London orchestra loses its boss
NewsJulia Desbruslais will step down as Executive Director of the London Mozart Players at the end of the year, it was confirmed today. Julia, who is also co-principal cellist, will have put in six years at the job.
She says: ‘When I took over the running of the LMP I gave myself five years to turn things around, but that deadline coincided with the arrival of the pandemic and so I have stayed a little longer than I planned. It’s now time to step back and let the orchestra fly without me. I am so fortunate that I have been surrounded by incredible people in the management team and inspirational musicians in the orchestra who have supported me throughout this roller-coaster ride and helped us to keep our music playing. The pandemic released this amazing creativity from within the LMP which has helped the orchestra to reinvent itself for the twenty-first century, kept it relevant and demonstrated how powerful we can be when we all work together.’
LMP kind of lost its edge.
I remember the times when the orchestra had truly great soloists like Henryk Szeryng
As he is dead, that is somewhat of a moot point.
I’m jealous — my local orchestra has never offered me cupcakes.
On the basis of this article, I’ll google the London Mozart Players and see if there are any CDs that I must have….
Well I carried out my whim and found a 2019 CD release on which the London Mozart Players will be heard. The disc is “Love Abide” and features the choral works of contemporary composer Roxanna Panufnik. I’m sure I heard of the LMP ensemble in my youth when I had many LPs, but never did I pay much attention to them. I’m delighted now to listen again more deliberately AND discover a new composer. Mostly I adore early music of 17th century or earlier, but in my hundreds of later exceptions I want to discover living composers too. Of the few I’ve come to like, choral music shows strong signs of life. A favorite living composer of mine is Daniel Elder, also centered in choral music. Our oldest instrument is ever new!
I’m old enough to have seen them when Harry Black was the director and Leon Goosens and Archie Camden played Oboe and Bassoon.
Harry Blech.