August 3, 2012  |
| | | Thought of the Day | | Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.
--Julia Child
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| Quote of the Week | | Don't bother looking at the view, I have already composed it. --Gustav Mahler
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| | Nikitin Says It Was Not a Swastika |  NEW YORK -- After withdrawing from the Bayreuth Festival last month, following the appearance of a tattoo on his chest during a German television broadcast, Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin now says the image was not a swastika. The 38-year-old dropped out in July from a new production of Der Fliegende Holländer after the image was televised. It appeared to be a swastika tattoo. But in a statement released through the Metropolitan Opera, Nikitin said, "While it is true that I have had a varied artistic life, including an interest in heavy metal music and Scandinavian mythology, which was the inspiration behind the tattoos..., it is inaccurate to state that I ever had a swastika tattoo. In fact, the tattoo... that was photographed in 2008 was still in progress at the time." "I have absolutely no affinity for or connection to any neo-Nazi or fascist movement, nor have I ever in the past," he said. "Nazism in particular has been the source of great personal grief and loss. My two grandfathers were both killed by Nazi forces during World War II." MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | Ulrike Hessler, intendant of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Semperoper, died on July 30 after a long battle with cancer. She was 57. When Dr. Hessler was appointed in 2010, she was the company's first woman chief in its 169-year history. She had come from the Bavarian State Opera, where she started her career in the press office; she worked her way up to director of press and public relations and, when Sir Peter Jonas arrived to succeed Wolfgang Sawallisch as intendant in 1993, was asked to participate in programming and strategic planning as well. Ultimately, when Jonas retired in 2006, she served for two years as interim co-intendant with Kent Nagano. Among her accomplishments in Dresden, Dr. Hessler is credited with finessing the swift transition from Fabio Luisi to Christian Thielemann as music director. She also was instrumental in the Dresden Staatskapelle's move to take over at the Salzburg Easter Festival, what Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic left behind. |
| | | La Bohème ... in Lebanon? |  BEIRUT, Lebanon -- This may be an important city undergoing an internationally heralded Renaissance, but its classical music offerings are few and far between. That may be changing: On July 26, the annual mixed-genre Beiteddine Arts Festival mounted its first-ever opera with a one-night-only production of La Bohème from France's Chorégie d'Orange festival. Despite the conflicts of the Arab Spring (as the crow flies, Damascus is only about 50 miles from Beirut), the country has remained peaceful and even prosperous enough to expand its artistic horizons. This sold-out performance of Puccini's bittersweet tale unfolded in the courtyard of the Beiteddine Palace, a mountain fastness constructed by a 19th-century ruler of Beirut's hinterlands. Beiteddine, which means "House of Faith" in Arabic, is accessible via a winding mountain road, choked before and after the opera with luxury automobiles ferrying le tout Beirut to and from the scene. Judging by the event's popularity and voluble audience reaction, the art form may find fertile ground in Lebanon, even if it was the only time I have ever had a pat-down search at the opera. |
Sydney Symphony in Deal with Guangzhou | |  Juilliard is setting up a satellite operation, its first ever, in Tianjin, with intentions of capturing the thirst for classical music education in China. The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced an annual residency at the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing, in addition to its touring activity in Asia.
And now the Sydney Symphony is jumping into the classical music frenzy in China, having just signed a three-year agreement to help train Chinese musicians in Guangzhou, in exchange for providing marketing expertise for the city's new opera house. The orchestra's goal, apparently, is to be the "premiere" orchestra in the Asia-Pacific. Guangzhou, meanwhile, is invested in raising its status as a city of culture. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Columbus Symphony CEO Makes an Exit |  Ever since the Columbus Symphony handed over its administrative functions in 2010 to the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA), a nonprofit organization that oversees balance sheets and organizational charts for several arts groups in the city, CSO President Roland Valliere has had less control over orchestra operations. Especially since Bill Conner, a volunteer, was appointed managing director of CAPA. Valliere, onetime executive director of the Kansas City Symphony, inventor of the it-almost-caught-on Concert Companion, was hired as CEO in 2009 after the orchestra had suffered through a severe financial crisis. It was on his watch that Junichi Hirokami was fired as music director and Jean-Marie Zeitouni was brought in to succeed him. As of today, Valliere is out. Board Chairman Martin Inglis calls the move "amicable," but says "We just couldn't afford to keep him." Columbus Dispatch reports his salary from recent tax filings at $104,571. The orchestra will hire a director of artistic planning, at a lower salary, to succeed him. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| Tessa Lark: New Artist of the Month | |  Tessa Lark turned 23 during the first round of the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition in New York in June. Soon thereafter, on June 12, the Kentucky-born musician had real cause for celebration: she was named the competition's first-prize winner. For her triumph, Lark was awarded $10,000 and two New York recitals. Her first Naumburg appearance is set for Nov. 28 at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.
"Man, I'm really surprised!" Lark exclaimed shortly after her Naumburg win. "I still can't quite believe it." Lark's ascent in the violin world is not a simple star-is-born story. Even at her tender age, she is a veteran of competition wars, having entered many and won top prizes in several. Still, the Richmond, Kentucky, native was initially reluctant to enter the Naumburg. It was her teacher Miriam Fried who convinced her that this competition was different from the others. "In most other competitions, you compare the Paganini caprices and Bach sonatas and Romantic works," said Fried, esteemed soloist, chamber player, and teacher who's won a number of international violin competitions and served on the jury of many. "You start not listening to a musician and you end up counting wrong notes more than what's talking to you. We felt [the Naumburg] was a place where Tessa could speak in her own voice."
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Eugenia Zukerman's Tanglewood Vlog | |  | | Michael Gandolfi, Composer |
"It was the most transformative event in my life as a composer," says Michael Gandolfi about being a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1986 and working with composer Oliver Knussen. "He gave me a lot of confidence in what I was doing which I think for a young composer is the most important thing - confidence in the form of affirmation in that he believed in what I was doing and what he heard and it made me have more faith in myself." A recipient of numerous awards and grants, Gandolfi is now one of America's pre-eminent composers. Since 1997 he has been on the TMC faculty where he is, in turn, inspiring young composers. His Tanglewood 75 commissioned work, "The Train to Perugia," will be performed by the BSO on August 5th. |
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| A Magic Blurb |  To submit a question to FTM Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com We teach classes, put on concerts and run festivals. At all of these events we take photos of the participants along with the members of our group. We want to be able to use the photos on Facebook and our website. So I am looking for a "blurb" to put in our programs and registration forms that say we have their consent to use photos of them, without having to get actual signed releases from everyone who attends our events in case we end up using their photo.
Read the full story |
| A Procrastinator's African Photo Log | 
From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark I've been promising to run photos from our African vacation in this space almost since we returned two months ago. The lone dissenter ("You're not really going to post photos from your Safari on Musical America.com!! Oy.") was far outvoted. Only yesterday I ran into a friend who had seen photos posted in a decidedly more timely fashion on our fellow traveler Peter Clark's Facebook page, and she expressed interest in seeing more. It was difficult to choose from all we took, and I may even have more next week. The trip was planned by ROAR AFRICA, which we all agreed thoroughly lived up to advance praise. We flew to Johannesburg but after a four-hour layover continued to Cape Town rather than face the former's notorious crime level. Both of the cities' airports were strikingly up-to-date and clean, however. Once in Cape Town, we were met by ROAR AFRICA guide Andy Ward, a retired geography teacher, who had the answers for all of our questions and made us feel completely safe and at ease. Read the full story
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NEW THIS WEEK Horszowski Trio, added, BesenArts LLC Miami String Quartet, added, BesenArts LLC Youngblood, Grant, baritone, added, Scott Levine Management
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