Lucerne chief’s wife takes over Rachmaninov house
NewsReading the press release below, I wondered why it fails to mention that the successful candidate for this prestigious arts position in the town of Lucerne happens to be married to Michael Haefliger, director of the Lucerne Festival.
Why the omission?
Swiss secrecy, no doubt.
Press release:
The Board of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation is happy to announce that the musician and cultural advisor Andrea Loetscher will be the new Director of the Cultural and Education Centre “Villa Senar” in Hertenstein/Weggis as well as the Managing Director of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation as of July 1, 2022.
‘Andrea Loetscher has emerged from an international tender as the best qualified new managing director of the Foundation and director of the Villa Senar Cultural and Educational Centre’, explains Urs Ziswiler, President of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation. ‘She has convinced the Board with her visions for the place, but also with her versatility as a musician, director of an educational institution, concerts organizer as well as with her curiosity for unusual projects, which shall be implemented at such special place with Sergei Rachmaninoff as inspiration and starting point. The Villa Senar and its magic should be positioned as a cultural brand and networked as a fine education and cultural centre. Andrea Loetscher will maintain a lively, fresh and joyfully, but also respectful approach to the place and its history….’
What? Back door dealings in positions of power? Oh no – what a shocker! I thought this world operated fairly, just like the bible envisioned. Whatever next?
Yes, it is absolutely still shocking to some people that nepotism is an anthropological constant.
A Swiss secrecy that is “a lively, fresh and joyful, but also respectful” secrecy
Did you know that Haefliger’s ex-wife Irina Nikitina is the godmother of Putin’s daughter Maria?
It is perhaps interesting in this context that Mr. Haefliger’s former wife, Irina Nikitina, was godmother to Vladimir Putin’s first daughter (and married to Sergei Poldugin at the time the picture in this article was taken — I’m sure we all remember him, too):
https://insideparadeplatz.ch/2016/04/05/schoene-putin-patin-und-ihre-swiss-connections/
I noticed that there is a certain “Irina Nikitina” who was placed on the U.S. sanctions list in 2017 who is “Chairwoman” of the “Central National Bank” of the so-called “DPR”:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0114
However, to be fair, this is a different “Irina Nikitina” than the woman who was Sergei Roldugin’s first wife and godmother to Putin’s first daughter. The details are to be found on a different site:
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/recent-actions/20170620
Poldugin = Roldugin, sorry (too much Cyrillic on the brain, I guess).
Perhaps because she has a career of her own and it is completely inconsequential who she’s married to?
I don’t think you’re actively trying to be chauvinistic, but you surely must see how you come across as so?
Oh Gawd! Why do these announcements always have to be delivered in cultural management-speak instead of plain language ?
It must be awful going through ones adult life labelled as someones’ wife as if she is a servant. This lady has her own career and is obviously good at it so why mention her husband?
Because people, in their boundless debility, always need some reference, however out of place it may be.
Hallo, are you the one who lives(d)in Wien? Best regards,
Is there any link online to this news item?
I found this in the meantime (in German):
https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/kultur/zentralschweiz/hertenstein-floetistin-andrea-loetscher-macht-rachmaninows-villa-zum-kulturzentrum-ld.2298274
Interestingly, it mentions her husband right at the top in the first sentence appearing beneath her picture.
(And it’s nice to see “Rachmaninoff” spelled correctly for a change…)
Incontri con annunci69 milano