The words of Tyson Davis, 20, presently working with the Albany Symphony:
‘The problem is, classical music, at least over the past century has been such an extreme ivory tower,’ Davis said. ‘And it’s so annoying. It’s almost segregationist and classist — classical music in general. There’s been this tradition of having the concert hall be peaceful and quiet and having the tickets be expensive and only being for old people and often times the music is very old….’
Davis grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina and was raised by a single mom. He says he remembers going to his first symphony and not seeing anyone who looked like him. ‘No Black people in the North Carolina symphony – at all,’ Davis said. ‘And I don’t think there’s any Black people today.’
New to Youtube: the Brahms concerto with the LSO at its whispering best, Kertesz conducting.
The chief executive of Opera Australia, Rory Jeffes, is stepping down after just four years.
All he is telling staff is that it is ‘very much a personal decision’, adding that it concerns ‘both family reasons and shifting priorities’.
The company has been unhappy of late over pandemic restrictions and job losses. Its artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, has just two years left on his watch.
Jeffes, who is British, sent ten years beforehand as head of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. No-one saw this coming.
Gaffigan’s wife Camilla Kjøll is a violinist who often plays with the orchestra as concertmaster.
Statement from the festival:
Glyndebourne committed to staging its 2021 festival, with adaptations to accommodate ongoing restrictions
Glyndebourne has confirmed its plans to proceed with its annual opera festival in 2021, with adaptations to ensure the show can go on, even if social distancing is still in place.
Glyndebourne Festival 2021 will run from 20 May until 29 August with new productions of Janáček’s Kát’a Kabanová, Rossini’s Il turco in Italia and Verdi’s Luisa Miller, alongside a revival of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. In a change to original plans, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde will be presented as a semi-staged concert with a full orchestra, seated on the stage, to do justice to the opera’s epic score.
Stephen Langridge, Artistic Director of Glyndebourne, said: ‘We have been planning for a variety of scenarios to ensure we could adapt the Festival, in any way necessary, without lowering our artistic ambition. The plan we’re announcing draws on our experience of staging socially-distanced events in 2020 and gives us flexibility to accommodate any restrictions that might be in place this summer. I’m delighted to be going ahead with all three new productions, plans for which look astounding. After these months of enforced isolation, we are looking forward to being together again in Glyndebourne’s beautiful auditorium to share some extraordinary, inspiring evenings of live music and theatre. It promises to be a Festival like no other.’
Glyndebourne is carefully managing performer numbers and has adapted its working practices to ensure that performing companies will maintain physical distancing on stage, in the pit and in rehearsals.
The Wigmore Hall has unleashed a new wave of live free-streams from next week.
It involves UK-based singers, string quartets, choirs and small ensembles in 40 concerts until Easter.
The hall has raised close to £1 million to pay for the concerts
Here’s the soloist list:
James Baillieu (piano), Benjamin Baker (violin), Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord), Julius Drake (piano), Danny Driver (piano), Kirill Gerstein (piano), Christopher Glynn (piano), Tim Horton (piano), Alina Ibragimova (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), Jean Johnson (clarinet), Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano), Daniel Lebhardt (piano), Simon Lepper (piano), Bjørg Lewis (cello), Paul Lewis (piano), Petr Limonov (piano), Leon McCawley (piano), Joseph Middleton (piano), Mishka Rushdie Momen (piano), Steven Osborne (piano), Jennifer Pike (violin), Timothy Ridout (viola), Martin Roscoe (piano), Sean Shibe (guitar), Katherine Stott (piano), Llŷr Williams (piano)
The artistic director of the National Theatre of Greece, Dimitris Lignadis, has left his post amid what he calls ‘a toxic climate of rumors… without even an official accusation.’
Lignadis, 56, submitted his resignation to the culture minister last weekend.
Athens has seen a spate of claims of sexual harrassment across sports and arts, but Lignadis has not been cited in any instance.
A chorus singer at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe has gone on trial accused of raping a male colleague in January 2019. The attack is alleged to have taken place in a dressing room during a first-night party.
The defendant, 56, denied all charges.
‘I have nothing to report, neither as a witness nor as a perpetrator,’ he said. He admitted to being drunk that night, after consuming two and a half beers and a rum.
The trial continues.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is in mourning for Paul Ganson, an assistant principal bassoon who headed the successful Save Orchestra Hall campaign in 1970.
‘Paul’s extraordinary impact on the DSO cannot be overstated,’ said the DSO. ‘He stands with Ossip Gabrilowitsch and very few others as a giant in the history of our orchestra. We literally would not be where we are today without Paul.’
Paul Ganson died last month, aged 80.
An Austrian composer on trial for shooting 32 birds has claimed befre a court in Linz that they were his competitors.
‘I didn’t do this for fun,’ said the unnamed defendant. ‘My existence was threatened.’
He was fined 3,000 Euros and his guns were confiscated.
The Australian-born conductor Jessica Cottis was out walking near her London home when she was set upon by three youths and viciously attacked with a bottle.
Jessica tells Slipped Disc:
‘Out walking in north London, shortly before Christmas, I was randomly approached by a small group of teenagers who quickly and without warning punched my face and smashed what we think was a glass bottle at my forehead. Completely unprovoked.’
The police were called but no arrests have been made.
Jessica continues: ‘I suffered a bad concussion: the three teenagers had broken my nose, and smashed my forehead… I lost the ability to think clearly, my vision suffered, and I developed an inability to stay awake longer than a few hours. It was scary, disorientating. Everything felt the darkest of black-hued blues.
‘A few days later, a little boston terrier girl arrived, delivered by a friendly bear of a man with an overgrown Brahmsian beard. It was freezing cold in the back of the van and she jumped out with such excitement, wiggling straight into our arms! She’s been here ever since, utterly delighting us with her cuddles and constancy…. Aside from a development which means I now also experience scent as colour, I’m thankful to be fully recovered; my brain and I are in tiptop condition again.’
