October 11, 2013   |
| | | Thought of the Day | "A day without laughter is a day wasted." --Charlie Chaplin |
| Quote of the Week | | "Whoever is happy will make others happy too." --Anne Frank |
| | | Alan Gilbert and Juilliard Orchestra Center Stage at Carnegie | | ADVERTISEMENT  As leader of two NYC orchestras, Conductor Alan Gilbert leads an entire NY Philharmonic season, but
his only concert with the Juilliard Orchestra takes place Monday, October 21 at Carnegie Hall. The program features Juilliard violinist Elizabeth Fayette performing Bartók's romantic First Violin Concerto, and concludes with Bruckner's passionate and colorful Seventh Symphony. Tickets $30, $15. Half-price seniors/students. Get more info |
| Protesters Harass Gergiev at Carnegie Hall | | 
NEW YORK -- Security was tight last night for the first of the Mariinsky Orchestra's three concerts at Carnegie Hall, but not tight enough. As Valery Gergiev strode onstage, bowed, and turned around to launch the low strings into Stravinsky's Firebird, a few protesters hurled statements at him from the upper balconies. Gergiev is a friend and active supporter of Vladimir V. Putin; since the Russian president created a law making homosexuality a crime, supporters of LGBT have linked Gergiev to Putin's anti-gay laws. Among the protesters' audible comments, "Gergiev, your silence is killing Russian gays!" After too long a wait was filled with more heckling and some booing from the audience, Gergiev all the while frozen in the same pose, the hecklers were finally removed. Four members of the group Queer Nation took credit for the disruption. There were also protests outside the Hall before the concert began. The actions were a repeat of those at the opening of the Metropolitan Opera last month. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
Why David Koch Declined to Save New York City Opera | | 
Billionaire David H. Koch was among the individuals that New York City Opera General Manager George Steel turned to for help in the company's final days. Koch, who was on page A-1 of The Times on Oct. 6 as the biggest financial supporter of defunding Obama-care, has some interesting deep-pocket cronies. One of them is the chairman of the City Opera, Charles R. Wall. Another was the late J. Howard Marshall II, the gentleman that Anna Nicole Smith married [couple pictured] when he was 89 and she was 26. In any case, Marshall, who made his billions from oil, was a 16 percent owner in Koch Industries. Steel took Koch to see Anna Nicole: The Opera as part of his pitch to ask for funds. Koch declined, citing concerns for the Marshall family's (and Koch's) interests. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
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Patrice Chéreau, the celebrated French theater and film director whose opera career was launched in 1976 with a Bayreuth Ring that remains the gold standard, died Oct. 7 at the age of 68. The cause was lung cancer. Elisabeth Tanner, co-director of the Artmedia agency that represented him, tells the AFP, "He had an extraordinary vitality right until the end." Chéreau made 10 films including the Oscar-nominated La Reine Margot, Persecution, and Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train. His final opera was Strauss's Elektra at the Aix-en-Provence festival in July, which Alex Ross described in his New Yorker review as occupying "a special place in Chéreau's output." Other of Chéreau's memorable opera productions include Berg's Lulu, in 1979, and the grim, powerful staging of Janácek's From the House of the Dead, marking his Met Opera debut in 2009. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
| | | ADVERTISEMENT  The 14th Arthur Rubinstein International Master Piano Competition (May 13 - 29, 2014) Will Celebrate Its 40th Anniversary!
As one the foremost piano competitions in the world, The Arthur Rubinstein Competition has fostered
some exceptional musicians: Emmanuel Ax, Eugen Indjic, Gerhard Oppitz, Kiryll Gerstein, Igor Tchetuev, Alexander Gavrylyuk and Daniil Trifonov.
Registration for the upcoming competition is currently in full swing. For more details regarding applications, please follow this link: http://www.arims.org.il/reg. Age limits: 18-32, application deadline is November 1st, 2013.
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| Women Conductors and "The Maternity Problem" | |  Paris Conservatory Director Bruno Mantovani has gotten himself in deep trouble among women's groups and media commentators in his explanations of why there are so few women conductors. His comments were made on French radio, in response to news that only 17 women would be conducting the 574 concerts in France this season, and that no woman had ever been invited to conduct at the Paris Opera.
"There are few women conductors...that is true... If we start to categorize we will find... ambitions which can be very different between men and women." His experience at the school, he claims, shows that "many females are not necessarily interested" in a conducting career. He further cited "the maternity problem" and his sense that women are "disheartened by the physical aspect" of conducting. Mantovani, also a composer, has kicked up such a fury that there have been calls for his resignation. |
Juilliard Gets $60 Million for Scholarships | | 
Juilliard Chairman (and Lincoln Center Vice Chairman) Bruce Kovner has done it again. On Oct. 9, the school announced that Kovner and his wife had given the school $60 million--its largest single onetime donation--to establish a fellowship program. It will begin in Sept. 2014 and both current and incoming students will be eligible. Most of the students, to be called Kovner Fellows, will be classical musicians, although drama and dance will not be excluded. Fellowships are awarded on the basis of merit, not need, and one cannot apply. Kovner, 68, is founder and chairman of Caxton Alternative Management, an investment company. According to Forbes, his net worth is $4.7 billion. Previous gifts to Juilliard include $20 million to fully endow the historical performance graduate program, in 2012, $5 million to endow a masters-level graduate program in drama last March, and the donation of his own 139-piece historical manuscript collection, in 2006. MA.com subscribers read the full story |
100 Years Ago...in Musical America: 11 October 1913 | | 
VICTOR HERBERT'S PLACE IN AMERICAN MUSIC How His Many Operettas Have Distracted Attention from His Attainments as Profound and Richly Gifted Musician--ACommanding Figure in Realm of Serious Composition See the Original Page and Read the Full Story
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| Viva Verdi |  From A Rich Possession by James Conlon Today the world is marking the two-hundredth birthday of Giuseppe Verdi. It started already last night (he may have possibly been born in the evening of October 9). In either case, it really has been going on all year, and well it should. Verdi has been with me my entire life, since hearing my first opera, La Traviata, at eleven years old. Not just the composer, but also the man is an immense inspiration. A lifetime of conducting his works has only magnified those feelings. I treated myself to a weekend in Chicago, to attend the opening night of the Lyric Opera (Otello) and a concert performance of Macbeth with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Riccardo Muti. Read the full story |
| The Power of Contractual Silence | | 
From Law and Disorder by Brian Taylor Goldstein Dear Law and Disorder We booked an artist to perform at our theater, but ticket sales have been much lower than we expected. The show is a month away. We are a small venue with a small budget, and can't afford to present an artist if we can't sell enough tickets to cover the costs. We signed an engagement contract, but it doesn't cover cancellations, unless it's for illness or weather related. As the contract is silent on this, I offered the agent what I thought was a standard buy-out fee (25% of the total fee), but he is insisting on the full amount. That doesn't seem fair. |
| DIY Publicity |  From Ask Edna by Edna Landau In my most recent blog post, I addressed the question of how to find a publicist for a special project. The reality is, however, that many young musicians are not in a position to pay a publicist even for an individual project. For this reason, I am dedicating this column to DIY publicity. The information herein has been gained from speaking to valued colleagues, a number of whom regularly dedicate considerable time to counseling young musicians on this topic, whether during visits to music schools and conservatories or as part of their business activities. |
| 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 Mainguené, Solen, soprano, added, Artistainternational
Pisaroni, Luca, bass-baritone, added, Opus 3 Artists (concerts & recitals)
Lee, Hye Jung, soprano, added, Bel Canto Global Arts
Asawa, Brian, countertenor, added, Chesapeake International Artists
Chen, Weiyin, piano, removed, Chesapeake International Artists
Tash, Diana, mezzo-soprano, added, Chesapeake International Artists
Times Two, violin/piano duo, added, Chesapeake International Artists |
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