After 40 years, Stephen Gunzenhauser, 77, will retire as conductor of Lancaster Symphony (Pennsylvania) following the 2019-20 season, the Orchestra said. He was appointed in 1979. Read More →
Marc Minkowski
(c) Marco Borggreve
Marc Minkowski is Director General of the Bordeaux National Opera and conductor of the house’s orchestra. Yet, during past weeks tensions have steadily increased with the orchestra’s musicians who question the « technical, musical and human » qualities of the conductor as it reads on the leaflet distributed by the musicians to the audience. French media report that he is well accepted as General Manager, but not as a conductor. Almost 95% of the orchestra’s members no longer want to be conducted by Minkowski.
Ken-David Masur
(c) Ross Buckley
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association announced Thursday that Ken-David Masur has been named Principal Conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO’s training ensemble for professional musicians. Read More →
The International Tchaikovsky Competition named the winners in several categories. Gold medals went to the 30-year-old violinist Sergey Dogadin from Russia, 20-year-old cellist Zlatomir Fung from the USA, 30-year-old bass Georgios Alexandros Stavrakakis from Greece, 21-year-old mezzo Maria Barakova from Russia, 25-year-old flautist Matvey Demin from Russia and 19-year-old French-horn player Zeng Yun from China.
Dominique Meyer
(c) Wiener Staatsoper/ M.Po
As foreseen, French cultural manager Dominique Meyer, currently the director of the Vienna Opera, was appointed yesterday as super-intendant of La Scala in Milan, the city’s mayor announced. Read More →
French Pianist Alexandre Kantorow, 22, won First Prize at this year’s Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. He is the first Frenchman to win the competition since its creation in 1958. Alexandre Kantorow was born in Clermont-Ferrand in 1997 into a family of musicians, his father is the violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow. Read More →
American conductor John Devlin has been selected to succeed André Raphel as the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra’s next Music Director. Devlin will begin his tenure with the orchestra from Wheeling (West Virginia) WSO by leading the orchestra on Labor Day Weekend beginning with Music Under the Stars. He will continue to conduct the subscription concerts season as well as Ohio Valley’s annual holiday event, Symphony On Ice. Read More →
The French National Opera in Paris seems to have difficulties in finding a successor for Stéphane Lissner. Le Figaro says, Lissner is likely to stay until 2022, with, as assistant-director, Alexander Neef, known for his job at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and as artistic director of the Santa Fe Festival.
A most embarrassing incident happened at this year Tchaikovsky Competition. The press release says: « Due to a gross error committed by an employee of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra Evgeny Svetlanov on June 25, 2019, before the Competition performance of An Tianxu, the musical scores by Piotr Tchaikovsky (1st Piano Concerto) and Sergei Rachmaninov (Paganini Variations) were arranged in a reverse order (on the conductor’s and the orchestra’s stands) which differed from the pattern requested by the participant. Therefore, the performance began with a failure. » Indeed, the young pianist was most confused about hearing another music from the orchestra than the one expected and had difficulties to adjust his playing. Read More →
Carlo Rizzi
c) Tessa Traeger
British label Opera Rara has announced the appointment of Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi, 58, as Artistic Director to succeed Sir Mark Elder who will be stepping down in September 2019. Read More →
