Marcus Brigstocke is best known for his stand-up comedy and as a regular performer and writer on BBC Radio 4 so it’s somewhat surprising to find that he has written this bittersweet drama of family and addiction. The Red grew out of his own family experience and is a touching story of father and son, a screen adaptation of a radio play.
Benedict’s dad loved wine. He loved collecting it, drinking it and found sharing it with friends and family was an act of love. Benedict was a teenage alcoholic. He’s been sober now for 25 years. On the day of his father’s funeral, Benedict receives an unsettling final bequest: a bottle of exceptionally fine red wine. Will he drink one final toast to his father?
The Red is written and directed by Marcus Brigstocke, and stars real-life father and son actors Bruce Alexander and Sam Alexander.
The film, directed by Charlotte Peters, has been critically praised.
Brigstocke says of this film,: “The Red is a deeply personal piece of work for me. It is in large part my story. I am so proud that it has been such a success and hugely excited that it will be seen by even more people now! Sam and Bruce are just excellent in these roles and the fact that they are father and son brings a very special dimension to it all.”
The University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music has awarded Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music to Seth Parker Woods. He writes:
This honor comes as a total surprise when I got the call, but I love my school, department and colleagues and so excited to see where we continue going and the changes we make for the future. I first met the late Bobby Mann (founding violinist of the Juilliard Quartet and long time Juilliard faculty member) many moons ago when I was a high school student and was forever in awe of his musicianship and the way he could pull musical lines out of budding musicians. Thank you to Dean King and the USC Provost for this honor. Onward!
Conductor Oksana Lyniv welcomes her Youth Orchestra of Ukraine:
Every coming together is so precious for us!
Here is the moment then the bus finally arrived from Lviv, Ukraine making 55 hours trip.
Many of members started their journey already days before, coming from the different Ukrainian cities to catch the bus and to cross the border.
And now the next few weeks we can spend together, starting from the beautiful residence in the Nordkolleg Rendsburg at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and share the great musical moments.
Alon Ohel, 23, has been held by Hamas and its allies for more than 300 days since being kidnapped on October 7.
If it’s summer music you’re after, it doesn’t come much sunnier than this. Castelnuovo-Tedesco – it translates as Newcastle German – was a Florentine who traced his lineage to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Oppressed by Mussolini’s racial laws, he migrated to the US in 1939, his visa sponsored by Jascha Heifetz….
Violinist Chris Wu has retired from the orchestra after 36 years.
In a parting interview with the Post-Gazette, he makes caustic comments about life in the orchestra, where the classical audience uptake is running around 50percent.
Unfortunately, the headlines are all we can see online:
Retiring symphony violinist compares classical music to a ‘colonoscopy,’ prescribes personal touch
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Chris Wu played violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony for 36 years. He has thoughts on the organization’s future.
UPDATE:
Here’s a longer section:
You don’t think classical music is approachable on its own merits?
These days, I think most people imagine sitting through a classical music concert like a colonoscopy and a root canal.
It’s something that they should do, but nobody wants to go sit still for that long for something they think they won’t enjoy. But if they took the time to actually go with people that have been to it before, they might realize their preconceptions were unfounded.
So all it takes is a personal introduction?
Death and taxes affect everyone — music also affects everyone, no matter where you are in life. At the symphony, we play music that has lasted for centuries. I think there’s a reason so many people still appreciate this music.
That said, culture is always shifting. Everyone is into TikTok now, but 15 years ago it was MySpace. So maybe we need to be open to reimagining the presentation of this music we love, not the music itself.
So what’s next for you?
I’ll be working on ways to bring music to mental health patients. We know anxiety and depression have gotten worse in this country and that pills aren’t the answer for a lot individuals’ situations. Maybe there are some holistic ways that we as musicians can be a part of the solution.
The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera has chosen Ilya Ram as Music Director, only the fourth in 91 years.
Ram, 33, is presently in charge of the Akademische Philharmonie Heidelberg.
In Tel Aviv, he used to volunteer for the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights.
The founder of Chicago Baroque Ensemble John Mark Rozendaal was arrested yesterday while playing his cello in a stop-oil protest outside Citibank headquarters in New York.
Rozendaal, 63, was the subject of a restraining order, preventing him from approaching Citibank security. Citi called the cops and had the cellist arrested. If convicted, he faces up to seven years behind bars.
He wrote: ‘You’ve heard of musicians selling their souls to the devil? So here I am practicing and literally thinking, “If I can play this music tomorrow and not fuck it up, they can lock me up, I do not care how long.’
Rozendaal has been principal cellist of The City Musick and Basically Bach. He has performed with many period ensembles, including the Newberry Consort, Orpheus Band, King’s Noyse, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Soli Deo Gloria’s Chicago Bach Project.
The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has just announced the Swiss Lorenzo Viotti as its next music director.
Viotti, presently with Netherlands Opera, is known best for his narcissitic selfies on social media.
Press release: Tokyo Symphony Orchestra Chairman Tatsuya Okazaki and Managing Director and Executive Director Yoshitaka Hirooka announced today that conductor Lorenzo Viotti will become the Orchestra’s next Music Director, beginning in the 2026/27 season. The initial agreement is for three years.
As the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra’s fourth music director, Mr Viotti will succeed Jonathan Nott, whose tenure began in 2014 and ended with the 2025/26 season. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1990, Viotti, now 34, is Chief Conductor of the Dutch National Opera and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He already regularly conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and in June 2024 he led a tour of Germany, Switzerland, and Spain with the Vienna Philharmonic. In opera, in addition to the Dutch National Opera, he conducted Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (new production) directed by Daniele Abbado at La Scala in February 2024 and Kalman’s Die Csardasfurstin at the Zurich Opera in April 2024. He is currently sought after by many of most prestigious orchestras and opera houses.
The Canada-born soloist Jean Guihen Queyras is heading for Ukraine to bring relief to the suffering. He writes:
Dear friends,
In two weeks, I will be travelling to Kyiv to give a concert with Camerata Kyiv and share my music with the Ukrainian people. I will also be visiting wounded soldiers in a rehabilitation centre and a clinic for children suffering from war trauma.
Despite logistical complications, I felt an urgent need to express my solidarity in my own way with a nation that shows us incredible resilience in the face of adversity every day.
We have all been moved by the courage and determination of the Ukrainians in the face of aggression. By playing in Kyiv, I wish to support and connect with the local Ukrainian music scene, celebrating the rich cultural heritage that Ukrainians continue to keep alive despite the daily threats. I firmly believe that in times of conflict, artistic expression has its place, offering comfort and strength in its own way.
It will be a great honour for me to stand alongside the Ukrainian people, even if only for a few days, as they fight for peace and freedom. May this concert convey a message of hope and solidarity, strengthening the bonds that unite us all.
Thank you for your support, and I look forward to sharing this unique experience with you, which holds a special place in my heart.
If you would like to support this initiative with a donation, here are links to two active NGOs on the ground:
Rehabilitation Center for Wounded Soldiers: https://unbroken.org.ua/donate
Support for Children Suffering from War Trauma: https://voices.org.ua/en/donat/
Message received from the Vienna Phil:
We mourn the loss of Dr. Fritz Sterz, our esteemed doctor and friend of the orchestra. His dedication and care for our orchestra over the years, both in Vienna and on tour, will remain in our memories forever.<
We are profoundly grateful for his tireless support and medical care. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his family.
Sterz, who retired from his hospital post three years ago, had been Deputy Head of Emergency Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. Originally from Graz, he spent three years studying resuscitation with the pioneering Peter Safar in Pittsburgh. Known as the ‘father of therapeutic hypothermia, he had 569 publications to his name.
During the Vienna Phil’s first performance after Covid lockdown, ‘Dr. Fritz Sterz was brought in and experimented with sodium choloride to determine air flow. He measured fog clouds at a maximum of 20 inches (50 centimeters) from musicians’ mouths and noses, and approximately 30 inches (75 centimeters) from the end of a flute.’ On his advice, there was no social distancing on stage.
