American soprano Roberta Peters died yesterday, 18 Janaury, at the age of 86. Born in 1930 in the Bronx, New York City, the child of a shoe salesman and a hat maker, she was encouraged by tenor Jan Peerce to study singing. She started her when she stepped in to replace Nadine Conner as Zerlina at the Met, in November 1950. She was 20, had never performed on stage, nor had she sung with a full orchestra, but her performance was received with great enthusiasm. Read More →
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Photo: Toshiyuki Urano
Wegen gesundheitlicher Probleme hat der 93-jährige Ehrendirigent der Deutschen Radio Philharmonie Stanislaw Skrowaczewski seine Mitwirkung an der 4. SR-Soirée am 23. Juni in der Saarbrücker Congresshalle abgesagt, teilte das Orchester mit. Für ihn springt der aus Costa Rica stammende Dirigent Giancarlo Guerrero ein.
While thousands of Americans will participate in anti-inauguration protests all over the United states and abroad, the National Sawdust Theatre in Brooklyn produces a special musical film project which airs online on the Inauguration Day (January 20) at noon, Eastern Time, in conjunction with the presidential inauguration ceremony. Read More →
Jonas Kaufmann
Photo: Mathias Bothor
Der deutsche Tenor Jonas Kaufmann (47) wurde nach mehrmonatiger Pause vom Publikum der Opéra Bastille in Paris stürmisch gefeiert. Er sang dort gestern Abend die Titelrolle in Wagners ‘Lohengrin’.
Dirk Brossé
Belgian conductor and composer Dirk Brossé, 56, has renewed his contract as music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia through the 2021-22 season. His current contract was to end with the 2017-18 season. He became music director of the chamber orchestra in 2010.
The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards – ICMA today announced the winners for 2017. « The ICMA Jury comprises 16 leading media from 14 countries, having the most up to date knowledge of the classical music market. Our Jury is totally independent and international, and therefore provides reliable guidance to the global audience. This year, the jury selected 17 audio and video productions from a total of 321 nominations. The jury was most excited about the list of finalists obtained after two rounds. They reflected the variety and the extremely high level of this short list out of which the winners were selected. No other awards for classical musical present such a carefully filtered list of winners,” said Remy Franck, President of the Jury. Read More →
Sung Jin Hong
Defiant is the title of a concert by New York based One World Symphony next Sunday, January 22, at the Church of the Holy Apostles on Ninth Avenue and 28th Street. The concert will comprise world premieres of two compositions by Sung Jin Hong, the orchestra’s Artistic Director and Conductor. The two works for symphony orchestra and vocalists are based on texts from Charles Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) and Michelle Obama’s Shaken Me to My Core, the speech in which the First lady was hammering Donald Trump for vulgar comments he has made about women. Read More →
Ein Teil der Produktionshallen des größten europäischen Instrumentenherstellers, Hora in Reghin, Rumänien, ist durch ein Feuer zerstört worden. Dabei sollen, rumänischen Medienberichten zufolge, 4.000 Geigen verbrannt sein. Der Schaden beläuft sich auf 250.000 Euro. Ein elektrischer Kurzschluss soll Ursache des Brandes sein. Hora baut nach eigenen Angaben 10.000 Violinen und 2.500 Cellos und Kontrabässe sowie Tausende anderer Instrumente pro Jahr.
Am Sonntagabend hatte Bass-Bariton Gerd Grochowski bei der Premiere von Wagners ‘Walküre’ am Staatstheater Wiesbaden den Wotan gesungen: « Nur eines will ich noch, das Ende… » Tags darauf starb der 60-Jährige an einem Herzinfarkt. Read More →
Der Luxemburger Organist und Komponist Pierre Drauth starb am 13. Januar im Alter von 91 Jahren, wie jetzt bekannt wurde. Bei dem 1925 in Esch/Alzette geborenen Musiker wurden viele Luxemburger Musiker ausgebildet. Zu den Werken, die er komponierte, gehören Kammer- und Vokalmusik.
