The Estonian got there first.
…. put on a performance of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music.
Take your cue from conductor David Robertson and his wife, pianist Orli Shaham.
CNN Mexico reports he was discharged today after being treated for Covid-19.
He is back home in Acapulco in a stable condition.
We have been informed of the death this morning of Judy Drucker, a Florida powerfhouse who brought the greatest musicians to Miami and formed a mutual admiration society with Luciano Pavarotti.
She was 91.
A soprano who trained at Juilliard and Curtis, she married in 1947 and founded her Great Artists Series in Miami Beach 19 years later.
She presented Richard Tucker, Vladimir Horowitz, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman, Evgeny Kissin, Leonard Bernstein, Cecilia Bartoli, Yo Yo Ma, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Valery Gergiev, among others.
She never took No for an answer.
She even made it onto Slipped Disc.
UPDATE: Full tribute here.
The electronics composer known as Kassia Flux, popular at new-music festivals, has died after prolonged ill health at the age of 57.
Notice of her death was posted on social media:
With great sadness I have to tell you all that Kassia passed away peacefully on March 25th. She loved music above all, and her third album was due to be released this year. I hope to make that happen. She was always, as Castaneda may have written, an impeccable warrior.
Kassia described herself as:
I’m a London-based electronic/experimental composer and performer [b.1963]. I record sounds from my surroundings, integrating them with my voice and electric violin to create concise and long-form pieces for live performance, broadcast and release. I aim to create music that liberates and oxygenates: I value originality, nuance, dynamics.
My practice is routed in Musique Concrète, as developed by Schaeffer in the 40s, and later Cage and others; aided by contemporary digital tools and technologies. I build Concrète sound libraries, which act as both an orchestra and a muse — a launch pad for composition.
The regional government of Madrid is flying all flags at half mast and will relay Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings daily at noon, outside its headquarters on the deserted Puerta del Sol.
The Adagio is also being played on radio and in supermarkets, together with a minute’s silence.
The LA Times reports the fatal consequence of a rehearsal that went ahead in the gathering gloom.
… On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.
Sixty singers showed up…. Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
Read on here.
The Aldeburgh Festival was called off today. It would have been the 73rd festival and this is the first time it will not go ahead.
Aldeburgh Festival is one of the world’s most significant classical events. The festival was founded in 1948 by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and the librettist/producer Eric Crozier.
Chief Executive Roger Wright said: ‘It is with enormous sadness that we have to cancel the 2020 Aldeburgh Festival. Given the current
unprecedented circumstances, this will not be a surprise but, nonetheless, we know how disappointing it is for our audiences, friends and supporters and for the entire creative community which would have been involved in presenting the events we had planned in June.
‘We have waited to take this decision in the hope that we may have been able to present some of our events, given the variety of activity that the festival offers. But as recent days have made clear that hope was above reality and I recognise that everyone needs clarity in order to be able to plan, even though it is a message that we would never have wanted to deliver. We will endeavour to present at least some of the planned activity at future dates, not least the music we were expecting to premiere.’
This is Daniel Raiskin, chief of the laid-off Winnipeg Symphony.
The composer asked people to send in videos of themselves singing while he played one of his hit songs.
Here’s what resulted.
This message has gone out to students from the principal of the Royal Academy of Music, in London.
TO ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF
Dear All,
The COVID-19 emergency is causing financial hardship for millions of people in this country
and elsewhere, students included. I, along with other UK University leaders, will be talking
with government about possible fee support measures, but I do not expect these
discussions to reach a conclusion for some time. In the meantime, a number of you are
asking about fees for next term.
Along with the Principals of our sister Royal conservatoires, I’m writing to you to outline our
position. Like almost all conservatories and universities around the world we are making the
transition to digital learning because we believe this is the best way of ensuring continuity in
your studies. While this does create new challenges (and all of us are on a learning curve), I
am enormously grateful to teaching colleagues and students for the positive way you have
embarked upon this.
The reality is that ‘on-line’ teaching costs the same as ‘in-person’ teaching, along with
almost all the activities and support provided for students’ learning. This covers those
aspects within the credited curriculum and those beyond it, such as the library, counselling
services and other student services and pastoral and academic support, plus all our essential
professional support services, like Registry, IT, Finance, Communications and HR.
All these departments are functioning as before, even if staff members are having to work
from home, and some are actually carrying additional costs to support the required
work. All are working extraordinarily hard and with dedication to make sure that the
forthcoming period of study is the best it can possibly be, in these highly unusual times. We
are also planning ahead for when we can return to the Academy’s buildings, and with plenty
of projects to make up for lost time.
All of us wish we could be in different circumstances, delivering our learning and teaching in
the way we do normally, in the learning and teaching spaces we love. But we can’t and, like
all conservatories everywhere in the world, we must operate digitally. We will do this the
best we possibly can and defer only those elements of the curriculum we must. The Registry
will be writing to you later today regarding all aspects of assessment in the coming period.
For those students who pay by instalment, fees will be due in the usual way. We ask as
many of you as possible to pay on time, to make sure that the Academy can continue with
its work. It is only with tuition fees that the Academy can continue to operate. If you will
struggle to be able to pay your fees on time and need to revise your instalment plan, please
contact fees@ram.ac.uk and we will help reschedule your fees.
We recognise that some students will have been relying on concerts, teaching and other
work, both to pay their fees and to cover their living costs, and most of this work will have
been cancelled. This is a reminder about the increased hardship fund that we have put in
place – please email […] for an application form. We know that
some of you who live in various different types of student accommodation have had to
return home. We will be contacting you shortly to clarify arrangements and help where we can.
To be resilient and withstand this crisis we rely on the commitment of our wonderful staff
and our incredibly talented students, who display all the best qualities of our communities:
flexibility, teamwork, creativity and innovation in all circumstances. We need the Academy
to be resilient – for you and for the future of the arts.
Coming full circle from my opening paragraph, the Minister of State for Universities has told
us that the UK Government is looking at all potential avenues for supporting students
through this challenging time. In light of the government’s recent announcements about
helping employees and self-employed workers, we hope that a package to help students will
follow. We will welcome any such move from the British Government, and will update you
as soon as we have news about this.
All best wishes,
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Principal
27/3/20
I was down to give a recital on the theme of Genius and Anxiety with pianist Paul C K Wee on May 20.
Unhappily, this has just landed:
Due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Wigmore Hall will be closed for the remainder of the 2019/20 Season, until 31 July 2020.
We are very sorry to announce therefore that all concerts and events until this date are postponed.
If the situation improves faster than anticipated, we will re-evaluate our plans and salvage what we can of the latter part of the current planned season in July.
Until then, please do browse our extensive catalogue of past live streams, podcasts and Wigmore Hall Live releases, which includes many wonderful concerts, masterclasses and talks: wigmore-hall.org.uk/watch-
