Category: music

This Year’s Classical Grammy Nominations

The Seattle Symphony leads all orchestras with three nominations — two for its present music director, Ludovic Morlot, in Aaron Jay Kernis’ traditionally shaped Violin Concerto with soloist James Ehnes (in the classical instrumental solo and contemporary composition categories), and one for its future music director, Thomas Dausgaard, in Nielsen’s Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 (orchestral performance), a strong opening entry for a complete Nielsen cycle. There were no nominations for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has recorded little lately. – Los Angeles Times

Barrie Kosky: “Opera Is A Dream”

“Opera is an incredibly sophisticated art form that’s developed over 500 years. So there’s no one audience. If you want to just sit there without knowing anything about it and watch the pretty pictures with music at the centre, you are allowed to, great. If you want to do two years of research and study the programme and the libretto, great. And if you want to compare it to the 20 other productions that you’ve seen in the last five years, that’s great too.” – Bachtrack

For Solzhenitsyn’s Centenary, Bolshoi Presents New Opera Of One Of His Novels, Conducted By His Son

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, adapted by composer Alexander Tchaikovsky (no relation) and led from the podium by Ignat Solzhenitsyn (principal guest conductor of the Moscow Symphony and conductor laureate of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia), “[is] staged in the round in the Bolshoi’s chamber theatre [and] sees prison guards patrol balconies behind barbed wire and searchlights roam the orchestra pit.” — Yahoo! (AFP)

World’s Richest Chamber Music Prize Discontinued After Only Three Years

“The M-Prize, a chamber music competition with $100,000 grand prize [and $200,000 in total awards], based at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) in Ann Arbor, will not be returning for a fourth edition in 2019. … It was launched by Sphinx Organisation founder Aaron Dworkin, who had then [in 2015] just been appointed dean of the SMTD. His tenure was shortlived, however, and it is speculated that the M-Prize was always unlikely to survive without his patronage and fundraising network.” — The Strad

Could We Unite America Around Orchestras?

“As a secular American living in Manhattan, I’m a stranger to the senator’s world of church and picnics. I worry that religion may be as much divisive as binding in America’s map of red versus blue. My professional world is one of orchestras (with which I work) and cultural history (about which I write). My perspective suggests another opportunity for healing—regaining a lost “sense of place” and shared American identity via our history and culture. And, yes, I mean high culture.” – The Weekly Standard

Musicians’ Union’s Largest Local Votes To Throw Out Old Leadership

“It was the first contested election in nine years at Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, and it could cause national ripples. Adam Krauthamer was elected president with 67 percent of the vote, beating Tino Gagliardi … in a stunning upset, amid concerns over the underfunded musicians pension plan and broader changes facing music, the original gig economy.” — New York Times

Salonen’s Departure From London’s Philharmonia Raises Questions About Orchestra’s Future

The simultaneous departures at the end of 2020-21 of Salonen from the Philharmonia and Vladimir Jurowski from the London Philharmonic pose big questions for the Southbank Centre. Both conductors have kept their orchestras at the top of the league. Yet both the Philharmonia and the LPO will need to ensure that the Southbank possesses a long-term commitment to the work the orchestras want to do – whatever that now is. – The Guardian