The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents roughly 800 artistic and technical workers at the Metropolitan Opera, this week is warning in print and through social media that “unless the Met’s management returns to the bargaining table and treats workers fairly, there will be no opera in 2021.”
The advertisements, in response to The Met’s December lockout of IATSE members, begin with the headline: “The Metropolitan Opera Without People Is Nothing.” The ads caution that without additional negotiations: “The Metropolitan Opera House will remain dark and quiet, a vacant warehouse.”
In December, Peter Gelb, The Met’s general manager, announced that he was “locking out” stage technicians and shop crew members such as carpenters and electricians who build sets at The Met and who are represented by IATSE Local 1, cutting off their wages and stopping the production of sets at Met facilities for the 2021 opera season.
The Met’s new season is scheduled to begin in September.
Raphael Wallfisch has joined the growing roll of British Jews who don’t want to see a Holocaust memorial opposite the Houses of Parliament. His mother Anita, herself an Auschwitz survivor, opposes the project which was launched by David Cameron with bipartisan support and is back by the Chief Rabbi.
Raphael, who gave a fundraising recital this week to stop the memorial, said: ‘It has become a political campaign, no longer about the sacred memory of the Holocaust. It is planned to show ‘British values’, not history as it really is.’
The hall has just announced the cancellation of the next four months of events. It never opens in midsummer.
Carnegie Hall today announced that it will cancel all events in its three performance venues from April 6 through July 2021 due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19.
Carnegie Hall has been closed since March 13, 2020 in line with executive orders by New York City and New York State government officials, guidelines issued by the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and the advice of health and medical experts, all designed to battle the spread of COVID-19.
As Carnegie Hall’s landmark building will now remain closed until the fall, the Hall’s planned Voices of Hope festival will move online and run from April 16–30, 2021. During the two-week festival, digital programming created by Carnegie Hall and partner institutions will examine the resilience of artists throughout history, exploring works they felt compelled to create in times of crisis and oppression. The festival’s online line-up will be announced in late March.
As health conditions continue to improve in New York City, planning is well underway for Carnegie Hall’s 2021–2022 season with future live programming slated to be announced in late spring 2021.
Work also continues toward convening the Hall’s three national youth ensembles—the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, NYO2, and NYO Jazz—for an in-person residency this summer at Purchase College, State University of New York with strict health protocols in place. All program activities for summer 2021 are expected to take place in the New York area.
The Arts Council put up a million quid for a rubberstamp feasibility study and thousands of hours of executive time were expended on a venture that was designed to please Simon Rattle but had no other validity. Those of us who opposed it from the start are entitled to say we-told-you-so.
This is a massive setback for the Barbican, the LSO and the Guildhall, who are condemned to remain in an unsuitable site because their leaders never came up with a better plan.
Heads will roll quietly into retirement: certainly two of three signatories on the abandonment letter:
Nick Kenyon, Managing Director Barbican Centre
Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director London Symphony Orchestra
Lynne Williams, Principal, Guildhall School of Music & Drama
But that’s not an end of the matter. The entire music press and almost every music critic supported this venture uncritically. Consciences need to be search. One very prominent critic owes the world a mea culpa if he wants to retain credibility.
London needs a better hall. But now not, and not where the three musketeers above so badly planned it.
It has just been confirmed that plans for a concerthall to replace the Barbican have been ditched by the City of London.
I am writing to let you know that today the City Corporation has confirmed that, given the current unprecedented circumstances, the ambitious plans for a Centre for Music will not be progressed. While we are naturally disappointed, we fully understand the City’s decision as it is clearly very difficult to advance a project such as this at this time.
The City has reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to arts and culture, and the important role it will play in the post-pandemic recovery of the City, the capital, and the UK. This confirms support for all the partners, including a further three-year grant for the LSO, two years further funding for Culture Mile, and a major renewal of the Barbican Centre. You can find the full press release here.
Thank you for your contributions and support in developing the Centre for Music.
Best wishes,
Nick Kenyon, Managing Director Barbican Centre Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director London Symphony Orchestra Lynne Williams, Principal, Guildhall School of Music & Drama
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has just announced Gail Samuel as its next President and Chief Executive Officer, starting in June.
She succeeds Mark Volpe.
A Deborah Borda protégée in Los Angeles, Samuel is currently president of the Hollywood Bowl and Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
This is a really good call for Boston.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra, unable to perform for a live audience, plays Mahler’s seventh symphony for an aquarium full of its conductor’s namesakes.
I recognise a couple of would-be critics in the tank. The video has just gone live on-line.
Latest signatories include the doyen composer Valentin Silvestrov, violinist Dmitri Sitkovetsky, pianist Peter Jablonski, and Mariinsky opera conductor Mikhail Agrest.
But Putin has plenty of friends who maintain his authoritarian rule.
From the CSO:
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family mourns the loss of pianist Gail Niwa, who passed away on February 9, 2021, at home in New York City, following a long illness. She was sixty-one.
Born in Chicago in 1959, Gail was the daughter of two professional musicians. Her mother (and first teacher) Eloise was an accomplished pianist and pedagogue, and her father Raymond was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s violin section from 1951 until 1997. David Niwa, Gail’s brother, also is a skilled violinist with degrees from the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, and he currently serves as asistant concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. Together, the Niwa family claims a singular distinction: all four have been soloists with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The death of Florence Birdwell has brought an outburst of sympathy from Hollywood stars whose voices she trained.
Ms Birdwell was professor of voice at the Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University for more than 70 years.
Kelly O’Hara is another of her graduates.
If you’re lucky, you get one teacher who is YOUR PERSON. Mine is Florence Birdwell. Your voice rings in my ear forever, Florence. RIP Mrs. Birdwell. I will miss you as long as I live. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Z4jPuQ1wuM
The song “Jerusalema” has been a source of solace in the pandemic; thousands of nurses, police officers or school children danced to it and posted the videos online. But now they are suddenly being hit with bills….
Many hospitals, fire brigades and police stations did not have in mind that licence fees could be incurred. In the past few weeks, they have received mail from Warner Music… Some letters are said to have demanded four-digit amounts…
