“The future of classical music depends on making orchestras and choruses more diverse, Sir Simon Rattle has said as he announced a new academy involving 10 east London boroughs,” writes Mark Brown in Thursday’s (9/13) Guardian (U.K.). “Rattle said the initiative was the first step in trying to make the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he is the music director, look more like the city…. The LSO East London Academy will open in spring 2019 and will aim to identify and develop the potential of talented people between the age of 11-18. It will be a bridge between secondary schools and conservatoires. Crucially it will be free…. Rattle also announced details of the orchestra’s 2018/19 season, his second in charge after two decades in Berlin. He promised surprises, one of his favourites being [A Little Summer Suite] a piece he premiered in Germany by a little-known French-American composer, Betsy Jolas, now 92…. Like all organisations in the arts, the LSO is concerned about how Brexit will play out. Rattle said … ‘Whatever happens in the next year we are going to have extraordinary problems to deal with and this is hopefully where the arts can help.’ ”
Posted September 17, 2018
