The finalists are:

Zeng Yun (French horn, 19, China)
Aleksey Lobikov (Trombone, 32, Russia)
Zhasulan Abdykalykov (Trumpet, 26, Kazakhstan)
Henrique dos Santos Costa (Tuba, 26, Portugal)
Hae-Ree Yoo (French horn, 23, South Korea)
Felix Dervaux (French horn, 29, France)

 

Fedor Shagov (Tuba, 29, Russia)
Peter Steiner (Trombone, 27, Italy)
Ansel Norris (Trumpet, 26, United States of America)

 

 

Message from Bavarian State Opera:

In our festival performances of Norma, Carmen Giannattasio will sing the title role in place of Sonya Yoncheva. Ms. Yoncheva very much regrets that because of the great heat in Munich in connection with her advanced pregnancy she is unable to sing the role.

In unseren Festspielvorstellungen von Norma am 30. Juni und 3. Juli 2019 wird Carmen Giannattasio die Titelpartie für Sonya Yoncheva übernehmen. Frau Yoncheva bedauert sehr, aufgrund der großen Hitze in München in Verbindung mit ihrer fortgeschrittenen Schwangerschaft die Rolle nun doch nicht singen zu können. Wir sind dankbar, dass Carmen Giannattasio die Titelpartie so kurzfristig übernehmen wird.

Sebastian Heindl, 22, a student of sacred music at the Musikhochschule Leipzig, has won the triennial Longwood Gardens Organ Competition in Pennsylvania, which carries a record first prize of $40,000 and an agency contract.

The second prize of $15,000 US dollars went to an American, Bryan Anderson.

 

Mariss Jansons is unwell.

The Salzburg Festival regrets to announce that Mariss Jansons has been advised by his doctors to take a break for regeneration, forcing him to cancel his concerts at this summer’s Salzburg Festival. We send the conductor and recipient of the Festival Brooch with Rubies our very best wishes for a speedy recuperation.

Fortunately, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has agreed to take over the two concerts on 2 and 4 August 2019.

On 4 August, Maestro Nézet-Séguin will conduct the programme as previously published. On 2 August, instead of the Symphony No. 10 in E minor by Dmitri Shostakovich, he will lead the orchestra in the composer’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor.

He will also be replaced by Yannick in two BBC Proms.

Susanna Mälkki will cover for him with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Riga Jurmala Music Festival.

 

The 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World passed without a scrap of mainstream media attention until – at the final moment – Dame Kiri te Kanawa stepped up to present the prizes in a dress she made from a Zara Home sheet-and duvet-cover set.

Here’s a bed she made earlier.

Truly heroic of Kiri to save the competition with an act of fashion genius.

The former music director told locked-out musicians that he was ‘shocked, mortified and horrified’ at seeing plans to reduce the orchestra to minor-league status. He added: ‘This is a major league orchestra and it’s meant to stay that way. A long time ago, I spent 10 years blowing up a balloon. And now the balloon has been popped and everything is falling out…. it pains me to see this.’

Zinman was accompanied by his wife, Mary.

 

Baltimore Symphony President and CEO Peter Kjome responded: ‘We have great admiration and deep respect for our former Music Director David Zinman. ‘We appreciate his concerns over our current situation, but unfortunately those concerns do not change the facts about our financial circumstances.’

Among 16 who made it to the second round, there are two British and three American players, including John Romero, principal trombone at the Met, and Barenboim protege Ben Goldscheider from the UK (pictured). Also in the running are Concertgebouw former principal horn Felix Dervaux and a lone woman, Hai Ree Yoo of South Korea.

 

1. Zhasulan Abdykalykov (Kazakhstan)
2. Daniel Barth (Germany)
3. Michael William Buchanan (Great Britain)
4. Benjamin Frank Goldscheider (Great Britain)
5. Felix Camille Jean Dervaux (France)
6. Yun Zeng (China)
7. Kelton James Koch (USA)
8. Aleksey Lobikov (Russia)
9. Ansel Owen Norris (USA)
10. Floris Benjamin Onstwedder (Netherlands)
11. John Christopher Romero (USA)
12. Henrique dos Santos Costa (Portugal)
13. Peter Steiner (Italy)
14. Chuan-An Hou (Taiwan)
15. Fedor Shagov (Russia)
16. Hae-Ree Yoo (South Korea)

Nebal Maysaud, 24, has been sounding off in NewMusicBoxUSA:

Western classical music is not about culture. It’s about whiteness. It’s a combination of European traditions which serve the specious belief that whiteness has a culture—one that is superior to all others. Its main purpose is to be a cultural anchor for the myth of white supremacy. In that regard, people of color can never truly be pioneers of Western classical music. The best we can be are exotic guests: entertainment for the white audiences and an example of how Western classical music is more elite than the cultures of people of color…

Read on here.

Maysaud is described as ‘a queer Lebanese composer based in the Washington D.C. Metro Area’.

 

Barely alive, City Opera has rolled out next year’s plans.

They consist of the US premiere of Juan Duran’s ‘O Arame’, coupled with Manuel de Falla’s ‘El Amor Brujo’

The other show is Pietro Mascagni’s ‘Isabeau’ in London’s Holland Park production.

 

Bleakness. Read here.

Göteborg Opera has named Henning Ruhe as its new Artistic Director.

Henning, 41, is presently Head of Artistic Administration at Bayerische Staatsoper.

Before that, he was an agent with IMG.

 

His student is Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov.