September 14, 2012  |
| | | Thought of the Day | | No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow. --Euripides
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| Quote of the Week | | How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days. --John Burroughs
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| | Francesca Zambello to WNO |  Francesca Zambello has been named artistic director of the Washington National Opera, a seemingly inevitable appointment since her installation as artistic advisor in June of 2011, stepping into the artistic void left by Plácido Domingo's departure as general director and Christina Scheppelmann's as director of artistic operations last November. She takes on her new job in January. Zambello also will continue as artistic and general director of the Glimmerglass Festival and, though she says she will be scaling back from directing elsewhere, her work on international opera and music theater stages surely means that her time for Washington, D.C., will be somewhat restricted. She will continue to direct one production each season; next up, in 2013, is her staging of Show Boat, last mounted in June at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, first seen in 2006 at Royal Albert Hall. |
Finnish Wunderkind Offered Two Posts |  Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, 26, is to be the new chief conductor and artistic director of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, starting in fall 2013 for three years. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, Rouvali claims also to have been offered the post of chief conductor by the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague in the Netherlands. "I have not responded to them yet," he tells the Sanomat. "I have had a feeling though that Residentie is my band. But maybe it would be too much to have two orchestras of my own." His Tampere contract calls for eight weeks, but he anticipates spending considerably more time with the orchestra. |
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Kent Nagano in Talks with Hamburg Staatsoper |  American conductor Kent Nagano is in talks to succeed Simone Young as general music director of the Hamburg State Opera. He would assume the position in 2015; unlike Young, he would not simultaneously serve as intendant. Nagano, 50, announced two years ago that he would not extend his contract as general music director of the Bavarian State Opera beyond the summer of 2013 due to unfavorable cultural politics, which he described in a public letter. Rumors of clashes with Intendant Nikolaus Bachler floated in the media. Nagano has led the Bavarian State Opera since 2006. Parallel to his activities in Munich, he serves as music director of the Montreal Symphony, a post to which he has committed through 2016. Nagano also was recently named principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Gothenburg Symphony, starting in fall 2013. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
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Stalemate Update on U.S. Orchestras |  This season, orchestras in Atlanta, Indianapolis, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and San Antonio are in various stages of attempted consensus on contracts between their musicians and the people who control the money. St. Paul Chamber Orchestra management is proposing a reduced season of 36 weeks; shrinking wages for current players to $62,500, with a buy-out offer for those over 55; new players would be paid $50,000; orchestra size would shrink to 28 musicians. The San Antonio Symphony has neither a new contract nor an approved budget and, according to the players, owes its musicians $225,000 -- on top of its current, $850,000 deficit. Talks at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which is carrying an accumulated deficit of $20 million, are at a standstill. Musicians are currently without pay or benefits and are "locked out" of Symphony Hall. Indianapolis musicians are also locked out, without pay or benefits, and at a standstill in negotiations. Minnesota Orchestra has asked its players to take a 34 percent cut. |
MIlwaukee Symphony Names New CEO |  The Milwaukee Symphony has a new president and executive director, and it's safe to say he knows the artistic side of things because he is the orchestra's first trumpet, Mark Niehaus. He will replace Maryellen Gleason, in the job for two seasons and resigning to pursue "other opportunities." Earlier this week the orchestra announced that it had retired its accumulated deficit and balanced the budget ($17.4 million) for fiscal 2012, which ended Aug. 31. Niehaus has been principal trumpet since 1998. Of his administrative skills, Music Director Edo de Waart commented, "I have tremendous confidence in Mark's ability." Concertmaster Frank Almond noted how difficult it was for orchestras today but said he was optimistic about the MSO's future. "Mark is the right person to lead the organization," he said. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
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| Smile, You're On Candid Camera! | | To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com Dear Law & Disorder: We re-booked a popular classical artist to perform at our venue. In promoting the concert, we used a photograph of the artist that one of our staff took the last time the artist performed here. Then we got a nasty phone call from the artist's manager saying that we could only use "approved" photographs. Is this true? Since we took the photograph in the first place, don't we own it?
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| Putting Down New Roots |  From "Ask Edna" by Edna Landau
For the answers to the questions below, click here. I hope you have all had a very enjoyable summer and I welcome you back to Ask Edna. Since a number of our readers have moved over the summer, I have decided to dedicate this first column of the new season to a question that was posed to me at a session I did at the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival in July. I was asked how someone who is well-established as a musician in a particular city can make connections when they move to a new city where they don't know anyone. In thinking about this, I chose to contact pianist Makiko Hirata, a graduate of the Colburn School and now a doctoral candidate at The Shepherd School of Music/Rice University. I have always found her to be very entrepreneurial so I was curious as to how she had personally approached this. Read the full story |
| Kudos for a Critic? | 
From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark Frankly it was astonishing: A disingenuous "culture" editor of "all the news that's fit to print" shunts a classical-music critic from his 35-year beat into a position called "general culture reporter," and within a day 500 angry readers sign a petition to reinstate him. Two days later the number had grown to 1,100! By noon today (9/12), the number had risen to 1,357. And remember, we're talking about a critic of the high art that is supposedly dying faster than the printed newspaper. My phone calls and e-mails haven't let up since I blogged on the subject last week. Gil Shaham's 20th-century Concertos Just to show that I'm not squeaky clean either, I'm about to quote from a press release! It's about the upcoming season of Musical America's 2012 Instrumentalist of the Year, Gil Shaham, who has been engaged in "one of the most imaginative programming concepts in years," to quote our own words. Read the full story
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| Latest Roster Changes | |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2012 edition of the Musical America Directory should write to listings@musicalamerica.com with the names of artists and attractions that have been either added or removed, and please be sure to indicate "added" or "removed."
NEW THIS WEEK Bermel, Derek, composer/clarinet, added, Dworkin & Company Brandon, John, baritone, added, Encompass Arts Davenport, William, tenor, added, Encompass Arts Hotoda, Rei, conductor, added, William Reinert Associates Kavayas, Vassilis, tenor, added, Artistainternational Oliviera, Elmar, violin, removed, Dworkin & Company Pedersen, Laura, soprano, removed, Encompass Arts Zaremba, Christian, bass, added, Encompass Arts
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