Deconstructing the music degree at the ANU School of Music
Last week we learnt with horror of the slashes to the teaching programme at the ANU School of Music. As the School of Music’s own website acknowledges: “With over 1,200 graduates in its 45 year history, ANU School of Music alumni are scattered around Australia and the world, teaching, composing, performing and researching”. The school’s alumni…
Hot off the press….
* More from the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s US tour: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/tognetti-adds-another-string-to-his-bow-20120504-1y46y.html * Composed in 2009 to commemorate the devastating bush fires that year, Brett Dean’s Fire Music was performed in Adelaide over the weekend. Read the review as well an interview in which Brett Dean talks to his publishers Boosey and Hawkes about Fire Music: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/visceral-masterpiece-conjures-up-fear-in-fire/story-fn9d2mxu-1226348104697…
Kurt Masur injured
Kurt Masur has reportedly fractured hs shoulder blade after falling off the podium during a performance in Paris: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-kurt-masur-june-20120430,0,127614.story …and in Colorado, a conductor has collapsed and died during performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. As this is a work for organ and not for orchestra, it is unclear whether the deceased…
Stuart Skelton in trans-Atlantic Wagner roles
Australian tenor Stuart Skelton steps in for an ailing Jonas Kauffman next week, in the Met’s production of Die Walkure. Later this month, he sings in The Flying Dutchman for the English National Opera in London. Last week, he gave his most recent interview: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/stuart-skelton-one-man-two-tenors-7687275.html
A new principal conductor for the waso
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra has appointed a new Principal Conductor to succeed Paul Daniel who ends his contract next year. Asher Fisch is no stranger to Australia having worked here in 2004, conducting Adelaide’s production of The Ring. Since 2007, Asher Fisch has been Seattle Opera’s Principal Conductor. He is a former music director…
Review fom the NYTimes: The ACO at Carnegie Hall
“Intensity and virtuosity are the hallmarks of this orchestra”. Read the New York Times review of the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s performance with soprano Dawn Upshaw at Carnegie Hall early this week. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/arts/music/australian-chamber-orchestra-at-carnegie-hall.html?_r=1&ref=music Benefactors, a Stradivarius and The Glide build the bottom line for the ACO: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/rare-violin-lifts-aco-bottom-line-20120502-1xz60.html http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/acos-subscription-switch-wins-surplus/story-e6frg8n6-1226345172062
A documentary on peter sculthorpe
The influence of Peter Sculthorpe on Australian music in the 20th and 21st centuries is beyond measure. The Goldner Quartet aims to document at least some of the essence of this great life and great talent in a new documentary. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/four-score-and-19-political-quartets-later-20120424-1xj20.html
Welcome David Zinman
Acclaimed conductor David Zinman conducts the Sydney Symphony Orchestra during May this year in two programmes. Zinman is the Music Director of the Tonhalle in Zurich to which he was appointed in 1995. Renowned for his creative programming, he has also appeared as guest conductor with the major orchestras of the world – the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony,…
The Australian Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Sydneysiders in New York this week could do worse than to spend the evening of April 30th (Monday) at the Carnegie’s Zankel Hall to hear the “badass classical band” (Time Out New York) The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti perform with soprano Dawn Upshaw. They will perform the New York premiere of Winter Morning Walks, a cycle of 9…