Kazuki Yamada
(c) Marco Borggreve

Kazuki Yamada has been named Music Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte Carlo, Monaco, as from September 2016 on. He is currently the orchestra’s First Guest conductor. A winner of the Besançon Conducting Competition in 2009, Yamada is also Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In Japan, he holds the positions of Principal Conductor of Japan Philharmonic, Music Partner with Sendai Philharmonic and Ensemble Orchestral Kanzawa and Music Director of Yokohama Sinfonietta, an ensemble he founded whilst still a student.

A councillor in Poland’s third-largest city has tabled a formal inquiry as to why the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra plays music by Russian composers. The head of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in the city council, Piotr Adamczyk is in particular concerned about music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev. “Is it quite certain that the Łódź public want to listen to the music of one composer, namely D. Shostakovich and his peculiar pro-Soviet music », the obviously badly informed politician did ask.

The Government in Paris will not follow the recommendation of the Court of Auditors to merge both of the orchestras run by Radio France, the National and the Philharmonique. However the Ministry of Culture is asking the management to save money and to reduce the number of musicians. This is good and bad news altogether, but the danger of a merger being banned, the message coming from the Ministry is a positive one.

Teodor Currentzis
(c) Anton Zavjyalov

Der griechische Dirigent Teodor Currentzis, Künstlerischer Leiter der Oper in der vor dem Ural gelegenen Millionenstadt Perm, hat in einem offenen Brief zu den Ereignissen um die Inszenierung des ‘Tannhäuser’ in Nowosibirsk Stellung genommen. Nach der aufgrund von Beschwerden der Orthodoxen Kirche erfolgten Entlassung des Operndirektors durch die Putin-Regierung zeigt sich Currentzis « besorgt über das, was heute in der Kultur passiert ». Read More →

Nils Mönkemeyer
(c) Irene Zandel

Das Festival International Echternach – Luxemburgs zweitältestes Musikfestival – wird in diesem Jahr 40 Jahre alt und wandert vom Frühjahr in den Herbst. Nach einem Open-Air-Jubiläumsauftakt im Juli beginnt die eigentliche Saison am ersten Wochenende im September mit Künstlern wie Barenboim, Katsaris, Mönkemeyer und Pires. Read More →

Tonight’s concert of Orchestre National de France has been cancelled by the management of the radio, as they say, due to the alert over a possible terrorist attack. Daniele Gatti was scheduled to conduct Bach’s Johannes-Passion with, among others, Michael Schade, Markus Werba and Christina Landshamer. Since no other concert is cancelled in Paris, neither at the new Philharmonie, nor at another place, this decision of the radio’s management is more than strange.

Aus dem niederländischen Enschede verlautet, das dortige Orchester, ‘HET Symfonieorkest’ sei in finanzieller Not. Mit Sparmaßnahmen will man ums Überleben kämpfen. So soll in einer ersten Phase die Zahl der Konzerte und der CD-Aufnahmen reduziert werden. Die Probleme sind ein schwerer Rückschlag für die nationalen und internationalen Ambitionen des Orchesters und seinen Chefdirigenten Jan Willem de Vriend. Read More →

At Sotheby’s items coming from Nellie Melba’s estate were sold for $2.3m US dollars. Dame Nellie (1861-1931) was one of the most famous singers of her time and the first Australian to achieve international recognition. The auction comprised brooches, furniture, paintings and silverware.

Antonio Pappano
Photo: Musacchio & Ianniello

Der britische Dirigent Antonio Pappano (*1959) hat seinen Vertrag als Chefdirigent des ‘Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia’ in Rom bis 2019 verlängert. Er ist seit 2005 auf diesem Posten und gleichzeitig auch Leiter des Londoner ‘Royal Opera House’.

Stefan Arzberger, a member of the international renowned Leipzig String Quartet suffered a very bad experience in New York. During the Quartet’s US spring tour, after the concert in Washington Library of Congress and on a day off in New York City criminals drugged him, stole his credit cards, money and personal belongings and left him disoriented for the rest of the night. He woke up with two police officers kneeing on his back. Without any memory of the past 5 hours he was charged assaulting a 64-year-old hotel neighbour. Read More →