Until yesterday, Michael Kaiser was the President of the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. After 29 years spent running 5 arts institutions he has sat at his last board meeting and writes that he will “breathe a sigh of relief” when he leaves the board room for the last time.
Read his blog in the Huffington Post
Sir Neville Marriner, founding director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra turned 90 earlier this month. Believe it or not he apparently was beaten for ‘over- gesticulating’! He looks back on his career in this interview with Stuart Jeffries of The Guardian.
BEST ORCHESTRAL PERFORMANCE Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 Osmo Vänskä, conductor (Minnesota Orchestra)/ Label:BIS Records BEST OPERA RECORDING Adès: The Tempest Thomas Adès, conductor; Simon Keenlyside, Isabel Leonard, Audrey Luna & Alan Oke; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)/ Label: Deutsche Grammophon BEST CHORAL PERFORMANCE…
The Sydney Festival is hiring an elite German orchestra to perform at the 2014 Sydney Festival, because believe it or not, it is more cost effective than employing an Australian ensemble. Substantial government subsidies are the reason behind this curious situation. Click here to read the feature in The Age.
Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor opens in Sydney this week. The Opera Australia production has Emma Matthews in the title role with American tenor James Valenti as Edgardo and Giorgio Caoduro as Enrico. These images give an idea of the power and drama of the opera and below them, the link to a feature about the…
“…Whilst metadata and audio quality have been the burning issues for classical journalists and listeners, it’s the economics of streaming that has been alarming certain independent specialist classical record companies. In fact, as far as they are concerned, streaming poses unique and far greater problems for the classical industry than it does for the pop…
Last night, the English National Opera premiered a new production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde Conducted by the ENO’s ex-music director Edward Gardner, designed by the artist Anish Kapoor and direction by Daniel Kramer – the company’s artistic director elect, the cast included Australian tenor Stuart Skelton as Tristan. Will it be the troubled ENO’s saving grace?…