Author: Joanna Bettelheim

“A classically trained violinist, violist and cellist-turned-drag performer, Brooklyn musician Thorgy Thor joins the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra on Friday and Saturday nights with back-to-back shows that bridge Beethoven and Bruno Mars,” writes Courtney Devores in Thursday’s (1/16) Charlotte Observer (N.C.). “When Thorgy offhandedly floated the idea of touring to play with ‘Thorchestras’ following an impromptu classical performance on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ she didn’t expect it to materialize. ‘I got 500 emails … I realized I said something right for people and professional players,’ says Thor (whose real name is Shane Galligan). Her initial idea was to find other drag performers with classical chops…. Thorgy performs with resident orchestras throughout the U.S. and Canada. She made her U.S. debut in June with the Pittsburgh Symphony and often appears during Pride season…. The show combines LGBTQ history through its selection of composers (including Aaron Copland) and gay rights supporters (like Lady Gaga and Madonna), Thorgy’s signature humor, and wild costumes. ‘I have to win the audience over, but I also feel like I have to win the orchestras over,’ she says…. ‘I want to meld these two worlds [so] kids that see me on a TV show can come and see Tchaikovsky.’ ”

“At the end of last year, pianist Igor Levit was about to give a concert in the south of Germany when he received an anonymous email. Were Levit to play, the email’s author warned, ‘the Jewish pig’ would be killed in front of his audience,” writes Ivan Hewett in Friday’s (1/17) Telegraph (U.K.). “Not only did Levit go ahead with the concert, he also wrote a blazing denunciation … in a German newspaper (Der Tagesspiel), warning of the deep-seated anti-Semitism in his adopted country (the 32-year-old Russian moved there with his family when he was eight)…. Levit is only the latest in a long roll-call of Jewish musicians who’ve suffered from anti-Semitism…. Recently the pianist András Schiff … has received death threats for speaking out against anti-Semitism in Hungary…. Levit admits to a love-hate relationship with the social media that he believes make death threats so easy to inflict. He refuses to use Facebook … but he is a constant presence on Twitter…. He says being a musician ‘is not an excuse for not being a responsible citizen.’ ” Levit says, “We always talk about defending democracy. We—both citizens and the democratic state—must finally do it.”

“There may be, after all, a place in the city for the Sarasota Orchestra, as a group of local landowners thinks it may have just the spot,” writes Timothy Fanning in Tuesday’s (1/14) Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL). “The new proposed location is an area with several properties bordered by Fruitville Road and North School Avenue, just east of U.S. 301. It is blocks from where orchestra leaders had wanted to build a concert hall in Payne Park, an idea that was rejected by the city last year.” Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin urged orchestra leaders “to consider the proposal seriously…. In a letter to the city last week, [orchestra President and CEO Joseph] McKenna said four factors are guiding the orchestra’s search for a new concert hall: ‘timeliness, artistic and educational integrity, philanthropic considerations, and business and economic vitality.’ The orchestra hopes to provide more specific information during the first quarter of 2020…. The parcels are also in an Opportunity Zone… ‘The semi-blighted district could be revitalized by such a potentially magnificent project,’ Barwin said…. Barwin also noted that thousands of potential orchestra patrons, as well as orchestra staff, would be living within walking distance or a short car ride of the potential venue.”