Guido's Hand

Osmo Vänskä Threatens to Resign

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:21:00 +0000

Osmo Vänskä Threatens to Resign

Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä has tightened the screws on the dispute between players and management, threatening to resign if the lockout is not resolved soon.

In a letter to the orchestra's board sent on Tuesday, he says the dispute has already cost the orchestra several of its players and concertmaster Erin Keefe had told him she has been offered positions elsewhere. No concertmaster, no music director, Vänskä told the board, stating: "my own position as music director may become unsustainable."

The tipping point for Vänskä will be if the orchestra loses four planned concerts at Carnegie Hall starting November.

Now Minnesota loses its principal clarinet

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:42:00 +0000

We hear that Burt Hara, principal clarinet of the locked out Minnesota Orchestra, has won the audition for Associate Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It will mean a sunnier life for Burt and his family, but it’s another sickening for Minnesota, which is shedding more and more of its best players in the unending lockout. More

Cellist Raphaël Merlin has instrument seized at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:52:00 +0000

Customs officers at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, seized Raphaël Merlin’s cello on the morning of 27 April. The cellist was returning to his native France after a US tour with the Ébène Quartet. He has still not recovered the 1680 Andrea Guarneri instrument (pictured, with Merlin), which he has played for the past four and a half years. More

Jonas Kaufmann Gets (Another) Opera Award

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:47:00 +0000

U.K.'s Opera magazine has jumped on the annual award bandwagon, with Oper Frankfurt and tenor Jonas Kaufmann among the first recipients, for "opera company" and "male singer," respectively. The awards, at a gala dinner in London, are to be known as "the Operas" and were established by the magazine's editor, John Allison, and British businessman Harry Hyman. There are 23 categories in all, with "accessibility" going to the Metropolitan Opera, presumably for the HD initiative. Among other winners were the Cape Town Opera in the chorus category, Salzburg as opera festival, Antonio Pappano as conductor, George Benjamin's Written on Skin as world premiere, Nina Stemme as female singer, and the MET Orchestra for opera orchestra.

Among the ten jurors, the majority of them male, were San Francisco Opera Artistic Director David Gockley; Salzburg Easter Festival Managing Artistic Director Peter Alward; Joan Matabosch, artistic director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu; Guus Mostart, manager of the Nationale Reisopera in Enschede; and Brit journalists Hugh Canning, Rupert Christiansen, and Andrew Clements.

Watch: Boston Symphony Musicians Pay Tribute to Marathon Bombing Victims

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Boston Symphony assistant principal viola Cathy Basrak and principal violist Steven Ansell play in marathon gear (Stu Rosner)

With security in Symphony Hall increased in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, the Boston Symphony Orchestra paid tribute to the victims of the attacks and their families during its concert Thursday night.

A video supplied to WQXR by the BSO shows the orchestra's assistant principal violist, Cathy Basrak, who ran the marathon on Monday, introducing the concert from the stage. Wearing her marathon jacket and a running watch over her black evening gown, Basrak reads a quote from Leonard Bernstein and leads a moment of silence. More

iTunes Celebrates a Decade, Faces New Challenges

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:27:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Apple launched its iTunes music store a decade ago amid the ashes of Napster, the music industry - reeling from the effects of online piracy - was anxious to see how the new music service would shake out.

"The sky was falling, and iTunes provided a place where we were going to monetize music and in theory stem the tide of piracy. So, it was certainly a solution for the time," said Michael McDonald, who co-founded ATO Records with Dave Matthews and whose Mick Management roster includes John Mayer and Ray LaMontagne. More

Janos Starker, A Master Of The Cello, Dies At 88

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:25:00 +0000

Cellist Janos Starker has died at 88, ending a life and career that saw him renowned for his skills as a soloist, his prodigious work with orchestras, and his commitment to teaching. Starker was born in Budapest in 1924; his path to becoming an international star included surviving life in a Nazi labor camp.

Prolific as well as talented, Starker's recording career spanned more than 50 years. His discography numbers more than 165 recordings, according to his .

"Among his most acclaimed discs are the Bach cello suites and the Dvořák concerto, both recorded for Mercury Living Presence," reports , "and the 1992 Grammy Award winning recording of the Bach suites for RCA." More

Composer, educator Robert Ward dies

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:23:00 +0000

DURHAM — Robert Ward, grand old man of American opera and a major figure in North Carolina music since the 1960s, has died.

Ward passed early Wednesday morning at his apartment in a Durham retirement home, after a period of failing health. He was 95 years old.

Ward remains best known for composing the music to the opera version of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962. He also wrote another seven operas, seven symphonies and numerous choral works and chamber-music pieces. more

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/03/2799101/composer-educator-robert-ward.html#storylink=cpy

Library of Congress Adds Glass Opera, Van Cliburn to Recording Registry

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:56:00 +0000

“Einstein on the Beach” is headed to the Library of Congress. On Thursday, the library announced its 25 newest additions to the National Recording Registry. Among them is the landmark multimedia opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson.

The library selects said it selects albums for “their cultural, artistic and historic importance to the nation's aural legacy."

Also among the new additions is a recording from April 1958 of Van Cliburn, then 23 years old, performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for the finals of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. And a 1959 "A Program of Song" by the soprano Leontyne Price was also added. More

Steinway to Sell West 57th St. Showroom to Condo Developer

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:53:00 +0000

Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. is selling its stake in the Steinway Hall building in New York to JDS Development Group for about $46 million.

The musical instrument maker said Tuesday that 247,000-square-foot, 16-story office building is home to its flagship retail showroom. Steinway Hall opened in 1925 and is located on West 57th St. in Manhattan.

The deal gives Steinway, which is best known for its pianos, the right to occupy the building rent free for 14 months after closing and to extend the occupancy an additional four months subject to an agreed upon rent.

Steinway expects cash proceeds of about $43 million from the sale at closing after paying transfer taxes. It expects to recognize a taxable gain of $22 million once the deal closes. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. More

The Gospel According to the Other Mary received its New York premiere

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:51:00 +0000

NEW YORK -- John Adams's The Gospel According to the Other Mary received its New York premiere Wednesday night in Avery Fisher Hall with Gustavo Dudamel conducting soloists, dancers, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was quite a spectacle.

Like Adams's El Niño, the piece has an inspired and inventive musical score wedded to a libretto assembled by Peter Sellars that mixes biblical scenes with what naysayers might call bleeding-heart-liberal expressions of solidarity with the downtrodden and the oppressed, whether by virtue of economic injustice or discrimination--perennial Sellars themes. Political views aside, one can wince at a passion story that juxtaposes Jesus's arraignment before Pilate with negotiations between César Chavez, representing farm workers, and the Teamsters. Dramatic coherence and structural shape are simply not present.

Met Announces Sills Award Winner

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:43:00 +0000

Tenor Bryan Hymel has joined a rather distinguished group of singers in receiving the eighth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers. Overseen by the Metropolitan Opera, named for the famed vocalist/arts administrator, funded by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, the $50,000 award is for singers between ages 25 and 40 who are considered "extraordinarily gifted" and have already sung a major role at the Met.

Hymel made his house debut earlier this season, a last-minute replacement for Marcello Giordani singing Aeneas in Berlioz's Les Troyens. Ultimately, he took over the full run (including the HD broadcast), when Giordani decided to "retire" the role from his repertoire. It was a stroke of luck for Hymel, and his debut was a triumph.

'Anna Nicole' @ NY City Opera in September

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:26:00 +0000

Anna Nicole is coming to New York City Opera! Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera about the former Playboy playmate and tabloid fixture was a smash hit at the Royal Opera House in London two seasons ago. It will open the 2013-2014 City Opera season in September in a co-production with Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Details were announced a press conference on Tuesday morning at New York City Center. More

San Francisco Symphony Cancels Carnegie Hall Dates as Strike Continues

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:25:00 +0000

The San Francisco Symphony's east coast tour, which was to include a two-night stand at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday and Thursday, has been canceled as a result of its five-day-old strike.

The orchestra announced shortly before 8 pm ET Sunday that the two sides had been unable to reach an accord, and remain far apart on issues of pay and benefits. More

Violin That Was Played as Titanic Sank Found, Auction House Says

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:23:00 +0000

The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the oceanliner sank has been unearthed, a British auction house said Friday.

Survivors of the Titanic have said they remember the band, led by Wallace Hartley, playing on deck even as passengers boarded lifeboats after the ship hit an iceberg.

Hartley's violin was believed lost in the 1912 disaster, but auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son say an instrument unearthed in 2006 and has undergone rigorous testing and proven to be Hartley's.
"It's been a long haul," said auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, explaining the find had initially seemed "too good to be true."

The auction house spent the past seven years and thousands of pounds determining the water-stained violin's origins, consulting numerous experts including government forensic scientists and Oxford University. More

Musicians Are Probably Smarter Than The Rest Of Us

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 16:39:00 +0000

Want to keep your mind healthy and sharp throughout your life? Pick up an instrument. A new study found that musicians might have brains that function better than their peers well into old age. Bet you wish you stuck with those piano lessons after all.

Researchers tested the mental abilities of senior citizens and discovered that musicians performed better at a number of tests. In particular, musicians excelled at visual memory tasks. While musicians had similar verbal capabilities to non-musicians, the musicians’ ability to memorize new words was markedly better, too. Perhaps most importantly, the musicians’ IQ scores were higher overall than those who spent their lives listening to music rather than performing it. More

Berlin's Lutosławski Tribute kicks off with Dvořák

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:12:00 +0000

From Berlin Times by Rebecca Schmid

The Berlin Philharmonic is celebrating the centenary of Lutosławski with several concerts this month. The first of the series on February 7-featuring his Concert for Orchestra-opened appropriately with Anne-Sophie Mutter, who premiered one of his most important works, Chain Two, in 1988. In an interview I conducted two years ago, the violinist recalled how seeing the score triggered a passion for contemporary music which she continues to nurture. Her appearance at the Philharmonie alongside guest conductor Manfred Honeck took an unrelated historic twist with a performance of Dvořák's Romance in F-minor, although the Czech composer's innovative integration of folk music can be seen to have foreshadowed composers such as Bartok and Lutosławski. The last violinist to perform this work with the Philharmonic is Carl Flesch, in 1909. As Mutter also explained to me, she considers herself a kind of 'great-grandchild' of the legendary violinist given that Flesch taught her mentor Aida Stücki.

Yannick & Philly to Record on DG

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:10:00 +0000

Yannick & Philly to Record on DG

Last summer, Deutsche Grammophon signed Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin to a long-term agreement. Yesterday, the orchestra announced that his first project for the label would be a recording in Verizon Hall of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, set to be issued in the fall.

The iconic work, in its centennial year, was premiered in 1922 in the U.S. by none other than the Philadelphia Orchestra, under then music director Leopold Stokowski. The collaborators also made the first American recording of the piece, in 1930. This marks the orchestra's first major-label project since 1997, also with DG.

These days, very few U.S. orchestras record for major labels. It's worth noting that DG also signed Gustavo Dudamel very early in his relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Teachers at U.K. Music School Charged with Sex Abuse

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Manchester's Chetham's School of Music is caught in an explosion of allegations of sex abuse. Reports in the media seem to have encouraged increasing numbers of students to come forward with their own stories of teachers who abused them in the past.

On Feb. 8, Michael Brewer, the former director of music at the school, was found guilty of "indecent assault" of a former pupil, who committed suicide after testifying against him.

The Guardian now reports that five women have come forward with allegations of sex abuse during the 1970s by the late Ryszard Bakst, a piano teacher at Chetham and at the Royal Manchester College of Music. All claim to have made complaints to the school, to no avail.

Congratulation eighth blackbird on your Grammy!!!

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:28:00 +0000

blackbirds have done it, again! Check out this story on them from the LA Times. Congratulations from the Oberlin Conservatory Library! xo

Grammy Winners 2013: The Full List

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:20:00 +0000

The 55th annual Grammys are over, and unlike last year, a wide range of artists is heading home with hardware.

Adele stole the show in 2012, winning all six awards for which she was nominated. In 2013, Dan Auerbach and the Black Keys were the biggest winners, taking home four trophies. Skrillex claimed three, as did Gotye, Jay-Z and Kayne West.

Check out the entire list!

Lyric Opera Of Chicago Fire-Blowing Actor's Critical Burns Prompt Investigation

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:02:00 +0000

CHICAGO -- A federal agency said Tuesday it is investigating the injury of a fire-blowing stilt-walker who was burned during a dress rehearsal at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

A compliance officer from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has already visited the opera, said spokesman Scott Allen. The agency will interview witnesses, performers and employees to determine exactly how the accident happened and whether any safety regulations were violated. More

Timeline: A History of Black Classical Musicians

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:27:00 +0000

As America's first black president begins his second term, the progress for African-Americans in classical music offers a more complex picture.

While blacks continue to play crucial roles in jazz, gospel, R&B, hip-hop and other popular styles, hurdles remain in classical music. Fewer than three percent of U.S. orchestral musicians are black. Opera has a greater concentration of black performers, though singers face their own set of challenges in terms of casting. And when a concert series highlights music by black composers, it's often as part of Black History Month or another special event. More

Sydney Opera House Lands Deal with Airline Sponsor

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:51:00 +0000

The Sydney Opera House is denying claims that the World Heritage-listed arts complex will be renamed after it signed a three-year, multimillion-dollar deal with Etihad Airways.

''No, it doesn't involve renaming of the Sydney Opera House," Australia’s tourism minister George Souris said at a press conference on Monday.

But the agreement is likely to result in Etihad's branding being placed in and around the iconic venue. In return, the airline, based in the United Arab Emirates, will provide transportation for performers as well as financial support. A source told The Australian that the airline's contribution is "less than $10 million.” More

Honoring 'Our Will To Live': The Lost Music Of The Holocaust

noreply@blogger.com (conlib) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:48:00 +0000

For the past two decades, in a small town in southern Italy, a pianist and music teacher has been hunting for and resurrecting the music of the dead.

Francesco Lotoro has found thousands of songs, symphonies and operas written in concentration, labor and POW camps in Germany and elsewhere before and during World War II.

By rescuing compositions written in imprisonment, Lotoro wants to fill the hole left in Europe's musical history and show how even the horrors of the Holocaust could not suppress artistic inspiration. Read more