rosana Martins/Facebook

Some 20 male chorus members suffered injuries after a section of the stage collapsed in a ballet rehearsal at the Stanislavsky Theatre. The singers fell five feet onto a steel scaffold. None of the injuries is reported to be serious.

You can watch video of the incident at 4:1o in the video below.

It seems remarkable that no-one rushed to the aid of the injured singers. The dancers just sat down on stage.