From the press release:
The Philadelphia Orchestra launches its free ticket program for School District teachers, administrators, and staff. Designed to give back to those who devote so much to the children and communities of Philadelphia, APPLE (Appreciation Program for PhilaSD Leaders in Education) offers School District employees free general admission tickets to concerts throughout the 2019–20 season. Participants can register at www.philorch.org/apple to receive weekly e-mails regarding concert eligibility.
In a slightly peculiar press release (see below), the Lyric Opera has announced a successor to Sir Andrew Davis before confirming that the music director will step down in 2021.
Davis, 75, will have served for 20 years.
His successor, the Spnaish-Italian Enrique Mazzola, will be the company’s third music director. He is presently principal guest at at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin.
photo: Christodoulou
Press release:
Lyric Opera of Chicago names dynamic Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola as Lyric’s next music director
Mazzola is only the third person to serve in this role at Lyric following Sir Andrew Davis, who celebrates his 20th year at the helm and will complete his tenure with Lyric’s 2020|21 season, formally “passing the baton” to Mazzola for the 2021|22 season.
As general director, president & CEO Anthony Freud announced today, big changes are underway at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Acclaimed and beloved music director Sir Andrew Davis plans to conclude his two-decade-long tenure at the end of the 2020|21 season. Eminent Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola has been named as Lyric’s music director designate, effective immediately, and will become Lyric’s music director beginning with the 2021|22 season. As Davis continues his substantial responsibilities while overseeing the transition, Mazzola looks forward to his role in leading Lyric through the next, dynamic chapter of the iconic company’s journey.
Mazzola and Davis joined Freud in the theater for the announcement at the Lyric Opera House. Meanwhile, Davis is preparing to conduct Rossini’s The Barber of Seville to open Lyric’s 65th season on Sept. 28, and Mazzola will begin rehearsals next week for Verdi’s early masterpiece, Luisa Miller, which opens Oct. 12.
Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced concertmaster Malcolm Lowe’s retirement, effective immediately.
Lowe, who was absent for a year with concussion after a street accident. returned some months ago to play in the rear of the section. In summer he was seen again playing in his old seat.
But the arrangement does not seem to have worked out and the curtain is about to fall on a 35-year career.
UPDATE: The BSO has brought forward its announcement:
Malcolm Lowe has announced that he will retire from his position as Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster after serving 35 years in the prestigious leadership role. Mr. Lowe joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster in 1984 under Seiji Ozawa’s music directorship, becoming the tenth concertmaster since the orchestra’s founding in 1881 and only its third since 1920. He retires from the position just prior to the opening concert of the 2019-20 BSO season on September 19.
Malcolm Lowe says: ‘I have decided that it is time for me to retire as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster and to begin a new adventure and artistic journey and listen to the voices that are beckoning me to do other things with the rest of my life.
‘From the bottom of my heart, I thank my orchestra colleagues and Andris Nelsons for their dedication and their ability to delve deeply into the music and ask the unanswerable questions—to find the voice that lifts music from the ordinary to an extraordinary living poetry. I will cherish forever the shared moments of everyday work, moments striving in our artistic search, practicing, trying to perfect, to contribute, to give meaning to our efforts, the music, our team, and our orchestra. I am also forever grateful to our generous audiences and donors for their incredible passion and support year after year, concert after concert—their enthusiasm never wanes.
‘My recovery to health and playing this summer at Tanglewood after a year’s absence due to a concussion injury has been one of my most satisfying accomplishments—truly a mountain conquered. I feel so blessed that I was able to meet this challenge and get back to full strength and power. Being able to perform again with all of my colleagues was a gift to me and I am so very grateful to all of them for their many kind words of support and encouragement.’
List of Concertmasters Since the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Founding in 1881:
1984-2019 Malcolm Lowe
1962-1984 Joseph Silverstein
1920-1962 Richard Burgin
1918-1920 Fredric Fradkin
1910-1918 Anton Witek
1907-1908 Carl Wendling
1904-1907; 1908-1910 Willy Hess
1903-1904 Enrique Fernández Arbós
1885-1903 Franz Kneisel
1881-1885 Bernard (or Bernhard) Listemann
Eugenia Zukerman has been an international soloist, a spousal member of the Barenboim gang, artistic director at Vail and classical music correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning.
Now 74, she is facing memory loss:
For flutist Eugenia Zukerman, Debussy’s “Syrinx” has been a staple of her daily practice routine since she was 10 years old. The piece is only 34 bars long and lasts about four minutes. By her own estimate, Zukerman has played it more than 20,000 times. One morning not that long ago, she was midway through “Syrinx” and drew a total blank on what came next.
Zukerman, 74, has Alzheimer’s. She was diagnosed about three years ago after her two daughters insisted that she get checked…
Read full report here.
The Toronto Symphony is about to roll out four new playerslater today, two of them valued members of the New York Philharmonic.
NY Phil violinist Zeyu Victor Li joins Toronto as associate concertmaster. Rémi Pelletier, a section player, arrives as associate principal viola.
In addition, Victor Fournelle-Blain joins Toronto from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as principal viola and Yolanda Bruno, concertmaster of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, signs on as a section violinust.
That is quite a close-season catch. This is an orchestra that is not hiding its ambition.
Zeyu
So confident were the board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra of the musicians’ capitulation that they had Meyerhoff hall spruced up for the new season opening this weekend.
But the players today voted down two humiliating deals – a one-year, 40-week contract on slightly lower pay and an extension of the previous, lapsed contract until Christmas. After a three-month lockout, the players won’t buying turkeys.
So it’s down to the mattresses, and the mood’s turning sour.
Here’s a letter in today’s Baltimore Sun:
The announcement of the breakdown in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s contract negotiations is a terrible development for our 104-year-old orchestra and its superb musicians (“BSO musicians file labor complaint, return to picket line,” Sept. 10).
It constitutes an utter disgrace on the part of the BSO’s board of directors and management — absolutely the worst such “leaders” in my 44 years as a BSO subscriber — who clearly all along were determined to destroy the first-class orchestra that conductors Sergiu Comissiona, David Zinman, Yuri Temirkanov and Marin Alsop lovingly created in the past half-century.
Forever shame on the current board and management. They should be driven out of town!”
Charles E. Walker, Baltimore
St. Thomas Church in Leipzig has succumbed to political pressure and agreed to accept girls into its all-boys choir.
A Berlin lawyer, Susann Bräcklein, has said that a girl whose application was initially rejected has now been invited to reapply. The city councillor in charge of culture, Dr. Skadi Jennicke, was involved in this change of policy. A decision on whether this first girl is finally accepted or not will rest with the Cantor of St Thomas’s, a post held by J S Bach from 1723 to his death in 1750.
The Thomanerchor, founded in 1212, consists of around 90 boys aged 9 to 18, living in its boarding school.
The brass player and organiser Philip Biggs died yesterday after a brief bout with cancer.
Founder of the All England Masters Championship and of Brass Herald magazine, Philip was appointed Event Manager by the London Symphony Orchestra for the 1997 European Brass Band Championships at the Barbican Centre.
From 1996 to his death he was Administrator for The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain.
with close friend Bramwell Tovey
More here.
The Wigmore Hall’s International Song Competition was won last night by a Russian bass-baritone Mikhail Timoshenko.
Timoshenko, 25 and an intern at the Paris Opéra, takes home £10,000.
The soprano Harriet Burns was placed second, followed by mezzo Beth Taylor and tenor Kieran Carrel, all three British.
The winner of the ARD clarinet final last night was the Frenchman, Joë Christophe.
The second prize was shared between Carlos Alexandre Brito Ferreira of Portugal and Han Kim, South Korea.
The calamitous refurbishment of Cologne’s opera house has just gone literally through the roof.
A recalculation of the cost of restoring the building, opened in 1957, has blown into a final bull of 841 million Euros, including interest on loan repayments up to the year 2063. This project will cost more, and take almost as long to achieve, as Cologne’s famed cathedral.
Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, by comparison, cost 789 million Euros, which was only seven times over budget.
Anja Harteros has called in sick.
Her replacement tonight is Dinara Alieva, a soprano from Baku who will be making her Vienna debut.
Photo: Pavel Vaan
