Leonard Slatkin

The CMO Consortium is launching a new series of online conducting masterclasses. Three masterclasses are already announced: Leonard Slatkin will give two masterclasses on Copland and Gershwin masterworks in September 2023. Frédéric Chaslin will present a Puccini masterclass in November and John Axelrod will present Bernstein symphonies in December. More conductors are lined up for 2024.  Read More →

The thriller about the new appointment of the rector of the Liszt Academy in Budapest has a new episode (first report, see below). There is now a new job advertisement, according to which a « distinction by the Hungarian state » is a prerequisite as a new criterion. According to Hungarian media, not even the candidate of the university boards, the former deputy director Kutnyánszky, fulfills this. So the new call for applications means a significant narrowing of the field. Read More →

Placido Domingo

Swiss newspaper Le Temps already warned readers from a concert Placido Domingo was scheduled to conduct at the Verbier Festival. Their contributor had comments from orchestra musicians:  » ‘The conductor doesn’t know the works, he’s completely lost,’ mutters an instrumentalist. ‘It’s the assistant conductor who conducts behind the principal conductor to give the starts to the different desks,’ says yet another. Read More →

Perry So

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors has announced that Perry So has been appointed as its next Music Director. So will assume the title of Music Director beginning with the 2024-2025 season, succeeding Alasdair Neale, who will end his five-year tenure with the orchestra in May 2024. Read More →

According to the Musicians’ Union members of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in London have voted overwhelmingly in favor of potential strike action in a ballot that closed on 17 July. Read More →

Enrico Calesso

Der Würzburger Generalmusikdirektor Enrico Calesso wird das städtische Angebot auf Verlängerung seines Vertrages am Mainfranken Theater nicht annehmen. Dies hat er der Verwaltungsspitze und der Werkleitung mitgeteilt. Der 48-jährige Italiener ist seit der Spielzeit 2011/2012 Generalmusikdirektor am Würzburger Mainfranken Theater. Read More →

Front of the Liszt Academy's concert centre
Photo: Remy Franck

There is trouble in Budapest over the rector’s tender for the Liszt Academy of Music. Protests by artists, teachers and academics, who fought for the autonomy of the academy, have led to the withdrawal of the tender by the responsible Minister János Csák. The Ministry had planned to fill the position with the conductor András Keller, but because the entire profession resisted the Ministry’s attempt to impose the will of the government on the university, this has now failed for the time being. Read More →

Mikhail Pochekin

Early in September, a new chamber music festival will take place in the Bavarian city of Landshut. The artistic director of the festival is the violinist Mikhail Pochekin. Read More →

Marek Janowski

Der Fliegende Holländer in der Waldbühne in Sopot. Das erlebte jetzt ein begeistertes Publikum des neuen Baltic Opera Festival. Ein musikhistorisch denkwürdiges Ereignis an der polnischen Ostsee nahe Danzig. Ursula Magnes berichtet. Read More →

To avoid seeing Christophe Gayral’s staging, conductor Alberto Veronesi conducted La Bohème blindfolded at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago on July 14 for the opening night. In the end, Veronesi was removed from directing the upcoming performances. The staging set the opera against the backdrop of the 1968 uprisings, and Veronesi is known to be close to right-wing extremist party Fratelli d’Italia.