Giornale della Musica reports that the Florence-based Orchestra della Toscana has appointed three women conductors.

Eva Ollikainen, 37, will be music director.

Beatrice Venezi, 29, from Lucca, and the Turkish Italian Nil Venditti, 24, will be principal guests.


Beatrice Venezi, Eva Ollikainen, Nil Venditti (Photo Marco Borrelli)

 

The Russian pianist Sergey Belyavsky has gone public on the reasons for his refusal to play a prizewinners recital at the dodgy Paderewski Competition in Poland this weekend.

UPDATE: Pianists back the one who refused.

Here’s Sergey’s account:

Dear Friends,

I feel that I should explain some things about what happened recently at the Paderewski Piano Competition. My experience at the competition was so positive leading up to the final days, when the focus was no longer on music. It’s not a secret that I have a long history of participating in competitions. Some of them were less fortunate for me, some of them more, but thanks to technology, a lot of this history is still available in archives.

About this specific competition, the reason for my decision to refuse the Honorary Mention and not to play in the Laureate’s concert had to do with the way the voting system was built in the finals. Several jury members came to me after the announcement of the results and told me that the voting began with me being tied for first place, so the jury decided to revote. As a result of that revote, I had a minority of the votes for the 1st prize. The next step was for them to have new, separate votes for the 2nd and 3rd prizes. According to what I heard from them in private conversations, some of them suddenly “changed their minds” and did not vote for me for the 2nd or 3rd places. Because the voting was kept in secret for the jury members as well, nobody knows exactly what happened. This revote resulted in me going from a tie for first place to not receiving one of the top 3 prizes.

This whole situation put me in the wrong mood for performing in an event, which is directly related to the results of the competition. Not only to the music itself. And it is not a normal concert situation. So, I would like to apologize again to the public who came wanting to enjoy the celebration of music.

The decision not to accept the Honorary Mention was driven by my belief in integrity, and I had no intention of starting a conflict. This was a very unique moment of my life. I was very touched by the Special Prizes I received, and I would like to thank all the people who have continuously supported me. Cheers to the audiences (both who followed the live stream and in the hall), cheers to my colleagues for spending their lifetimes for serving the music, and CHEERS to music itself!

First round

Second round

Solo semifinal round

Orchestra semifinal round

Final round
https://youtu.be/ZvCIaC0bAH4?t=994

For the second time this year, the Oper am Rhein has gone under.

Last time, its Duisburg house was shut for months after flooding from a faulty sprinkler system.

The source of last night’s leakage in Düsseldorf has yet to be determined but it looks like another long shutdown.

UPDATE: It’s the sprinklers. Again.

You’d have thought they’d get them regularly checked.

Musicians from the US and beyond are starting to react against the dismissal of three respcted musicians by the Grand Teton Music Festival. These, says lawyer and violinist Heather Kurzbauer are ‘musicians punished for articulating the concerns of their colleagues.’

Here’s a shot across the bows from Mindy Kaufman, solo piccolo and flute of the New York Philharmonic:

Dear Mr. Todd and members of the Board,

I have been a member of the New York Philharmonic for the past 40 years.I performed at the GTMF for ten years, from 1988-1998. Those ten summers were some of my happiest times. The festival was a fantastic place for musicians like myself to bond with musicians from other orchestras, and find artistic satisfaction. That is the reason we were willing to lose money to work for the GTMF.

I am distraught at the recent changes at the festival, and the firing of 3 long time members. Jenny Ross and I played together, and I have the utmost respect for her as a player and as a person.

Ling Tung wanted this festival to be a musical oasis, a place where musicians could recharge artistically, in a beautiful setting. The festival orchestra musicians, by agreeing to play for very little money, helped build this festival into what it is today. I am saddened to see it going in another direction, and in the firings of three very fine musicians, who have been loyal to this festival for decades.

I hope you and the Board will reconsider this decision.

Sincerely,

Mindy Kaufmann

And here’s another from Holly Mulcahy, concertmaster in Wichita and Chattanooga:

The rash decisions of an individual or two can forever fracture a carefully and lovingly cultivated organization. Putting petty emotions over reason to assert control or to show perceived strength is a death knell of any organization.

What can be forgotten in the short term because of these reactive maneuvers and power plays, are the years of building connections with the community–both local and global, the tangible relevance of classical music in the most sincere and meaningful way, and the important friendships that weave through our lives whether we feel it directly or not.

The pianist Martin James Bartlett, winner of the 2014 BBC Young Musician of the Year, has taken first prize at this year’s Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York.

Together with three others, Bartlett, 23, now joins the Young Concert Artists’ roster, receiving 3 years management services, publicity and career guidance, as well as recital debuts in New York and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC.

 

Press statement from the Met:

Yusif Eyvazov will sing Hermann in the performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades on November 29 and December 2 and 5, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who has withdrawn due to illness.

Eyvazov, who was called in late to cover the second half of the run, has taken over the whole run.

He started the season with just one booking at the Met – the New Year’s Gala.

This ought to ease Mrs Eyvazov’s concerns.

 

Message from the conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya:

Enrique Iturriaga, who died in Lima on November 23 aged 101, studied with Honegger in Paris and taught in the Peruvian national conservatoire. He composed in an idiom that conjoined folk-music roots to mild modernist techniques.

He died on the same weekend as the centenarian Chilean composer Juan Orrego Salas.

The board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera has extended the general manager’s contract for a further five years, to the middle of 2027. He has been in the job since 2006.

Gelb turned 66 this month. He will be 74 before this contract is up.

He told the Associated Press: It gives me the freedom to execute future planning and also I think will provide a level of stability for the company and an assurance to my staff and my team and the artistic community with whom I have to deal with that ideas that are being discussed will actually be implemented.’

No man sho ran the Met has ever been loved, but Gelb has attracted unusual levels of dislike, balanced by very few signs of affection. The tough decisions he has taken – provoking an orchestra strike, firing James Levine, dropping Domingo – have been either forced on him or conducted with unfailing lack of grace. He is not an approachable man. But he has survived.

And so has the Met.