Teddy Abrams
(c) Kenny Corbin

American Conductor Teddy Abrams has been appointed Music Director at the Louisville Symphony Orchestra (Kentucky). Abrams, who will begin a three-year contract in September 2014, studied conducting with Michael Tilson Thomas, Otto-Werner Mueller at the Curtis Institute of Music, and with David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival; he was the youngest conducting student ever accepted at both institutions. Read More →

Musicians of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (South Carolina) voted to quit their players union, Local 502 of the American Federation of Musicians, according to an article in ‘The Post & Courier’. The musicians are convinced that in this difficult times, the union did not the best for the Orchestra, and that it was better for them to have a collaborative working relationship with the board and management. The highly unusual step could be a signal for a new relationship between managements and musicians throughout the States. The union has often been criticized for their stubborn positions in labor conflicts.

After the bankruptcy of New York City Opera, Bloomberg reports that in opera circles there are discussions to revive the company under a new management in order to have an alternative to the Metropolitan Opera. One possibility could be to fix the new company 30 miles north of New York City at Purchase College, State University of New York, but no concrete plan has emerged so far.

Beim ersten Livestream aus der Wiener Staatsoper mit dem ‘Rosenkavalier’ von Richard Strauss am vergangenen Sonntag hat es technische Probleme mit einem Server gegeben. Bis zum nächsten Event am 27. 11. will das Opernhaus weitere Teststreams durchführen. Was Zahlen anbelangt, blieb die Oper vage. Die Rede ist von einigen Hundert Zuschauern. Ein On-Demand-Stream der aufgezeichneten Produktionen steht jetzt für fünf Euro bis kommenden Sonntag zur Verfügung.

Anna Kasyan

Georgian Soprano Anna Kasyan has won First Prize in the Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Paris. Two other Awards went to Korean soprano Heera Bae (Gstaad New Year Music Festival Award) and to French tenor Paul Gaugler (Prix MusicArte). Anna Kasyan studied the violin and the piano in her native country. She studies singing since 2001. In 2003 she moved to Paris.

Der Musikdirektor der Mailänder Scala, Daniel Barenboim, gibt seinen Posten zwei Jahre früher auf als geplant, am 31. Dezember 2014. Der Dirigent ist seit dem 1. Dezember 2011 im Amt. Ob Riccardo Chailly nun tatsächlich Barenboim-Nachfolger wird, wie der ‘Corriere della Sera’ bereits gemeldet hatte, ist nicht bestätigt worden. Offensichtlich aber hat Barenboim keine Lust, ab 2014 mit dem neuen Scala-Intendanten Alexander Pereira zusammenzuarbeiten, der am 1. Oktober 2014 sein Amt antritt.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has designated the piano player Lang Lang as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on global education. The designation ceremony took place at United Nations Headquarters today. The Pianist was already a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the past 10 years.

Igor Levit
(c) Felix Broede

Igor Levit (*1987) ist Preisträger ‘in Residence 2014’ der Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Der erst 26-jährige Pianist wird seine künstlerische Bandbreite bei den Festspielen in rund 20 Konzerten – mit Rezitalen sowie hochkarätigen Kammermusikpartnern, renommierten Orchestern und Dirigenten – zeigen. Die Konzerte veröffentlichen die Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern am 15. November mit der Vorschau 2014. Read More →

Yale University Press publishes this week Nigel Simeone’s book ‘The Leonard Bernstein Letters’. Simeone says he read through 10,000 of them before selecting the 650 that appear in the book. They go from Bernstein’s adolescence in 1932 to right before his death in 1990. Read More →

The Fall 2013 issue of Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, examines how music – in Hollywood films, in concert halls, in private homes and public spaces – both influenced and reflected American culture. In his introduction, American Academy Fellow Gerald Early notes that technology has made music ubiquitous, changing the way we interact with and perceive it. Read More →