Friends are reporting the death of Derek Holman, a Cornish-born composer who migrated to Canada in 1965.

He taught at the University of Toronto from 1966, directed the Concord Singers of Toronto and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company and was organist and choirmaster at Church of St Simon the Apostle in Toronto.

He composed several works with texts by the Canadian novelist Robertson Davies.

The Canadian pianist Tony Siqi Yun has just been announced as winner of the China International Music Competition, with a first prize of US $150,000. He won over the jury with a virtuosic performance of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Second prize of US$75,000 went to the Russian Alexander Malofeev, 17, who performed Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3. Third prize of US$30,000 was taken by the US pianist MacKenzie Melemed, 24, who played Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

Tony Siqi Yun made his orchestral debut in 2014 with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing and Shanghai. Yun has toured Ireland, Spain, China, the US and Paris. He has performed the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in B-flat minor with the Cleveland Orchestra inSeverance Hall. He was engaged by the China Philharmonic Orchestra in its 2018–2019 season and took part in filming the 2019 CCTV New Year’s Concert. Yun is currently enrolled in Juilliard’s Pre-College Division. Previously, he was enrolled in Dulwich College, Beijing.

Yoheved Kaplinsky, jury chair, commented: ‘Tony exhibited professionalism, musicianship, poise and an incredible ability to integrate himself with the orchestra. He was the most sensitive in his interaction with the orchestra and conductor. It was incredibly close between all three as all of them were consistent to the end. What made me particularly happy was that they were all as good as they were different.’

Tony Siqi Yun said: ‘Words cannot express how I feel to have been awarded the Gold Medal of the China International Music Competition. It has been an extraordinary time in Beijing, and I am so grateful to the jury and everyone here who have been such great colleagues.’

UPDATE: Not everyone’s happy

The South Carolina-born Jonathon Heyward, has been named Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, starting January 2021.

Heyward, 26, is presently assistant conductor at the Halle Orchestra in Manchester.

The NWDP, based in Herford, plays across North Rhine-Westphalia in such towns as Paderborn, Gütersloh and Detmold.

Heyward will be 28 when he takes over the same age as Andris Nelsons was when he joined the same orch in 2006.

The international baritone Marco Vratogna is feeling aggrieved.

His manager claims that he has been written out of Friday’s big-screen broadcast of Andrea Chénier for turning up late for rehearsal.

The Vienna State Opera says he never turned up.

Both sides agree that Vratogna was given permission to miss the first two rehearsals for family reasons and ‘bad weather in Italy’.

He drove through the night to make the third rehearsal at 10am. When he hadn’t turned up by 11 the rehearsal was cancelled and Vratonga was replaced by his compatriot Luca Salsi, who had appeared in an earlier run.

The opera house says he turned up between  11.30 and 11.45.

Vratogna’s manager says he warned them he’d be late. And he got lost in the corridors, unable to find the rehearsal room.

The opera says they offered to reinstate him for the last two performances, after the broadcast. That didn’t go down well.

We hear reports of turbulence in the Sacher tea-cups.

UPDATE: Official Staatsoper statement:

Gifts have been pouring into Birmingham ever since Mirga arrived as music director.

This morning’s press drop:

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is delighted to announce that it has received a gift of £250,000 from CBSO Development Trust trustee and former board member John Osborn to support its centenary celebrations. The donation follows Mr Osborn’s previous gifts worth almost £500,000 to the orchestra in recent years, including a five-year gift made in celebration of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla’s appointment which supports her position as ‘Osborn Music Director’.

The PRs are putting round a video of Teng Li, principal violist at the LA Phil, playing the viola that the young Beethoven used from 1786 to 1792.

It’s on a BTHVN world Tour of artefacts from the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

‘He was a violist!’ says Teng. Amazing how far you can get on that instrument.

This is Professor Rob Haskins.

Not one of your dustier musicologists.

We hear that David Cooper has been named principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

David, originally principal at the Dallas Symphony, went to the Berlin Philharmonic in 2017 but went home a year later.

Now, he’s back in the front line.

We are saddened to learn of the death during the night of Mira Zakai, an Israeli contralto who won a Grammy for her recording of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with Sir Georg Solti and performed with most of the world’s top conductors and orchestras. She was in recovery from a stroke that she suffered a year ago.

A person of unassuming manners and profound humilty, she was the least assertive of colleagues yet always a strong presence. Like her surname, which means innocent, she seemed untouched by the darker sides of life.

Mira wrote a wonderful book of conversations with the deep-thinking, equally shy Israeli composer Andre Hajdu. Several other composers wrote for her. She retired from singing in 2000 and became Head of Lied and Oratorio at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv.

A devotee of Slipped Disc, she and I enjoyed many conversations. Amir Mandel has written a beautiful Hebrew obituary.

Her memory is blessed.