The Chopin Museum in Warsaw
(c) Remy Franck

Miami-based Chopin Foundation of the United States has donated a Pleyel upright piano dating from 1847 and containing Chopin’s signature to the Chopin Museum in Warsaw. The instrument has been on display in the Polish museum for the past few years as a deposit, but now the Chopin Foundation of the United States transferred the property rights to the Chopin Museum. The piano was selected by Chopin himself at the Pleyel factory in Paris for one of his pupils and it was at that person’s request that the composer put his signature inside the instrument so that it could be easily recognized.

The reform of the system of presidential grants in Russia has been postponed indefinitely after the Ministry of Culture refused the idea of distributing grants on the basis of a contest. The Ministry prepared a list of grantees for 2016, which consists, as previously, of the 83 leading cultural institutions. In total, they will receive 5 billion roubles (ca. 71 million Euros).

The Philadelphia Orchestra Association announced the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement with their musicians, effective September 14, 2015, through September 11, 2016. Under the terms of the agreement, annual salaries for the musicians will rise 3%. Read More →

Elena und Sophie Schwalbe
© Bechstein Stiftung

Glückliche Gesichter im Kulturstall von Schloss Britz in Berlin: Preise im Wert von mehr als 10.000 Euro vergab die Carl Bechstein Stiftung am vergangenen Sonntag beim Preisträgerkonzert des zweiten Carl Bechstein Wettbewerbs für Kinder und Jugendliche. 27 Duos in den Besetzungen Violine und Klavier bzw. Violoncello und Klavier aus ganz Deutschland nahmen an dem Wettbewerb teil. Read More →

Russian Pianist Dmitri Teterin, born in Moscow in 1971, has died on October 18 at the age of 44. Teterin studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and also at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He won many international competitions, including the International Gina Bachauer Competition in Salt Lake City in 1994 (2nd prize), the International Piano Competition in Cleveland in 1995 (3 awards), the International Piano Competition in Palm Beach in 1998 (1st prize) as well as the International Piano Competition in Cincinnati in 1998 (1st prize). In recent years his international career slowed down due to his teaching at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Chopin Monument Zelazova-Wola
Photo: Remy Franck

The jury of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw has announced the names of ten finalists. Pianists from eight countries will compete: two Americans of Asian descent (Kate Liu and Eric Lu), two Canadians (Tony Yang and Charles Richard Hamelin) and participants from Poland (Szymon Nehring), Russia (Dmitry Shishkin), Croatia (Aljosa Jurinic), Japan (Aimi Kobayashi), Latvia (Georgijs Osokins) and South Korea (Seong-Jin Cho). The finals start this Sunday. The winners will be announced on Tuesday.

Katrin Lena Heles

Katrin Lena Heles hat am 15. Oktober von der Stiftung zur Förderung junger Künstler in Luxemburg den Förderpreis 2015 erhalten und im Preisträgerkonzert bewiesen, dass sie dieser Auszeichnung auch würdig ist. Remy Franck hat seine Eindrücke so zusammengefasst: Read More →

Gewandhaus Leipzig

Das Leipziger Gewandhaus arbeitet mit dem wirtschaftlichen Multiplikator 2,5 – d.h., dass für jeden Euro Zuschuss an das Gewandhaus eine zusätzliche regionale Wertschöpfung und Steuerrückflüsse in Höhe von 2,50 Euro generiert werden. Das ergab eine Studie der ‘HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management’, die damit die erste wissenschaftlich fundierte Studie zu den wirtschaftlichen Effekten für ein Konzerthaus in Deutschland vorgestellt hat. Untersucht wurden die ökonomischen Auswirkungen, die aus dem Betrieb des Gewandhauses für die Stadt Leipzig entstehen. Read More →

The State Opera of South Australia just launched its 40th season with a program that includes its own production of Cloudstreet, a new opera based on a popular Australian novel by Tim Winton. Developed over the past five years by international theatre director Gale Edwards and composer George Palmer, the production will be staged in May 2016. Read More →

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

A rare letter written by Mozart sold for $217,000 according to Boston-based RR Auction. The one-page signed note in German is undated, but was probably written in the summer of 1786 to the composer’s close friend, the great Austrian botanist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, asking him to return three musical scores by way of messenger. “I ask you to send me by the bearer of this, the Quartet in g minor, the Sonata in Eb and the ‘New Trio in g.’ Read More →