November 2, 2012   |
| | | Thought of the Day | | Never take anything for granted. --Benjamin Disraeli
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| Quote of the Week | | If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be. --Yogi Berra
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| | Carnegie Hall Still Closed; Plus Some Good News |  Carnegie Hall, still waiting to hear from City officials as to when 57th Street and environs will reopen, what with that crane boom still dangling dangerously, has rescheduled all concerts slated to take place through Nov. 5. The hall has been dark since Sandy paralyzed Manhattan early this week. Pianist Murray Perahia has moved his Nov. 2 recital in Carnegie Hall to Nov. 4 at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall. Opera Lafayette's performance of L'Invitation au Voyage is still scheduled for Nov. 2 but has been relocated to the Colony Club at 564 Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Street. For a complete list go to carnegiehall.org. On the brighter side, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is offering complimentary tickets for its all-Mozart concerts at the State Theater on Nov. 3 and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Nov. 4. The orchestra reports that both venues are fully operational and have heat. |
LA Phil Resident Conductor Gets a New Gig |  French conductor Lionel Bringuier, MusicalAmerica.com's New Artist of the Month for April 2009 has been named music director of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, effective with the 2014-15 season and succeeding David Zinman, in the job for 17 years. Bringuier, 26, is the resident conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, an orchestra with which he has been affiliated for six seasons. Bringuier is the winner of the 2005 Besançon Young Conductors Competition. Auditioning for Esa-Pekka Salonen in 2006 was his first professional venture outside of Europe. Working under Salonen and the LA Phil's current music director would seem to be the ideal training ground for any young conductor. "When I am conducting, I really feel like a chamber musician, as one musician among others," he told MusicalAmerica.com. |
| | | November Video of the Month | | |
Flummerfelt To Exit Spoleto USA |  Joseph Flummerfelt has said that he will retire as Spoleto Festival USA's artistic director for choral activities at the close of the 2013 season, which runs May 24 to June 9. He has held the position since he was first brought on for the 1971 festival in Italy by founder Gian Carlo Menotti. Flummerfelt will close out his four-decade run with the Verdi Requiem, on June 6. (The full schedule for the festival is to be announced Dec. 10.) The year 1971 was also his first as artistic director and principal conductor of the Westminster Choir of Rider University, and it was on his watch that Westminster came to be known as the chorus of choice for the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Flummerfelt, 75, was Musical America's 2004 Conductor of the Year. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
New Siegfried Opens at La Scala |  MILAN -- A high-tech set design of metal cages and screens that revolves and evolves from horizontal to vertical, swirling video projections, a forest of titanium-like trees, and a choreographed ballet of swords are just a few of the elements in Belgian director Guy Cassiers' new production of Siegfried, which opened Oct. 23 at Teatro alla Scala. Daniel Barenboim led an exceptional cast, including Canadian heldentenor Lance Ryan in the title role. But the most gorgeous moments belonged to Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, a rapturous and dramatically compelling Brünnhilde.
Cassiers' concept, as realized with set and lighting designer Enrico Bagnoli and video designers Arjen Klerkx and Kurt d'Haeseeler, is engrossing and imaginative. In the pit, Barenboim propelled the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra with a sure hand and superb pacing that somehow made the evening end all too soon. The somewhat dry acoustics in this theater are not as forgiving as some; the occasional horn bobble or thin string sound was instantly noticeable. Yet, for most of the evening, the orchestra performed nobly. |
USC Music Gets a Cool $3 Million |  University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music has a new concert hall. Refurbished last summer from a venue designed for the School of Cinematic Arts, the recently opened 3,700 square foot hall will be named for Alice and the late Eleanor Schoenfeld, in honor of Alice's $3 million donation. The sisters, formerly a famous string duo, both have close ties to USC. Alice, a violinist, holds the Alice and Eleanor Schoenfeld Endowed Chair in String Instruction and has been on the faculty for over 50 years. Eleanor, who passed away in 2007, held the Gregor Piatigorsky Chair in Violoncello. Said Schoenfeld in a statement, "I thought I'd leave a legacy. I'd like to perpetuate the name of my sister, as she was very active here for so long." MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| New Artist of the Month: Lin Daye |  SHENZHEN, China -- Until recently, Lin Daye wasn't much of a presence on the competition circuit. The last time he reached the finals was in 2006, in a local competition in Shenzhen. He only placed fourth, but the city's orchestra thought he was the best and unanimously approved him as their new resident conductor. "I lost the competition," he says, "but I got the job." In late September, at the conclusion of the sixth International Conductors' Competition Sir Georg Solti in Frankfurt, the concertmaster of the HR Symphony Orchestra (formerly the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) approached Lin to tell him, once again, that the orchestra thought he was the best. Only this time, the Berlin-trained 32-year-old from Shandong Province had walked away with first prize. Lin began piano studies at age four, and at age eight encountered a videotape of Herbert von Karajan conducting Beethoven. "I pointed at the television and said, 'I want to be that man,'" Lin recalls.
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| "Trick or Treat?" | |  From An American in Paris by Frank Cadenhead It was Halloween night. I should have expected something. The Belgians were in town to show off their musical muscle and brought both the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera of Wallonia. Belgium's lower half is called Wallonia. They speak a variation of Dutch and Liege is the principal city. I have been to Brussels several times but never Liège and never before heard these two orchestras. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées was sold out and, with cameras flashing, a couple arrive who we were told was a Belgian prince and princess, along with a serious knot of courtiers. Their purpose was apparently to delay the start of both halves of the evening. Read the full story |
| I'll Show You My Visa If You Show Me Yours! |
To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com Dear Law & Order: Performing Arts Division - I am writing because I am filing a visa application for a German orchestra conductor. He has been approved for an O-1 visa for a period of two years. He has multiple engagements and will need to come in and out of the U.S. during this time. I am hoping to apply for a multiple entry visa for him, however I cannot see an option to select the times he wants to come to U.S. on the visa application. Was this something I was supposed to request on the visa petition? What do I do? Read the full story |
| The Power of a Program |  From Ask Edna by Edna Landau
For the answers to the questions below, click here. On Monday, October 15, while reading the Arts section of The New York Times, I was struck by the fact that more than half of one page was taken up by two reviews of concerts that had very small audiences and that were performed by artists without major name recognition. Anthony Tommasini reviewed a performance by the Mivos Quartet at the DiMenna Center's Benzaquen Hall, where he reported that chairs were set up for just 50 people. The review of the quartet was accompanied by a performance photo which measured 6 x 9 inches. Vivien Schweitzer reviewed a concert by the Danish String Quartet in the Victor Borge Hall of Scandinavia House, which has a seating capacity of 168. I can well remember a time when only concerts performed in New York's biggest halls, or debut concerts performed in one or two venues, stood a chance of being reviewed. Read the full story |
| Carnegie's Crane |  From "Why I Left Muncie" by Sedgwick Clark Hurricane Sandy left a humbling amount of destruction in its wake, including a breath-catching sight in midtown Manhattan: a construction crane dangling 1,000 feet above West 57th Street, just east of Seventh Avenue, across from Carnegie Hall. Traffic was cordoned off between Sixth and Eighth avenues on 55th through 58th streets, bringing Carnegie concerts to a halt until the crane is brought down. It was initially thought that the street could be reopened when the crane was secured to the scaffolding, but second thoughts determined that the whole kit and caboodle--crane, cab, and 90-story scaffolding--would have to come down and then be replaced for utmost safety. |
| 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." Chen, Sa, piano, added, AOR Management Inc.
Oliveira, Elmar, violin, added, AOR Management Inc. Read the full story |
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