December 21, 2012   |
| | | Thought of the Day | | Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own. --Aesop
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| Quote of the Week | | Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store. --Dr. Seuss
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| | Big Shifts at Konzertdirektion Schmid |  Konzertdirektion Schmid has announced a number of staff changes, necessitated by the departure of VP Burkhard Glashoff, who leaves in June to become managing director of Konzertdirektion Goette in Hamburg, and by the retirement of Managing Director Renate Förster as director of finance and human resources in Sept. 2013. Glashoff oversees orchestral touring at KDS; company President Cornelia Schmid, daughter of the company's late founder Hans Ulrich Schmid, will take on the oversight of the orchestra department, assisted by Nicole Apitus, current artistic director of logistics. Vice President Karen McDonald will oversee the artist manager department and add the title of managing director, with responsibility for both the London and Hannover offices. With Glashoff and Förster gone, McDonald becomes the company's sole managing director. KDS, with offices in Berlin, Hannover, and London, has about a 30-member staff, an artist roster of 80, and manages some 40 orchestral tours per season. |
NY Philharmonic VP Resigns |  New York Philharmonic Executive Director Matthew VanBesien announced to orchestra staff this week that Eric Latzky, VP of Communications, would be exiting the organization. Latzky confirmed the move on Thursday. In a subsequent email to colleagues, he writes, "After 13 extraordinary, challenging, thoroughly fulfilling and exhilarating years, I have submitted my resignation as Vice President, Communications, of the New York Philharmonic. I'll be pursuing the next professional chapter in the New Year." Latzky first joined the orchestra in fall of 1999 as manager of public relations. From there he worked his way up the ladder to his current position. He will stay on through the end of the year. The orchestra has made no announcement as to his successor. |
| | | Universal Dissolves Classical & Jazz Division |  BERLIN -- As Universal Music reorganizes itself around the recently approved purchase of EMI, it has said it will dissolve Universal Classics & Jazz following the departure of Managing Director Christian Kellersmann in April 2013. Deutsche Grammophon will take over the classics department, while EMI labels Verve and Blue Note will absorb jazz. Kellersmann said in a statement that he is leaving under harmonious conditions with Universal Music. Queries to two Universal executives for further clarification, one in London, one in New York, went unanswered. Frank Briegmann, president of Universal Music Germany, Austria, and Switzerland as well as Deutsche Grammophon since 2004, praised Kellersmann as an innovator who had "decisively contributed to the importance of classics and jazz on the German market as well as within Universal Music Group." |
Chicago Lyric Names Chorus Master |  Lyric Opera of Chicago has another new chorus master, and this time it looks like a good match. He is Michael Black, who served as interim just last season, and with whom choristers are said to have been quite pleased. He starts in August of 2013. Black's current position is chorus master for Opera Australia. He will succeed Martin Wright, who left last November "for health reasons" after three months in the job. Prior to Black's 2011-12 interim stint, Donald Nally served as chorus master; he left in 2011 to devote more time to his own chorus in Philadelphia. And Nally was preceded by longtime chorus master Donald Palumbo, who has been at the Metropolitan Opera since the 2007-08 season. Following Wright's sudden exit last November, San Francisco Opera Chorus Director Ian Robertson has been serving as guest director. |
Bravo the Mezzo, Not So the Soprano |  NEW YORK -- Before Berlioz's immense Les Troyens became established as one of the grandest operatic masterpieces of the 19th century -- only a little more than 50 years ago -- it was considered an eccentric amalgam of two operas, the first part dealing with the Grecian sack of Troy and the second with the Trojan hero Aeneas's amorous dalliance in Carthage with Queen Dido. It was difficult to dispel that erroneous misperception at the Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2003 production of Les Troyens this week. The performance was to blame. A pall of dead-on-arrival weighed upon the Trojan acts; Deborah Voigt's Cassandra was more irritating than monumental. Many people fled at halftime.
Those who did missed Susan Graham as Dido, as distinguished an interpretation of the role as the Met has ever witnessed, a pantheon that includes such unforgettable Carthaginian queens as Shirley Verrett, Christa Ludwig, Tatiana Troyanos, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Graham's soft-grained mezzo-soprano is a thing of beauty in itself.
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| What's Wrong With Canada? |  Dear Law and Disorder, Why is it necessary for Canadian performers to obtain work permits in order to perform in the United States? Although Visas are not necessary, the work permit is necessary. Why are the artists not able to enter the way other business people under the North American Free Trade Agreement? Cultural industries exempt are books, films and recordings. Why is performance by artists in the USA not covered by the Agreement?
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| Carter's Night to Remember |  From Why I Left Munice by Sedgwick Clark April 22, 1972, was American composer Elliott Carter's night to remember, when 2,800 listeners at Carnegie Hall cheered a stupendous performance of his Variations for Orchestra (1955) by Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony. Solti brought him to the stage and the audience went wild. They were called out by the audience five times, with their faces more aglow with each appearance. By an amazing coincidence, Lorin Maazel was leading the New York Philharmonic in the Variations at exactly the same time over at Lincoln Center. I caught Monday's subscription concert, and while it's iffy to accurately describe the performance qualities of such a complex piece after 40 years, I recall it as being flat as a pancake - as deserving of its tepid audience response as the CSO's acclamation was two days before. Maazel motioned for Carter to stand in one of the boxes on the left. The audience paid barely any heed, so I shouted "bravo." The composer turned in my direction, smiled, and bowed, Maazel walked off the stage, and the applause stopped as if sucked into a black hole. Read the full story |
| Latest Roster Changes | |  Musical America is helping presenters keep up with its advertisers! Managers whose rosters appear in the 2013 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."
Axiom Brass, added, Lisa Sapinkopf Artists
Cann, Michelle, piano, added, Lisa Sapinkopf Artists
Cotik, Tomas, & Tao Lin, violin & piano, added, Lisa Sapinkopf Artists
Henschel Quartett, added, Lisa Sapinkopf Artists
Mittelhammer, Ludwig, baritone, added, Artistainternational
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