Starting this Friday, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine will give a seven-concert tour of Florida, New Jersey and New York.

The conductor is Volodymyr Sirenko, the soloist Olga Kern.

Do they know stuff about Joe Biden?

 

 

The National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC has joined LSO Live for record distribution.

First release will be Copland’s suite from Billy the Kid coupled Dvořák’s New World Symphony, recorded live in June 2019.

LSO Live also distributes the recordings of Mariinsky Theatre, King’s College Cambridge and Colin Currie Records.

The NSO’s music diretor Gianandrea Noseda is principal guest of the LSO with several recordings on its label.

 

The pianist Daniel Evans who has acted as agent for a number of classical celebrities has received a suspended sentence at Westminster Magistrates Court after breaking down his girlfriend’s door and thrttling her until ‘she could not breathe and her vision became blurred.’

Evans, 31, sobbed in court and expressed remorse.

His lawyer described him as a wealthy man who had ‘suffered a complete mental breakdown and was admitted to the Priory mental health hospital’ earlier this year.

The girlfriend, violinist Alexandra Knight, issued this victim impact statement:

‘I am horrified to find myself in this situation.

‘Throughout the course of our relationship Daniel has been a fiercely loyal partner.

‘I have found a true soulmate and partner for the rest of my life.

‘Unfortunately Daniel suffered an episode of complete nervous collapse and from that moment onwards I have supported him as best I can…’

More here.

Evans was the founder of Evans Arts, a shortlived Berlin-based agency.

Alexandra Knight is also an agent. She is listed as joint managing director of Wright Music Management.

Not sure how this will work, but it looks promising:

MADRID (Nov. 11, 2020)— Today the Teatro Real, The Dallas Opera, and the Meadows
Museum, SMU announced plans for a new framework of cultural cooperation and social
exchange among the three organizations. The accord is the first-ever between the two
opera companies, and breaks new ground by establishing a long-term, interdisciplinary
collaboration with a museum as a visual arts partner. Meadows Museum Director Mark
A. Roglán, Dallas Opera General Director Ian Derrer, and Teatro Real Director General
Ignacio García-Belenguer finalized their plans in a ceremony held at 1:00 p.m. at the
Teatro Real Opera House, capping off Teatro Real’s two-year-long bicentennial
celebration.
Honorary Consul of Spain in Dallas Janet Kafka, who was a catalyst for the project and
fostered the relationships among the parties, stated “This agreement is a great example
of cultural diplomacy and how the exchange in the visual and performing arts among
nations and their people serves as a conduit to foster international understanding.”
A Joint Coordination Committee consisting of two representatives from each institution
will be formed to advance specific activities and projects under the agreement. These
include, but are not limited to:
• The cross-promotion of operas, concerts, musical and theatrical performances,
and museum collections and exhibitions among the audiences of the three
institutions
• Exhibition development with special attention and commitment to the
performing arts
• Research and study projects
• Visits by professionals and patrons
• Publications
• Lectures, workshops, seminars, and special events
Early discussions have already begun to form some specific initiatives for spring 2020,
when the Meadows Museum will present Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of
Renaissance Spain (March 29–July 26) and The Dallas Opera will present Verdi’s Don
Carlo (March 20, 22, 25, 28) and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (April 24, 26, 29; May
2, 8, 10). Named court painter to Charles V (the real-life Don Carlo’s grandfather),
Berruguete was intimately connected with the Habsburg royal family, which included
Charles’s son Philip II (one of the main characters in the opera); additionally, the
Meadows Museum’s collection has a significant concentration of work by Sevillian
artists, including Diego Velázquez and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.  

 

From Riccardo Muti’s presentation address to veteran horn Daniel Gingrich:

So before I disappear — in a little bit more than two years I will disappear in the sense that I will end [my time] as music director of this orchestra (I don’t want to be sacked so I decided to go away!) — but I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for what you have given to your colleagues, to music, to me.

Full speech:

This evening the concert will start with a little ceremony that the musicians of the orchestra don’t know anything about. And the person to whom I will refer to doesn’t know either.

You know, you are in front of a great orchestra. To be a musician in a great orchestra is very hard work. Very, very hard.

The public around the world doesn’t understand how hard it is to stay on a stage every night, to prove every night to the public, to the critics, to the conductor, how good the standard of the orchestra is, and how it should remain in the future.

They have to practice, they have to study, they have to listen to the nonsense of conductors, which is a part where many times the morale goes down.

And among these very exceptional musicians, sometimes there is a person that has given a fantastic contribution to the orchestra: a devotion, a commitment, with a very humble attitude. No arrogance, like a servant of the Music, with a capital M.

We have a player that — all of them, I will remember until the last day of my life — but he is somebody special. He has never complained; even when I do something stupid, which is very often. He is always very serious to the music, to his work, to the Chicago Symphony, and to the public.

His position is assistant principal of his position. But in his field, he remains one of the greatest players in the world. And he could easily be principal player of any great orchestra, not only in Chicago; but he is happy to do his job in the position of assistant principal.

But, for many years, he covered the position of principal player around the world, on many, many tours, in Chicago, outside of Chicago, on recordings; always creating admiration in the public everywhere the orchestra played.

So before I disappear — in a little bit more than two years I will disappear in the sense that I will end [my time] as music director of this orchestra (I don’t want to be sacked so I decided to go away!) — but I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for what you have given to your colleagues, to music, to me.

And that is the reason I want to have near me, in front of his colleagues: Dan Gingrich.”

~Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti on making Daniel Gingrich Honorary Principal Horn for Life, 11-9-2019

 

photo: Eliot Mandel

The US conductor Dennis Russell Davies is to be the next chief of the MDR symphony orchestra in Leipzig, starting now.

He takes over from Kristian Järvi.

After 15 years with the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Davies became chief conductor of the Basle symphony orchestra and artistic director and chief conductor in Brno, Czech Republic. UPDATE: We’re told he left Basle in 2016.

He is the principal propagator of the symphonies of Philip Glass.

The international opera maestro Elio Boncompagni – chief conductor in Brussels, Stockholm, Aachen and Naples – has died in Florence.

A student of Franco Ferrara and assistant to Tullio Serafin, he was one of the last living links to the organic traditions of directing an Italian opera house. From 1987 to 1991 he was in charge of Italian repertoire at the Vienna State Opera.

Respected by musicians the world over, he guest-conducted 120 orchestras.

Alain Gaubert, husband of the soprano Paula Goodman Wilder, has shared news of her death from cancer.

Paula, who graduated from San Francisco Conservatory in 1992, sang two marginal French operas at Opera Manhattan and other more mainstream roles for companies around the US. In Europe, she had more of a recital career.

In 2009 she married the academic Alan Gaubert and settled in Poitiers.

Her husband writes:

1 novembre, 14h. 12. Paula est décédée. Elle est partie très doucement, sans ouvrir les yeux, juste arrêtant de respirer, avec un beau visage calme. Vous tous qui la connaissiez savez ce que nous perdons : passionnée de paléontologie, experte en informatique, généalogiste acharnée, poétesse, journaliste, photographe, merveilleuse chanteuse, parlant cinq langues, devenue une très bonne médiéviste, gaie, aimant les gens et les choses, amoureuse de la France, laissant aux médecins et infirmières un souvenir ébloui par sa gentillesse et son courage. Merci à tous ceux qui l’ont aimée et encouragée. Alain

November 11, 14.12. Paula passed away. She left very slowly, without opening her eyes, just stopping breathing, with a beautiful calm face. All of you who knew her know what we have lost: passionate about paleontology, IT expert, fierce, poet, journalist, photographer, wonderful singer, speaking five languages, became a fine medievalist, cheerful, gregarious, a lover of France who left the doctors and nurses a memory dazzled by her kindness and courage. Thank you to allwho loved and encouraged her. Alain.

 

Early this morning Sibyle Veil, President of Radio France, named the next conductor of the Orchestre National de France, successor to Emmanuel Krivine who has been there since 2017.

The new chef, arriving in 2021, will be the 39 year-old Romanian Cristian Măcelaru, who has been enjoying a rapid rise as stand-in for some celebrated conductors.

Măcelaru is presently music director of the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne and of the Cabrillo contemporary music festival.

UPDATE: Le Figaro calls it a surprise appointment. Past chiefs have been Gatti, Masur and Dutoit.