The European Youth Orchestra has today announcing major news. The orchestra is planning an expanded partnership with Campus Grafenegg, and at the same time the Orchestra has accepted an offer from Dario Franceschini, Italian Minister of Culture, to establish a legal and operational seat in Ferrara and Rome, and a new broadcast partnership with RAI, alongside its current Italian work in Bolzano. The Orchestra is also announcing a new partnership in Brussels. Read More →

« Dmitry Hvorostovsky is alive », the Russian magazine Classical Music News says, responding to false news of the singer’s death in many Russian media last night. This is most embarrassing considering the heath state of Hvorostovsky who recently cancelled more concerts due to his brain tumour. Russian tabloid, Komsomolskaya Pravda, will officially apologize to Dmitri Hvorostovsky for reporting about his alleged death, managing editor of the paper’s website Olesya Nosova told the agency TASS.

Das ‘European Union Youth Orchestra’, das wegen des Brexits seinen bisherigen Sitz in London aufgeben muss, hat ein Angebot der italienischen Regierung erhalten, sich im Theater Abbado in der norditalienischen Stadt Ferrara niederzulassen, teilte Italiens Kulturminister Dario Franceschini am Dienstag mit. Bemühungen das Orchester in Österreich zu beheimaten gibt es aber auch seitens der Stadt Grafenegg.

According to Forbes magazine, POTUS Trump said he’s smarter than US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (consider the level politics at the WH have reached), and he suggested the two should ‘‘compare IQ tests.’’ « And I can tell you who is going to win, » Trump said to the magazine. If this would happen and if Trump would win, any IQ test in future would be senseless and void of significance.

Sir Simon Rattle

London’s The Centre for Music project has announced the team which it intends to appoint to develop a concept design for the new hall. This team will be led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, whose New York and London-based team will work in collaboration with UK-based architecture firm Sheppard Robson. Read More →

David Afkham
Photo: Chris Christodoulou.

The National Orchestra and Choir of Spain have announced that the number of subscribers for their season 2017/18 (14 concerts) has grown by 4 percent, to reach a total of 9,066. The increase is continuous since 2012 and in the last five years totalled 32 percent. The Principal Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra and Chorus is the German conductor David Afkham.

Moscow’s Bolshoi and the Met in New York have announced a 3-year-cooperation plan to jointly create new productions of Aida, Salome, and Lohengrin, with performances to take place in both cities between 2019 and 2022. Read More →

So zeigen sie ihr wahres Gesicht: Der Intendant des Berliner Friedrichstadt-Palastes, Berndt Schmidt, hatte die rechtsextreme AfD kritisiert, und jetzt fordert die Partei, dem Haus die Mittel kürzen. Laut einer dpa-Meldung hat der AfD-Abgeordnete Dieter Neuendorf am Montag bei den Haushaltsberatungen im Kulturausschuss  gefordert, gut zwölf Prozent der Zuschüsse für die Showbühne in den kommenden beiden Jahren zu sperren. Read More →

Gestern begann in Gütersloh die Endrunde des Internationalen Gesangswettbewerbs ‘Neue Stimmen’. Insgesamt 42 Kandidaten aus 27 Nationen haben sich bei den Vorauswahlen qualifiziert. Nach den gestrigen Klavierproben treten die Kandidaten heute und morgen zum Vorsingen vor die Jury. Alle Sängerinnen und Sänger, die es ins Semifinale geschafft haben, werden dann am Donnerstag in der Stadthalle um den Einzug ins Finale wetteifern. Read More →

Juraj Valcuha

Werke von Korngold und Strauss dirigierte der 41-jährige Slowake Juraj Valcuha mit dem Philharmonischen Orchester Luxemburg (OPL). Alain Steffen war für Pizzicato im Konzert. Read More →