Gustavo Dudamel

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has furiously attacked conductor Gustavo Dudamel yesterday in a TV statement. After the open letters of Dudamel criticizing the Maduro government, Maduro said « Welcome to politics, Gustavo Dudamel. But act with ethics, and don’t let yourself be deceived into attacking the architects of this beautiful movement of young boys and girls », speaking of course of El Sistema. Maduro said, Dudamel had betrayed the socialist government and El Sistema as well.

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YuMi
(c) ABB

On September 12 Lucca Philharmonic will play under the baton of YuMi, a humanoid robot manufactured by ABB, a Swiss company specializing in new technologies. The concert will take place in Pisa, Italy, at the end of an International Robotics Festival. The gala will feature Andrea Bocelli and the soprano Maria Luigia Borsi.

Teodor Currentzis
(c) Anton Zavjyalov

Teodor Currentzis, the artistic director of the Perm Opera in Russia, is upset about the cost of concert tickets in Moscow. The Greek-Russian conductor told the agency RIA Novosti that he cannot buy tickets for his concerts in Moscow, because they cost more than, for example, tickets to his performances at the festival in Salzburg.

Lithuanian police began a pre-trial investigation of the activities of a concert organizer. This man, cited as Eddie Rivera, apparently announced concerts with José Carreras, Philippe Jaroussky, Elina Garanca and many more, sold tickets and later cancelled the concerts without returning the money.

Gintaras Rinkevicius

The Liepaja Symphony Orchestra has hired Lithuanian conductor Gintaras Rinkevicius (*1960) as Music Director and successor to Atvars Lakstigala, who held this position since 2010. Read More →

Dan Ettinger

Dan Ettinger, 46, has been named Music Director of the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv and will succeed Daniel Oren in January 2018. The Israeli born conductor is Generalmusikdirektor in Stuttgart, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Israel Symphony Orchestra (since September 2005) and Chief Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Franz Welser-Möst
Photo: Don Snyder

Der österreichische Dirigent Franz Welser-Möst, Chefdirigent des ‘Cleveland Orchestra’, hat in einem Interview im Wiener ‘Kurier’ Stellung zu Trump bezogen: « Die Trump-Anhänger werden weniger. Aber die, die es immer noch sind, gehen zunehmend in eine radikalere Richtung. Er sorgt für diese Radikalisierung und auch für einen Kulturverlust. Read More →

Bernard Haitink
(c) Lucerne Festival/Deuber

Herausragende Konzerte mit Riccardo Chailly und Bernard Haitink sowie zwei Geniestreiche von Michel van der Aa hat Pizzicato-Mitarbeiter Alain Steffen beim ‘Lucerne Festival’ erlebt. Read More →

The owner of an iPhone app designed to teach people how to play the trumpet is able to continue using this name. According to a Bloomberg information, the 40-year-old-engineer and amateur musician, Tom Scharfeld, has won a six-year legal fight against Donald Trump. The Trump lawyers sued him in order to prevent the use of the name iTrump. They lost the case.

Innenhof des Bach-Archivs
(c) Bach-Archiv Leipzig

Alexander Steinhilber, der erst seit Februar 2016 Geschäftsführer der Stiftung Bach-Archiv Leipzig ist, hat seinen Vertrag aus persönlichen Gründen vorzeitig gekündigt, teilte das Bacg-Archiv heute mit. Steinhilber verlässt Leipzig zum 1. September 2017. Read More →