Singer of the World Competition Announces Winner
Valentina Naforniţă of Moldova, who was born in 1987, has been awarded both the Jury Prize and the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She sang arias by Verdi, Korngold, and Gounod. Andrei Bondarenko of Ukraine, who was born the same year, won the Song Prize. Other finalists for the grand prize, all of whom were born in 1983, were Olesya Petrova from Russia, Hye Jung Lee from South Korea, and Meeta Raval from Great Britain.
This year, the competition attracted more than 600 singers who auditioned in more than 40 cities. Judges for the finals included Marilyn Horne, Dennis O’Neill, Kiri Te Kanawa, Håkan Hagegård, Lorenzo Mariani, Alexander Polianichko, Bengt Forsberg, Adam Gatehouse, and John Fisher.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13836344
Tweets Establish Roster of “Badass Composers”
A National Public Radio blogger asked for Twitter answers naming well known composers who were scoundrels when it came to sex, drugs, musical style, and politics. For sex and jealousy, the uncontested winner was Carlo Gesualdo who killed his wife and her lover, openly displaying their corpses. Since he was a 17th-century prince, he was above the law.
Johann Sebastian Bach, unfortunately, was not above the law, and at one point he went to jail because he quit his job in Weimar without permission from his employer, the duke. The nobleman had him locked up for some time before he could move on.
Frédéric Chopin was said to have been a regular consumer of opium-laced sugar cubes as a pain reliever for his tuberculosis. Franz Liszt was cited for destroying so many pianos that makers started making them stronger. Surprisingly, the largest number of Twitter votes cited Dmitri Shostakovich for his political bravado. One wonders how Richard Wagner escaped this list. He most definitely indulged in adultery, bigotry, and musical rule-breakage.
www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/06/
28/137403442/which-composer-is-the-biggest-badass
Dutoit Will Form Unified Korean Orchestra
Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, age 75, currently heads the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since he has made music in both North and South Korea, he hopes to create an inter-Korean orchestra that will be able to play in both countries. He has been talking with officials in Pyongyang, the capital of the North, in order to get their approval. His project is based on the ensemble put together by conductor Daniel Barenboim that features young Israelis and Palestinians. Tensions between the Koreas are high, but Dutoit hopes that his nonpolitical agenda will unite adolescents from the two countries in peace through musical harmony.
The Swiss government also supports Dutoit’s efforts. Thomas Kupfer, the Swiss ambassador to South Korea, said that his government considers the initiative important because music has often proven to be the bridge to closer mutual understanding.
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2011/
06/178_89314.html
Met Opera Expects to Balance Budget
Company spokesman Peter Clark says that for the first time in seven years, the Metropolitan Opera expects to achieve a balanced budget. After months of bad news from the New York City Opera, that opera still has an important place at Lincoln Center is welcome news. The Met’s good news is said to be the result of increased revenues, but the company has also cut costs and reduced senior staff salaries.
Contributions to the Met rose from $105 million to $127 million. Program Service Revenue, money earned from performances in the opera house and at the movies, rose from $126 million to $134 million. Still, during 2010-2011, the company’s net assets have declined by 14 percent, but that was negligible compared to the decline of the previous year.
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304186404576388132704640822.html
Matheuz Appointed Principal Conductor at La Fenice
Venezuelan violinist and conductor Diego Matheuz, age 27, will be the new resident principal conductor at Teatro La Fenice, the opera house of Venice. A graduate of El Sistema, Matheuz is also a concertmaster with Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. This past season he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic, the Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic, among others.
La Fenice, where he made his debut in October 2010 conducting Verdi’s Rigoletto, has given him a four-year contract. When his new position was announced, Matheuz told Il Gazzettino that he thanks the company for its confidence in him. He also pointed out his special affinity for the works of Verdi.
www.ilgazzettino.it/articolo.php?id=154957
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Announces New Dean
Peter Landgren, a 54-year-old Cincinnati graduate who is currently the director of the Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, will assume the post of Dean of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in September. Landgren said that his top priority would be to start raising money for scholarships because the College of Music currently depends upon private donations to fund tuition for the best-qualified students.
“I heard clearly from the faculty that there are very talented students at CCM, bar none, but there is a segment of our potential incoming student body for which we are getting outbid by other schools. So that’s a high priority on my list,” he said.
University Provost Santa Ono is most impressed with Landgren’s excellent interpersonal skills; his passion for teaching, learning, and scholarship; and his love of students. Ono says, “We have hit a home run with the appointment of Peter as CCM Dean.”
communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110627/ENT03/306270100/UC-names-grad-new-CCM-dean?odyssey=nav|head
