Bernard Foccroulle is getting ready to go. What’s his legacy at the Aix-en-Provence Festival? “During the past 11 years he has made the Aix festival … feel more connected: to young artists, whom it has assiduously fostered; to new work, which it has commissioned in quantity and quality; to the operatic canon, which it has refreshed with provocative stagings and musical visions; to new audiences; and to its Mediterranean region, which it has celebrated with forays into North African and Middle Eastern styles without seeming patronizing.”
Category: music
Boston Symphony’s Star Flutist Files A Gender-Discrimination Lawsuit
Elizabeth Rowe has been the face of the orchestra in marketing campaigns, and she and the only other woman who’s a principal in the orchestra were featured soloists in a tour of Japan. Yet “pay disparities can be significant. Ms. Rowe, 44, is paid about $70,000 less each year than John Ferrillo, 62, the principal oboist, based on data in the lawsuit and tax records. That is despite the fact that they play next to each other and are both ‘leaders of the orchestra in similarly demanding artistic roles,’ according to the lawsuit.”
Billboard Music Charts Used To Be A Measure Of Music Success. Do They Matter Anymore?
Do the charts even matter to most consumers? Maybe — but probably not. “They matter to record companies in terms of market share and clout. But I don’t think consumers really read the charts anymore.”
Ghanaian Orchestra Gives European Classical Music An African Beat
“The Accra Symphony Orchestra is hoping to make a new generation in Ghana fall in love with classical music. The BBC went to see them in action and to hear how they’re winning over audiences with their fusion of African and Western classical art forms.” (video)
Does Classical Music Have An Excess Social Baggage Problem?
“If you’re looking for virtuoso virtue-signallers, then classical music is the place to start. But right-on competitions are merely the gruesome fruit of something more deeply rooted: an intellectual culture poisoned by late 20th-century identity politics and postmodern verbiage. That’s a problem in other disciplines, of course, but at least artistic and literary pseuds attract mockery. It flourishes in university music departments because no one gives a toss what happens there.”
Lang Lang Is Back At The Piano After A Year Of Injury – Here’s Why That’s Such A Big Deal
“His return to the stage on Friday — to headline the season opener at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires — is being closely watched not only by his fans, but also by the music industry. … The select group of artists who can still sell out concerts on the strength of their names includes Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Renée Fleming — and Mr. Lang.” Michael Cooper explains what kept Lang Lang away from playing and what’s at stake now.
Boston Symphony’s Principal Flutist Sues Orchestra Over Unequal Pay
“Elizabeth Rowe, who joined the BSO in 2004 after winning a blind audition for the role of principal flute, says in the lawsuit she’s asked for years to be paid the same as the principal oboe — the best comparison to her unique position — but the orchestra kept her pay well below that of her peer.” The difference is currently $70,000.
Kentucky Opera Has A New General Director
“Barbara Lynne Jamison will take charge Aug. 15, coming to Louisville from Seattle where she is Director of Programs and Partnerships for the opera there and part of the senior management team.”
It Used To Be ‘The Quentin Tarantino Of Opera Houses’ – What Happened To English National Opera?
“ENO is now a shell of the great and pioneering company it was when Peter Jonas was general director in the 1980s. Under Jonas, director of productions David Pountney and music director Mark Elder, ENO developed enormous self-confidence, great visual elan and an in-your-face aesthetic that combined high camp with raw violence.” Now the company lurches from crisis to crisis, runs fewer performances of duller productions, and rents out its house for half the year. Stephen Moss has a few suggestions for making ENO great again – including getting rid of its ‘white elephant’ of a theatre.
Gianandrea Noseda Of National Symphony Named Music Director Of Zurich Opera House
“Like many courtships, this one was sealed with a ring. The Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda, the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, had left an operatic post this spring at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, amid administrative and political upheaval. The Zurich Opera House came calling. ‘I said, ‘Do you want to be my chief conductor?” Andreas Homoki, the artistic director in Zurich, recalled recently. Then he offered Mr. Noseda the icing on the cake: ‘I said, ‘Do you wanted to do the Ring with me?””