Danish media report largely today that the Denmark’s minister for culture Mette Bock (Danish People’s Party) is planning to make the Danish Radio DR a pure media house without an attached concert organization. The plan is to separate DR’s concert hall as well as its music ensembles from the radio and to have them operated by a new organization. For the orchestra and the choir this could be the Royal Theatre. At the end this could become a merger, and that would definitely not be a good move. Read More →

Samuel Hasselhorn
(c) Steiner

Der deutsche Bariton Samuel Hasselhorn, hat den ersten Preis im Gesangswettbewerb ‘Das Lied’ gewonnen, der alle zwei Jahre in Berlin ausgetragen wurde und ab diesem Jahr als Teil des dortigen Internationalen Liedzentrums in Heidelberg stattfindet. Der 2. Preis ging an die Amerikanerin Clara Osowski, Mezzosopran, der dritte an Johann Kristinsson, Bariton (Island). Read More →

Daniel Barenboim
(c) Peter Adamik

Der vom Dirigenten Daniel Barenboim, 74, initiierte und vom Architekten Frank Gehry entworfene Konzertsaal ‘Pierre Boulez’ in der Barenboim-Said-Akademie wird ab dem heutigen Samstag eine regelmäßige Konzertsaison anbieten. Read More →

Jonas Kaufmann
Photo: Mathias Bothor

Jonas Kaufmann is further developing his reputation as ‘canceler’. This time he has canceled the Metropolitan Opera in New York (again). The Met says Kaufmann’s agent informed the company this week that the German tenor, 47, has withdrawn from the new production of Puccini’s Tosca, which opens on New Year’s Eve. Read More →

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) announced that it has received a generous grant of $600,000 from the Dresner Foundation to provide comprehensive music education for underserved youth in Detroit. Read More →

The salaries of many employees of Russian cultural organizations have not been paid in January and February, Russian media report. The list of the institutions concerned comprises the Moscow State Conservatory, Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, Gnessin Russian Academy of Music and many more. The organization’s financial departments say the money did not arrive from the Ministry of Finance. Apparently there were technical problems in the system.

Gustavo Gimeno
(c) Marco Borggreve

Der spanische Dirigent Gustavo Gimeno, 41, seit 2015 Chefdirigent des ‘Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg’, hat seinen Vertrag bis zum Ende der Spielzeit 2021/22 verlängert. Sein ursprünglicher Vertrag lief bis 2019.

Alan Gilbert
(c) Chris Lee

Musicians in the United States point the way: After Michael Tilson Thomas’s announcement of a Pride Benefit Concert, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic make a visible mark in the civil society of the United States by inviting musicians from around the world to Gilbert’s final subscription concert of his tenure as Music Director. « Celebrating the Power of Music To Unite Across Borders » they will together perform Mahler’s Symphony No 7 on June 8, 9 & 10.  Read More →

Peterstraße Hamburg

Das Komponisten Quartier in der Hamburger Neustadt wird, wie ursprünglich geplant, um zwei Museen erweitert. Die erforderlichen Genehmigungen liegen nun vor, heißt es in der Pressemitteilung, und die baulichen Ausschreibungen können beginnen. Die Fertigstellung ist für März 2018 geplant. Read More →

Naxos baut seine Präsenz im Video-Bereich aus. Das geht aus einer Pressemitteilung zur rezenten Label- und Händlertagung von ‘Naxos Deutschland’ hervor. Read More →