In search of the next Alondra

In search of the next Alondra

News

norman lebrecht

January 14, 2022

Message received:

Askonas Holt is delighted to welcome Brazilian conductor, Simone Menezes, to its roster for worldwide management.

Simone’s recent and future guest appearances include with the Munich Philharmonic, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Wiener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Brussels Philharmonic and Britten Sinfonia.

This past October, Simone premiered another project blending music with visual images, this time with photographer Sebastião Salgado and the Britten Sinfonia. ‘Amazônia in concert’ celebrates the striking black and white images of the Amazon captured by the Brazilian photojournalist, pairing them with music by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Philip Glass.

 

Comments

  • Achim Mentzel says:

    God has answered the prayers of the woke-bubble and given a woman a signing in a major agency after three men were signed in the last 10 days to equal big firms. We should praise this day. As we know, it’s not about music but about the ratio between vaginas and penises, which makes this day all the more significant.

    • Denying says:

      -hey, are you going to the concert?
      -ofcoz, conductor is trans!
      -yes… but you know it’s Brahms 1st symphony
      -Brums who?

    • RW2013 says:

      Woman, or identifying as such?

    • La plus belle voix says:

      Or between thumbs up and thumbs down, as it were (21:21 at the mo.)

    • Barry Guerrero says:

      Just a tad angry, perhaps? Maybe this person actually earned such a signing. There some great women conductors out there . When I go to a concert, I don’t really care what reproductive organs a the conductor has. In fact, I don’t care about the conductor all that much at all – I’m there for the music.

    • Peter San Diego says:

      There’s a possibility, you know, that it’s actually about musical ability. The day cannot arrive too soon when it’s just about the music, and the nature of the genital equipment matters NOT AT ALL.

    • True North says:

      You seem to have a really weird fixation with this stuff. What’s that all about?

    • femaleconductor7 says:

      Sounds like you need a lot of therapy and medication

  • Anon says:

    The next Alondra?
    Ha! You just made my day!

  • Malcolm James says:

    Given that Alondra de la Parra has sunk like a stone at the orchestras she’s led, this sounds like the kiss of death.

  • John says:

    Why, I say, by all means give this woman the Berliner! She must be incredible! Conducted both Villa-Lobos AND Glass on the same concert?! ‘She is better than all the Tenors in Opera’, to coin a phrase

    • La plus belle voix says:

      Very lightweight repertoire to date.

      Management set to screw up any chance of a career if she really gets big name bands soon. What on earth is she going to conduct with these? Brahms symphonies? I think not. At least not yet.

      Ambiguous press statement on management site:

      “Simone’s recent and future guest appearances include with the Munich Philharmonic, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Wiener Kammerorchester, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Brussels Philharmonic and Britten Sinfonia.”

      We are not all stupid. The concert with the Munich Phil was with members of the orchestra and also of the ODEON-Jugendsinfonieorchester, whatever that is. It was a youth music concert. But who knows, perhaps she is invited for a proper concert next season.

  • amazonian says:

    Simone Menezes deserves to be fairly judged on her own accomplishments as a musician — as any other conductor aspiring to an international career.
    The tone and content of the first comment to this post suggest that will not happen.

  • Thomas M says:

    Well, whatever happened to the actual Alondra?

  • Fernandel says:

    Alondra, a conductor ? You can’t be serious !!! (John McEnroe)

  • Lewis says:

    The rainforest program looks fascinating. Not sure what Alondra has to do with it…but okay!

  • La plus belle voix says:

    PS to my comment above, nothing on YouTube, her website, or her management’s website in the way of her conducting any major purely symphonic repertoire, but here are a few projects:

    https://www.rsb-online.de/en/concerts/mensch-musik-1-bridges-october-2021-hdr/

    (a kind of mixed bag programme that makes it impossible to judge conducting skills)

    https://www.cartier.com/fr-fr/news#/cultureandcommitments/musicalcommitment/2112-cc-musical-concert-simone-menezes

    (odd kind of charity event sponsored by Cartier!)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BeEOriKLlM

    (a rendition that loses energy two minutes in and sags in the middle, hard to say whose fault that is)

    http://www.simonemenezes.com/videos.html

    (A pretty excruciating rendition of Rach3, excerpts spliced together. Sounds like sparse forces of some kind of a youth orchestra. Camerawork makes it hard to judge if her gestures match in any meaningful way with the band, to be fair.)

    She was born in 1977, so I hope her management has a strong plan to take her from where she is now, and her mainly mixed media projects, to somewhere else where she will get the chance to conduct Beethoven with a good orchestra, assuming she wants to of course.

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