Laura Youens, professor of music at George Washington University from 1989 to 2014 and an international authority on 16th century chant, has died after a severe illness.
Her son Owen Wexler has posted the following notice: 11/7/47-7/22/19
Rest In Peace to a storied professor of early music, a venerable published scholar, and a loving, caring wife and mother.
Laura Seale Youens passed away at Sibley Hospital about an hour ago. I’ve been keeping her recent struggles private, but she took a dramatic turn for the worse a few days ago. She died of multiple organ failure, primarily her liver and kidneys, as soon as the doctors declared that there was little else they could do for her and stopped aggressive treatment.
Just when you thought Geneva’s Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) – widely known as the worst run – was settling into well-paid somnolence under the British conductor Jonathan Nott and a French director general, bang goes another head on the guillotine.
Magali Rousseau has been in charge for less than three years. She is leaving without delay.
The official statement reads:
The Foundation Board of the Orchestrr de la Suisse romande, the OSR Music and Artistic Director, Jonathan Nott, and Magali Rousseau, Director General of the OSR, have decided, by mutual agreement and after careful consideration, not to continue their collaboration at the end of the current season. After three seasons of intense and productive collaboration, this decision is the result of differences of view over the long term artistic vision and development strategy of the SRO. This is the official position of the institution.
Can you imagine how many lawyers had a hand in drafting that?
Magali has put up a slightly more human statement:
Dear friends,
As some of you know, the foundation of the OSR, Jonathan Nott and I have made the common decision not to renew our collaboration at the end of this season. After three intense years, I would like to testify here to the happiness I had working for the orchestra and with its musical and artistic director Jonathan Nott.
After restructuring the orchestra, recruiting quality musicians and guest artists, celebrating the OSR centenary and presented the orchestra at great international festivals, I am today today proud of the work we have done.
I would like to thank each and every one of you for your friendship and for everything we have been able to achieve together.
Right. Next victim, please.
This orchestra is a crisis on wheels. More managers in ten years than Manchester United.
Meet Ms Lizzo, the hottest pop star of the summer.
People are often surprised that Lizzo can actually play the flute. At 30, she’s been playing for 20 years, since she was a preteen in her Houston junior high school’s marching band and people would tell her “that shit is corny!” She went to the University of Houston on a music scholarship. She practices four hours a day when her schedule permits. The flute even has its own Instagram account, @sashabefluting (it follows no one). …
When Lizzo plays the flute, it’s a gentle “Fuck you, yes I can,” to everyone who is surprised to see her take the stage in a spandex bodysuit and play a song by an old Frenchman. She knows she’s doing something with the instrument that nobody’s ever done (please see: recent Instagram videos from her album-listening party in an L.A. strip club — a singular moment in flute-performance history). Her career has been full of those kinds of expectation-defying swerves, ones that shock, delight, and challenge preconceptions. And not just ours, but her own. “I’ve said it before, but me just existing is revolutionary,” she says again. People think they know what to expect from a pop star, but then they meet Lizzo.
From the pianist’s combative interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung:
Sie treten also dem verbreiteten Ideal entgegen, wonach der Interpret in erster Linie Diener des Notentextes ist?
Ich fühle mich nicht als Diener, auch nicht als Meister von irgendwem. Für mich lautet die Frage nicht: Was wären wir ohne die Komponisten, sondern: Was wären die Komponisten ohne uns? Die Interpretation ist meine persönliche Resonanz auf die durch den Notentext an mich herangetragenen Informationen. Aber diese Informationen sind manchmal so voller Ungewissheiten, dass ich mit denen erst einmal klarkommen muss. Eine Umsetzung funktioniert niemals schlicht eins zu eins. Bei Beethoven kommt hinzu, dass er an vielen Stellen aus dem musikalischen Rahmen (nicht nur) seiner Zeit auszubrechen versucht, um in etwas Anderes, Neues vorzudringen.
Katie, with Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder.
The San Francisco Chronicle has an obituary for Allan Ulrich, its former music and dance critic who also contributed to the Financial Times, Dance magazine and other journals. Allan was 78 and had been suffering from cancer.
His colleague Joshua Kosman writes: ‘He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the arts, and a commitment to the field that was truly second to none. San Francisco and the entire artistic world is a sadder and more forlorn place today.’
The Flautiada Competition has announced the death of its founder-juror, Hansgeorg Schmeiser, at the age of 63. No cause is known.
Schmeiser, principal flute of the Vienna Volksoper from 1982 and a regular guest with the Vienna Philharmonic, was professor at the Universität für Musik, artistic director at the Neuberger Kulturtage and head of the International Academy for Flute in Fiss (Tyrol).
