One of the sunniest violin-cello dialogues:

 

Berlin’s Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer has ordered theatres and concert halls to remain closed until mid-April at the earliest, it was announced tonight.

Rehearsals, however, may continue.

Berlin shut all arts venues at the beginning of November 2020.

 

The influential composer and Eastman professor Syd Hodkinson has died, his friends have announced.

Originally from Winnipeg, he studied at Eastman and joined its faculty. He composed some 280 works in a colourful, post Copland fashion, among them 9 symphonies. Each summer, he conducted the Aspen contemporary ensemble.


 

The German tenor gave a press conference this morning at Madrid’s Teatro Real with Joyce DiDonato and Javier Camareno.

All three spoke about adjusting to non-performance and to virtual performance.

Kaufmann said music had never been shut down before and the closure was taking a terrible human toll.

You can watch the video here.

 

Hollywood is buzzing with news that the Biden-Kamala administration has booked Jennifer Lopez to serenade their swearing-in.

Also on the platform will be Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Jon Bon Jovi and Ant Clemons.

Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem.

No classical artists have been named, yet.


Barack Obama had the best of the best in 2009.

We have received belated confirmation of the death of Ronald Birks, second violin of the Lindsay Quartet and later of the Chilingarians.

Ronnie was 79.

Selected for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 1959, he spent two years with the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra before joining the Lindsays in 1971 and remaining with them until the quartet’s disbandment in 2005.

He recorded two complete Beethoven cycles and all six Bartok quartets.

He died at home in October.

 

During yesterday’s PMQ, Boris Johnson was asked by Kevin Brennan MP:

There is a real disappointment that a reciprocal work permit free deal for touring musicians and performers has not been agreed with the EU. No one is interested in a blame game, it’s clearly fixable, and in Britain’s economic and cultural interest to do so quickly, but it needs leadership from the top. So will the Prime Minister meet on this with a small group of MPs, including the Conservative Chair of the Culture Select Committee? We are all singing from the same song sheet, will he please say ‘yes’ to the meeting?

The PM replied: I will of course ensure that there is a proper meeting with the honourable gentleman and his colleagues on this subject, which is extremely important, and I know that our friends in the EU will be wanting to go further to improve things, not just for musicians, but for business travellers of all kinds, because there is a mutual benefit.

 

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s new principal oboe Phlippe Tondre, appointed amid controversy over a breach in sound tradition, has made a stunning debut in the Mozart concerto.

Peter Dobrin reports: Not only is he elegant and powerful in his ensemble work, but Tondre is a soloist in a way not all orchestral players are. In Mozart’s Oboe Concerto he’s got opinions that he expresses in stylish flourishes, like the way he takes those spiky grace notes just before the end. Technical challenges don’t exist for him, even in the most sustained phrases of the serene second movement or in mad-dash stretches of the first-movement cadenza. Tondre is a serious artist, and his influence could be a very good thing.

 

The Russian Ministry of Culture has appointed Vasily Petrenko to be artistic director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra, known as the Svetlanov state orchestra, from September.

Petrenko, longterm music director at the Royal Liverpool Phil and now with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, succeeds the over-stretched Vladimir Jurowski in the role.

 

The death of tuba virtuoso and teacher Toby Hanks is being widely mourned.

Aside from being a prime performer, he was an influential teacher at Manhattan School of Music.

 

The daughter of Jeff Lisenby, adjunct professor at Belmont University School of Music and Lipscomb University, has launched a gofund me appeal to pay for medical bills after her father died of Coronavirus.

Her mother remains seriously ill.

Jeff Lisenby was 65. He enjoyed a diverse career, which included appearing in Broadway musicals and playing accordion on cruise ships as accompanist to Luciano Pavarotti.

Belmont has posted this notice:

It is with a heavy heart that the School of Music shares with you that our friend and colleague Jeff Lisenby passed away last week after a brief battle with COVID-19. Jeff has been an adjunct professor in the School of Music since 1994 and, as such, has had an impact on the lives and careers of countless students – building strong friendships with all who knew him.
Jeff was an incredible talent who was kind and friendly with everyone he met. A keyboard player, pianist and national accordion champion, he was the musical arranger, musical director and a performer in the Broadway version of the musical Ring of Fire. He was also the accompanist for many major stars (Brenda Lee, Pavarotti, Dolly Parton, Mel Torme, to name a few) and played keyboards for numerous Broadway touring shows.