We are thrilled to announce Sarah Tynan will be joining us as Head of Vocal Arts, starting in September 2024. Sarah is well established as one of the most exciting and versatile singers of her generation and regularly works with many leading orchestras, opera companies and ensembles around the world. She has appeared in operatic and concert repertoire from Baroque to Contemporary, Bel Canto to Music Theatre, with highlights from over 60 principal roles including Handel’s Cleopatra, Semele, Romilda, Partenope and Ginevra, Mozart’s Elvira, Pamina, Susanna and Ilia, Britten’s Governess, Adams’ Pat Nixon and Donizetti’s Adina and Lucia di Lammermoor. Sarah is a passionate educator as a voice teacher in both her private studio and at the Royal College of Music.
press release:
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) will this evening, Tuesday 30 April, give the inaugural concert in a new series entitled ‘Notes from Downing Street’ in the historic State Room at No. 11 Downing Street.
The UK is genuinely world-leading when it comes to music. It is the world’s second largest music exporter, contributing £6.7bn GVA to the UK economy; it delivers proven educational, health, wellbeing, and societal benefits; and has the intrinsic ability to move and inspire us all. It is envisaged that the new series will celebrate exceptional musical talent from around the United Kingdom, bringing music into the heart of Downing Street.
During the concert, Principal musicians of the London Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet; ‘Clarinet Lament’ from David Schiff’s Ducal Suite (After Duke Ellington); and George Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So.
The death has been announced of David Maxwell Anderson, a stalwart tenor of Glyndebourne and other leading UK companies, as well as a director, teacher and artist manager.
The cause was sudden heart failure.
The funeral is on May 21 at the City of London Crematorium.
For more details:
Tom: tcarey@rocketmail.com
Nathan: nathan.swift@gmail.com
Message from the orchestra: It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of former Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster Norman Carol on April 28 at the age of 95. A remarkable musician, Norman joined the Orchestra in 1966 at the invitation of Eugene Ormandy and retired in 1994. He soloed with the Orchestra nearly every season, performing everything from Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruch to Nielsen, Harrison, Britten, Bernstein, Jarrett, and Skrowaczewski (a concerto commissioned for, and dedicated to, him), among many others. Norman’s passing is the end of an era in our history. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, and students. He will be remembered not only as a consummate musician but also as a gifted and devoted leader of the Orchestra and as a mentor and friend to many. Violinist Paul Arnold shares the following about Norman:
“It was easy to be impressed with the ‘macro’ Norman Carol … he was dashing, comfortable, even swashbuckling as a leader. His playing was bold, expressive, and hall-filling. He brought with him a treasure trove of life experiences in music that added both authenticity and bottomless resource to his leading and his persona. … He soloed with brilliance, aplomb, and enormous variety of repertoire … he went on to personally embody the ‘Philadelphia Sound’ as our orchestra’s leader. But, in so many ways, it was the ‘micro’ aspects of Norman’s personality as both a human being and leader that made his legacy so indelibly imprinted in the minds of those of us who were so lucky to work with him. He was a great concertmaster because he was a great leader of people, a great diplomat, a direct and unrelenting defender of tradition and reason. … I will always miss Norman’s impact on my life in the Orchestra, and his unique and character-filled way of defining our traditions. But I will also miss all the wonderful details that glow like a comet trail from just being around a great legend … and a really great guy.”
The St. Lawrence String Quartet, founded in Toronto in 1989, have decided to disband this summer.
The group had called a one-year hiatus after the death of founding violinist Geoff Nuttall.
They were known for close involvement with strong composers – Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Jonathan Berger, Mark Applebaum and R. Murray Schafer – and multiple recordings.
We reported three and a half months ago that the Boston Symphony’s audition for principal flute had been won by the person holding that seat in ‘the nearest major East Coast orchestra’.
Today, Lorna McGhee of the Pittsburgh Symphony was confirmed in that position.
Also new in Boston are Josh Baker as associate principal bassoon and Toby Grace as section percussionist.
Strictly for the Sondheimers among us.
The worst pies in London.
Tickets now on sale for concerts up to December 2024.
Highlights of the exciting 2024/25 Season include the return of the extraordinary Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński on Thursday 12 September.
Some of the world’s most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians return to the Hall, including Isabelle Faust who will be joined by violinist Anne Katharina Schreiber, viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellists Jean-Guihen Queyras and Christian Poltéra on Sunday 27 October.
To mark the centenary year of Gabriel Fauré, cellist Steven Isserlis leads a five-day exploration and celebration of the composer in November and will be joined by violinists Joshua Bell and Irène Duval, viola player Blythe Teh Engstroem, pianists Jeremy Denk and Connie Shih, and Quatuor Agate.
With many more artists programmed, including Sir András Schiff, Hilary Hahn, Gautier Capuçon, Rudolf Buchbinder and Dame Sarah Connolly with Dame Imogen Cooper, the next Wigmore Hall Season is full of world-class talent and performances.
The New York composer Julia Wolfe won a Pulitzer in 2015 and a MacArthur ‘genius’ award the following year.
Among her recent works is this indefensibkle abuse of a stringed instruments.
Enjoy.
The Soviet composer Nikolai Kapustin played most of his career in officially sanctioned Soviet jazz ensemble. He also had a quintet that played in upscale Moscow restautants.
Kapustin, who died four years ago, regarded himself as a classical composer.
Yuja Wang revives one of his pieces on her latest albujm.
The Slovene public intellectual has issued a video on his major musical influences.
If he could only have one piec e of music to live with it would be Gurrelieder.
From the new issue of The Critic:
Early in the morning of 7 May 1824, Ludwig Beethoven went for a haircut. This might seem a small issue of personal grooming, but with Beethoven nothing is insignificant. In a society where appearance was valued as much as existence — Schein über sein — Beethoven made a noxious fetish of self-neglect. He was unwashed and unkempt, his clothes frayed, his shoes unsoled.
Yet hours before the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven took the trouble to locate a barber who would shave him and cut his hair, taking so much time that he missed lunch at home. Later, leaving for the concert, it was found he lacked a black jacket and would have to conduct in green…
