The New York Philharmonic has fired two musicians, according to the New York Times. The musicians are principal oboist Liang Wang, and associate principal trumpet Matthew Muckey. The reason is a yet unspecified misconduct. For the moment both musicians are on unpaid leaves of absence, while the orchestra delayed their dismissals, allowing the union to review the case.
Andrey Boreyko has been named Artistic Director and Music Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, commencing from the 2019/20 season. Boreyko will succeed Jacek Kaspszyk, who served in the role since 2013. He also holds the position of Music Director of Artis-Naples in Florida. Read More →
The Medici Villa in Rome, where the winners of the Prix de Rome used to live – the competition ended in 1968 – is now owned by the French Ministry of Culture. It still is a home for artists in various fields, however artists are no longer recruited by a competition but by application, and their stays generally vary from six to eighteen months. Read More →
Internationally-recognised composer and conductor Konstantia Gourzi has composed a set work for the ARD Competition 2018, Evening at the Window, after Marc Chagall’s picture of the same name. It will be premiered tomorrow at Munich's Prinzregententheater, when six contestants will play it. Until then, the content of the piece will remain a closely-guarded secret, but in this interview Konstantia Gourzi reveals a few details to Tabea Eppelein.
The set work for the ARD competition is for solo viola – but not exclusively. Some special bells are used in the first movement. How exactly do they sound, and what is the challenge for the perfomer?
The bells are tied to the player’s foot, and they have to play them at the same time as the music, without any stamping noises on the floor. Playing another instrument as well as the main one is not only a musical act for me. It is also a challenge, because you have to coordinate your physical balance as well as the spiritual balance of different sounds. Read More →
The Shanghai Orchestra Academy (SOA) – a partnership between the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music – has now kicked off its worldwide student admission process for the 2019 academic year. Read More →
One and a half years after its inauguration in January 2015, the Philharmonie de Paris, undertook a study to better know the various segments of its audience. The quantitative study surveyed the individual adult audience (age 15 and higher) over an entire season, from September 2016 to August 2017. In all, 38,185 surveys were collected. The study was now published. Read More →
John Adams: Doctor Atomic; Gerald Finley (Dr. Robert Oppenheimer), Brindley Sherratt (Edward Teller), Andrew Staples (Robert Wilson), Julia Bullock (Kitty Oppenheimer), Jennifer Johnston (Pasqualita), Aubrey Allicock (General Leslie Groves), Marcus Farnworth (Frank Hubbard), Samuel Sakker (Captain James Nolan), BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra, John Adams; 2 CDs Nonesuch 7559 79310-7; Aufnahme 04/2017, Veröffentlichung 06/2018 (157'15) – Rezension von Uwe Krusch
Dies ist die zweite Einspielung der zweiaktigen Oper ‘Doctor Atomic’. Sie entstand unter der Leitung des Komponisten John Adams. Die Aufnahme des im postminimalistischen Stil gehaltenen Werks präsentiert erneut Gerald Finley in der Rolle des Robert J. Oppenheimer. Das Werk befasst sich mit emotionalen Spannungen und Ängsten der am Manhattan-Projekt Beteiligten während der Vorbereitungen zum Test der ersten Atombombe. Read More →
Organized by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the second Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition was certainly an inspiring event. Remy Franck looks retrospectively on the competition, the final of which he attended in the Chinese megalopolis. Read More →
Should you he interested in getting a live impression from this year’s Shanghai Isaac Stern Violin Competition, you can follow the live streaming today and tomorrow and review the concert of yesterday evening. The link to the video channel is here.
35 years ago, one of today's foremost chamber ensembles, the Shanghai Quartet*, was formed at the Shanghai Conservatory. Since that year they have played around 3000 concerts and recorded 35 albums. Remy Franck met First violinist and founding member Weigang Li in his native Shanghai.
As many Chinese and, more generally, Asian violinists, you studied in the United States….
Yes, but I made the major part of my studies in China, if you don’t consider the fact that studying does never stop. I was born into a family of well-known musicians in Shanghai. Both of my parents were professional violinists and my maternal grand-father was also a violinist. He was born in 1908 and was one of the earliest professional classical violinists in China. Read More →
