Wih boy soprano Ted Huffman.
And with Vadim Repin in Zakhar Bron’s studio.
ThePolish conductor Jan Krenz died today, aged 96. He made his debut on 6th January 1946 with the Łódź Philharmonic and wielded considerable influence on the flowering of new Polish music after the war, especially the works of Lutosawski and Bacewicz.
From 1953 to 1967, he was chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, touring extensively to Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. From 1968 to 1973 he was Artistic Director of the Grand Theatre in Warsaw
Abroad he conducted Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen from 1966-1968.In 1979 he was named General Music Director of Bonn, where he expanded the Beethoven orchestra to 122 musicians.
The Iraqi-born Paul Mefano died today in Paris.
A student of Milhaud and Boulez, he somehow sidestepped the style wars. In 1972 he founded the Ensemble 2e2m and conducted it in more than 500 works by young composers.
The Viennese are now reporting 46 positive tests after a Merry Widow performance at the University.
At least two are artists of the Vienna State Opera. The total number of infected contacts has risen today from 24.
For the latest, read here.
The Portuguese musician Dinis Sousa, Founder and Artistic Director of Orquestra XXI, has joined AskonasHolt.
He is based in London.
Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, has been awarded the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize.
It’s worth $100,000 and a line on a commemorative plaque at Lincoln Center.
The unanimous decision to award Anthony McGill the 2020 Avery Fisher Prize was made in December 2019 by the Program’s Executive Committee (Chair Deborah Borda recused herself). The official announcement was to have been made in April with a celebration to follow in June. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, both the announcement and celebration had to be postponed.
As woke as it gets.
Right click and open new tab to enlarge.
St John’s Smith Square, which is situated in the heart of Government, has been working with the Culture Department to bring back live concerts with audience. Here’s how far they’ve got.
Following a successful pilot concert with a live audience in July, St John’s Smith Square are delighted to be able to welcome audiences back to enjoy live performances this Autumn. Between now and the end of 2020 a programme of 63 public concerts is planned. There will also be 50 digital events as part of the St John’s DIGITAL EXCHANGE programme, some of which are hybrid versions of concerts featured in the live programme and some of which are bespoke events created specifically for our digital audience….the programme for the month of October consists of 21 public concerts and 17 digital events.
Having launched the Digital Exchange programme back in July with our pilot concert featuring a live audience, organised in conjunction with the DCMS, The Gesualdo Six (previous SJSS Young Artists) give two performances with the trumpeter Matilda Lloyd including one where audiences are invited to simply ‘pay what they can afford’. The Young Musician’s Symphony Orchestra make a welcome return with a programme of Wagner and Beethoven. The wonderful Klais organ at St John’s is featured in a recital by the sub-organist of Westminster Abbey, Peter Holder whilst St John’s’ status as a still consecrated church is marked with a Sung Eucharist to mark the feast day of the patron saint of Westminster, St Edward the Confessor.
HarrisonParrott has signed the Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, 30, who has been on the stage since she was 11.
She appears to have switched over from Libby Abrahams’ Keynote artists management.
HP are signing in such volume during Covid they must soon run out of contract forms.
A faculty statement from the English Department at the University of Chicago:
For the 2020-2021 graduate admissions cycle, the University of Chicago English Department is accepting only applicants interested in working in and with Black Studies.
… We believe that undoing persistent, recalcitrant anti-Blackness in our discipline and in our institutions must be the collective responsibility of all faculty, here and elsewhere. In support of this aim, we have been expanding our range of research and teaching through recent hiring, mentorship, and admissions initiatives that have enriched our department with a number of Black scholars and scholars of color who are innovating in the study of the global contours of anti-Blackness and in the equally global project of Black freedom.
Robin Ticciati signed on today for another five years as music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, taking him up to 2027.
Ticciati, 37, has been with the orchesra since 2017.
He says: ‘No-one can hide the fact that the next years for classical music will be very difficult to navigate: we will have to fight our corner with ever stronger passion. Symphonic orchestras must continue to question their own identity, inner creativity and ways of touching as many people as possible. It is the wonderful, logical step now for me to renew my special ties to this maverick band, the DSO, in Berlin. They want to risk and be pushed. Their thirst to evolve, to progress the model of what a radio orchestra actually can be, for Germany and the wider world, is a beautiful thing to be part of – I look forward to the years ahead. There is a lot more to achieve for everyone involved.’
Maverick? Lost in official translation?