Category: music

Valery Gergiev will succeed Colin Davis as music director of the London Symphony. “Gergiev will join the LSO for an initial three years from January 1 2007, while at the same time retaining his posts as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.”

“While female conductors are increasingly common among small and midsize symphonies, they have not penetrated the ranks of the world’s top orchestras. Marin Alsop will be just the second woman in history to lead Holland’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra when she makes her debut in 2006.”

Atsushi Yamada conducts New york City Opera this week in Tokyo. “Mr. Yamada’s rise to the podium is a testament to the spirit of artistic entrepreneurship: he helped raise millions of dollars for City Opera’s foray to his native land, its first overseas tour in almost 20 years. But it also leads to questions about the role big money plays in the arts, particularly in the cash-desperate world of classical music, and how it influences artistic choices. Mr. Yamada, 41, studied and worked his way onto the City Opera’s conducting roster; the company says he is a genuine talent and is well liked at the house, where he is an established presence, having conducted eight performances so far. But he also had the backing of a City Opera board member who was his boss at Sony, a longtime supporter of the opera.

American Symphony Orchestra League president Henry Fogel is on the ultimate road trip, meeting with musicians and managers at orchestras across the country in an effort to get a firsthand picture of the industry he’s devoted his life to. This week, he’s been in Salt Lake City, where he defends the beleagured CEO of the Utah Symphony & Opera, who has been accused of gross incompetence and poor planning by some of the US&O’s musicians and donors. Fogel’s take on the controversial merger of Utah’s two largest classical music organizations is that such plans take time to come to fruition, and he believes that better days are ahead in Salt Lake.

It’s China’s century to lose, according to nearly every newsmagazine and commentator, but much of the country’s projected economic and military dominance is still years, even decades away from materializing. Still, in the realm of classical music, China may already be the new frontier. “Conservatories are bursting at the seams. Young people crowd symphony concerts. Private music schools are flourishing, and urban parents jockey to hire the best tutors, seeing music as a path to status and educational achievement… Curiously, some experts say the hardships of the Cultural Revolution, the cataclysmic period of turmoil from 1966-1976, may be one reason Chinese-born composers and performers have soared to world fame, deepening a passion for Western classical music.”

Atsushi Yamada is a staff conductor with New York City Opera, and will lead a performance of Madama Butterfly this weekend as part of the company’s tour of Japan. But is Yamada really the top-flight conductor that such an assignment would indicate, or could his ascent to the podium have something to do with the millions of dollars he’s raised for his employer?

South Korean singer Sin Nyung Hwang has won the fourth Montreal International Musical Competition. The Geneva-based soprano won the top prize – worth $25,000 – Wednesday.

“Numerous studies conclude that playing music to babies in the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel. And research suggests it can stimulate the brain’s alpha waves, creating a feeling of calm; a recent study of premature infants found that they were soothed by the music.” Now a new program aims at bringing music to the very young. “Sound Beginnings – and a planned “baby prom” next year – came about as babies and toddlers are rarely welcome in concert halls.”

Clive Gillinson Leaves a successful London Symphony behind. “First among British orchestras, it set up a New York office and a residency at Lincoln Center. Its record label, LSO Live, sells tracks on iTunes. Gillinson slashed concert tickets to a fiver with a view to attracting younger listeners and urged players to get a life outside the orchestra, making chamber music and educational ventures in what he reinvisaged as a ‘portfolio career’. Life in the LSO is more varied than before; around one-third of the players have been attracted from abroad.” And yet there are persistent artistics problems to solve, writes Norman Lebrecht.

Chicago Lyric Opera is a juggernaut of efficiency. “The 91 performances given last season generated box office revenues of more than $30 million, on an operating budget of $58.2 million. Fundraising topped $21.5 million, the highest in the company’s history. Of that amount, $5 million came from Lyric’s sold-out golden jubilee concert in October. The endowment campaign reached its goal of $50 million.”