February 22, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | | I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears.
--Adele
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| Quote of the Week | | If music be the food of love, play on. --William Shakespeare |
| | Kennedy Center Debut of Norwegian Genre-crossing Fiddler and Violinist Ragnhild Hemsing | ADVERTISMENT 
Nordic Cool 2013 Saturday, March 2, 2013 www.kennedy-center.org "Ragnhild Hemsing stands out even in the crowded market of young, attractive and photogenic female violinists." Gramophone, 4/2012 Further debuts in 2013/14 include a.o. Staatskapelle Schwerin, Gothenburg Symphony, NDR Radio Philharmonic Hannover, Beethovenfest Bonn and Tampere Philharmonic. Contact Martin Müller info@kdmueller.de or www.kdmueller.de |
New York City Opera Can -- and Should |  NEW YORK -- What's the difference between the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera? Well, one has a 30-week season of a 28-opera repertory and the other does 16 performances of four works. That's quantity. But there's another criterion that, if it's not strictly "quality," is important. The parade of pecs, posteriors, and private parts was only one of a multitude of striking images director Jay Scheib devised to jolt the company's brief spring season to a sizzling start last weekend with Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face at BAM. It demonstrates what NYCO can, and it seems, should do: push hard to extend the limits of New York's opera-going public. The scathing score--the history of Western music from 1900 to 1950 run through a Cuisinart--benefited from the razor-sharp conducting of Jonathan Stockhammer. The textures were so clean and present that I grew suspicious and scanned the program for a sound-design credit. But no, it's all done acoustically, and it sounds sublime. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
James Conlon Extends in Los Angeles |  James Conlon has extended his contract as music director of the Los Angeles Opera through the 2017-18 season,by which time he will have been with the company for 11 seasons. Conlon, who writes the A Rich Possession blog for MusicalAmerica.com, has significantly enhanced the opera's artistic standing during his tenure. Among the milestones has been his Recovered Voices series, focusing on works by composers persecuted during the Nazi regime. He led the company's first Ring, in 2010, which was considered a musical triumph (despite Achim Freyer's bizarre production), and he is the mastermind behind the city's upcoming Britten 100/LA: A Celebration. In addition to his work with the opera, Conlon is music director of the Ravinia Festival and, since 1979, the Cincinnati May Festival. |
| | | | | David Hamilton, music historian, editor, author, and critic, died on Feb. 19 at his home on New York's Upper West Side after a long illness. He was 78. Mr. Hamilton, known for his sharp mind and encyclopedic knowledge of scores and recordings, was the music and recordings librarian for Princeton University and subsequently became the music editor of W. W. Norton publishing. He wrote countless program notes (the Met Opera still uses some of them) and contributed articles to High Fidelity/Musical America, Opera News, Financial Times, and countless others. He was coproducer of the Metropolitan Opera Historic Broadcast Recording series and vetted and annotated over 100 recording and book series for the Met Opera Guild.He was also a frequent guest on the Texaco Opera Quiz, which aired during the intermissions of the Saturday afternoon Met radio broadcasts. exposure. |
More Sex Abuse at Manchester Music Schools |  There seems no end to the sexual misconduct revelations emerging from Manchester's two major music academies. As of Feb. 18, there were nine current or former teachers from the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham's music school that were considered "key" suspects by the police. The latest is the head of the strings department at RNCM, Malcolm Layfield, whose past offenses also occured at Chetham and the Wells Cathedral School. At the time that Layfield was hired, in 2002, RNCN was warned of his behavioral issues but apparently chose to ignore the warning. "Professor Malcolm Layfield has left his post as Head of School of Strings at the Royal Northern College of Music," according to a statement from the school "his position at the College having become untenable." |
| A Parsifal to Fulfill Wagner's Imagination |  NEW YORK -- Whether general manager Peter Gelb has successfully "modernized" the Metropolitan Opera's production style--one of his stated goals when he took over the company in 2006--is debatable, but he can safely claim a victory with the provocative new production of Wagner's Parsifal, unveiled on Feb. 15. The production team--director François Girard, set designer Michael Levine, and costume designer Thibault Vancraenenbroeck--has given the action a contemporary look, but in an understated, even abstract manner, with minimal but potently suggestive sets. Even those still outraged by directorial license--and there were plenty of boos on opening night--must have at least been partially appeased by the magnificent musical performance. The Met has gathered many five-star casts for Parsifal in the past, but few could have been better than this. |
| National Arts Marketing, Development and Ticketing Conference presented by Arts Reach |  ADVERTISEMENT Arts leaders will convene in New York City, March 21-23, to discuss the latest, best ways to find, retain, and upgrade audiences and donors. "Let's Get Engaged! -- Building Long-Term Patron Commitment" is the theme.
Register by March 14 and bring a colleague for FREE (2-for-1). Simultaneous Marketing, Development, and Ticketing sessions are available, plus Keynotes, Intensives, Networking Receptions, and 1-on-1 Consultations. |
| The Regeneration Gap |  From A Rich Possession by James Conlon A few months ago I wrote about two extraordinary projects in Rome that introduce children, from five to eighteen years of age, to opera. Performances of The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni were presented to thousands of young people by two completely separate entities: the Rome Opera and the Tito Gobbi Foundation. The method I witnessed seemed to me an ideal model for introducing opera through participatory-"interactive" if you like-performances. In the course of a recent series of concerts in Berlin and tour in Spain with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, I conducted an introductory program for children (ages six to twelve) of Dvořák's New World Symphony, excellently presented by moderator Christian Schruff. It consisted, naturally, of musical excerpts, and the participation of special guest, Jocelyn B. Smith, a New York born jazz singer who has lived in Berlin for many years, who coached the audience in singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," while explaining its coded meaning. The cost was four euros for children and ten for the adults who accompanied them. |
| You're Not the Boss of Me! |  To submit a question to GG Arts Law write to LawAndDisorder@MusicalAmerica.com Dear Law & Disorder, Our ensemble has recently had friction with its management over weather-related travel concerns. We had concerts scheduled during both Hurricane Sandy and this most recent blizzard in the Northeast, and as both approached, discussed postponing them with our management company. In both instances, they stated that since plane, train, and public transportation travel had been halted, we would need to rent a van and drive to the engagements. They said that due to the nature of our contracts, we would have to make every effort to get there no matter what. We had serious safety concerns about doing this, due to the predicted severity of the storms. In the end, it turned out in both instances that the presenters chose to reschedule the concerts for hopefully sunnier springtime dates, so we did not need to travel after all. I know that our contracts with presenters include an "Act of God" clause, and my question is, who is empowered to make the decision about whether invoking this clause is the right thing to do? The presenter, our management company, or us? What if all three parties do not agree? Can we refuse to travel if we feel conditions are unsafe? Also, our ensemble is a non-profit organization, with the musicians hired as independent contractors. I am concerned that should we ever go ahead and travel to an engagement during bad weather conditions against our better judgment, and should an accident occur, that the individual musicians would have grounds to sue our non-profit for essentially telling them they must go. Would our management company be held responsible at all since they would not allow us to postpone? Help! |
An Enlightened Concert Experience | | 
From Ask Edna by Edna Landau About a month ago, I attended a panel discussion at Chamber Music America's 35th annual conference in New York during which one of the panelists, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, spoke of her quest to make her concerts as personal, intimate and warm as possible. Reinforced by the atmosphere at a Leonard Cohen performance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn (seating capacity of approximately 18,000), which made her feel as though she were in his living room, she has set out to experiment with special lighting to warm up the feel of her concerts. Where possible, presenters may be asked to use special gels that may complement a motif in her concert attire. Alternatively, she may ask for a lamp with a lamp shade near the piano, as well as a piece of carpeting under the piano. In some instances, Ms. Dinnerstein has prepared a mixed tape to be played in the hall from the time the doors open, that is related to the program she will perform and that is designed to help the audience put their cares behind them and to welcome them into the concert experience even before she plays a note. Such a compilation might include selections as diverse as songs sung by Joni Mitchell and the late countertenor, Alfred Deller. In a program called "Night", based on her soon to be released album by that name with singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, the two came out and started performing on a dark stage. As the lights gradually came up, the audience was already engrossed in what they were hearing, spared the applause that traditionally accompanies the artists' coming out on stage and that can be a rather harsh entry point into a captivating musical experience. Read the full story |
| Where does the Concertgebouw Stand? |  From Why I Left Muncie by Sedgwick Clark Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and its current music director, Mariss Jansons, stopped by Carnegie Hall last week (2/13 and 14) for a pair of concerts to celebrate the ensemble's 125th anniversary. They were a great success, as always, with everyone on my aisle burbling over its glorious sound and virtuosity. No doubt whatsoever, it is a great orchestra, and for many of my over-40 years of hearing it in concert it was my favorite European orchestra. But the dark, burnished sonority of yore, cultivated to such full-toned splendor during Bernard Haitink's tenure (1963-1988), was eviscerated by Riccardo Chailly's superficial musicianship (1988-2004). And the turnover of orchestral musicians that occurred internationally in the last two decades of the 20th century brought forth a new generation of players who pride clarity over rich, bass-oriented textures. The only orchestra I know that has managed to retain its early-1970s persona resides in Philadelphia, and it remains to be seen what effect its new music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will have. |
| 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." NEW THIS WEEK Dutton, Jane , Neves, Susan, soprano, added, Bel Canto Global Arts Villaroel, Veronica, soprano, added, Bel Canto Global Arts Read the full story |
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