Author: Joanna Bettelheim

“More than £165m in emergency loans to some of the UK’s biggest arts and heritage organizations have been announced to ensure they survive the pandemic,” writes Mark Brown in Thursday’s (12/10) Guardian (U.K.). “The Royal Opera House will get £21.7m, the National Theatre £19.7m, the Royal Shakespeare Company £19.4m, the Royal Albert Hall £20.7m, the Southbank Centre £10.9m and English National Opera £8.5m. In total, 11 ‘nationally and internationally significant organizations’ … will get the loans. Each will have an initial repayment holiday of up to four years, a low interest rate and a repayment term of up to 20 years. The loans are one of the final pieces of the jigsaw in the government’s £1.57bn cultural recovery fund to help a sector which has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic…. Edward Gardner, principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said … ‘This support will help our mission to bring the most adventurous music making to the most people.’ … None of the organizations see the loans as a panacea. Alex Beard, chief executive of the Royal Opera House, said … ‘the road ahead is not smooth for our industry.’ ”

“The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra announced Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress as its new assistant conductor, starting next season,” writes Susan Elliott in Wednesday’s (12/9) Musical America (subscription required). “She succeeds former Resident Conductor Gemma New, now music director of the Hamilton (Canada) Philharmonic and principal guest of the Dallas Symphony…. Billed as a ‘regular assistant to Simon Rattle,’ Childress is a violinist-turned-conductor and will in fact perform with the SLSO in concerts this year. She conducts the orchestra (in chamber formation) for the first time in the spring. She is to preside over the SLSO Youth Orchestra. Music Director Stéphane Denève makes his opinion clear: ‘In my entire life, I have never been so excited by the discovery of a new talent! Stephanie Childress is truly special and has a tremendously bright future….’ Childress’s competition wins are both instrumental and conducting, including second prize at the inaugural La Maestra conducting competition in Paris this year. She has conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). She established her own ensemble, Orchestra Rheia, in 2019, and was principal conductor of the London Lawyers’ Symphony Orchestra for the 2019/20 season.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has ruined many celebrations,” writes Bob Goepfert in Wednesday’s (12/10) Saratogian (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.). “One birthday casualty of the 2020 Birthday Club is Ludwig van Beethoven … born in Germany in 1770…. The Albany Symphony Orchestra is determined to honor the composer…. ASO conductor and music director David Allen said the Symphony has modified its planned two-day recreation of one of his major concerts. Instead, on Saturday night they are offering ‘Beethoven Birthday Bash—Forever Young.’ It is being offered virtually … in real time from the Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs … a 750-seat space … built in 1871…. Saturday’s concert [includes] Beethoven’s overture and finale to his 1804 ‘The Creatures of Prometheus’ [and] Symphony No. 1.” Also on the program are Michael Torke’s Ash and Viet Cuong’s Extra (ordinarily) Fancy by Viet Cuong. “Miller points to ‘Ash’ … as a piece that sounds little like anything Beethoven wrote, but he says if Beethoven were around writing in the 1990s, this is something he might have created…. ‘Extra (ordinarily) Fancy’ … a Double Oboe Concerto, [is] a complex piece that Miller claims would sound like Beethoven if the genius had been granted a post-modern era.”

“Detroit Symphony Orchestra Music Director Jader Bignamini returns from Italy to conduct a program on Friday that will highlight works by Jessie Montgomery and Richard Strauss, and feature Beethoven’s Third Symphony,” writes Michael Hodges in Wednesday’s (12/9) Detroit News. “Q: You’ve been back home in Italy since September. When did you return to Detroit? Bignamini: I arrived back here two weeks ago. Q: Did you have to quarantine? Bignamini: Yes. It was probably my fourth or fifth quarantine. Q: Initially plans for Friday’s concert were to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, not the Third. Why the switch? Bignamini: I suggested the Third because I think it’s perfect for this time. It’s a strong piece with a lot of power, and the light inside this piece communicates freedom and love for life. It’s a symphony full of very positive energy, and I think we need this…. And we have to point out that it was Beethoven’s favorite symphony…. Before Beethoven’s Third, the function of music was just entertainment… But with the Third that changes. This symphony’s music wasn’t entertainment but communication for large audiences. Beethoven, I think, with this symphony started a new musical language.”

Beginning on December 6, wind and brass musicians from the Sarasota Orchestra will perform in eleven outdoor chamber-music concerts as part of a new series entitled “On the Road with SO: Parks & Partners” at public parks and other venues in Sarasota and Manatee counties. Concerts will take place at 2:30 p.m. at Nathan Benderson Park (Dec. 6, Jan. 10, March 21); the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast/Bay Preserve at Osprey (Jan. 10, Feb. 21, Apr. 25), G.T. Bray Park (Jan. 24, March 21); Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Jan. 24, Feb. 7); and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (Feb. 21). In announcing the concerts, the orchestra noted that the series “allows Sarasota Orchestra’s winds and brass musicians to safely shine.” Capacity at the outdoor venues will be limited to permit proper social distancing; admission is free except for Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, which charge entry fees for their grounds. Attendees are required to register to hold a space at performances.

“The La Jolla Music Society hardly needed to look beyond its own backyard to find Todd Schultz, who today is being named the 52-year-old arts organization’s new president and CEO,” writes George Varga in Tuesday’s (12/1) San Diego Union-Tribune. “Schultz, 54, has spent the past year as the senior vice president of development for the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert. Before that, he was the San Diego Symphony’s vice president of institutional advancement from 2015 to 2019, the Old Globe’s director of development from 2004 to 2015, and San Diego Opera’s director of marketing and public relations from 1994 to 2000” and previously was the Atlanta Opera’s director of marketing and public relations. “Schultz will begin his new job on Jan. 4 and has signed an initial three-year contract…. ‘Todd loves opera and is deeply knowledgeable about orchestral music. His love of the arts and his deep-rooted connection to San Diego are significant advantages—and a great opportunity for La Jolla Music Society,’ artistic director Leah Rosenthal said…. She envisions working closely with Schultz to help the organization pivot as necessary through these unpredictable times and move ahead.”

“The Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko said farewell to live-audience concerts on Oct. 31 with a piece that in no way displayed the orchestra’s famous sound. Or any sound at all,” writes David Patrick Stearns in Tuesday’s (12/1) Classical Voice North America. The Berlin Philharmonic’s “John Cage’s 4’33”… has had nearly 50,000 YouTube hits since its posting Nov. 3. It has become the ultimate unanswered question. With the pandemic going on far longer than anybody anticipated … what is there left to say? Cage’s silence … didn’t prompt us to define our experience over the past eight months. … Cage’s 4’33”—with no apparent stage or audience noise in the Berlin video—confronts you with that silence…. … In the first movement, [Petrenko] seemed to be conducting a conventional piece that wasn’t there. In the second movement, his hands were … as if asking for quiet or like a priest pronouncing a benediction. In the third movement, his hands stretched toward the orchestra…. He was near tears with sorrow and grief…. In the background, musicians could be seen communing with him intently or meditating with eyes closed.… 4’33” doesn’t have to be about silence—the discussion itself is perhaps the piece.”

“The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra will play its first concert in the new Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in April,” writes Dawn Kane in Tuesday’s (12/1) Greensboro News and Record (NC). “The symphony announced Tuesday that it would perform a reimagined season at the new downtown performing arts center from April 29 through Aug. 7. It then will run its 2021-22 season from Aug. 28, 2021 to June 5, 2022. The 3,023-seat, $93 million Tanger Center had been scheduled to open in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic put all performances there on hold. It has yet to open.  The symphony’s news release followed the Tanger Center’s announcement that ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ again has been postponed. It was originally scheduled for May 2020, and most recently rescheduled for June 2021.” The Greensboro Symphony’s first Masterworks concert in the new space in April 2021 will be conducted by Gerard Schwarz and Music Director Dmitry Sitkovetsky; in May 2021, the orchestra’s first pops concerts at the Tanger Center will feature Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Concert; and the Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra Side-by-Side Concert is planned for May 2021.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a lot of change,” writes Sarah Loesch in Tuesday’s (12/1) Princeton Daily Clarion (Indiana). “Area organizations have had to adapt … often finding creative and non-traditional ways to reach their audiences and communities. Tuesday, Toyota Indiana and four local arts nonprofits announced a collaboration across the region to provide virtual programing and content. ‘Accessing the Arts Anywhere’ is a partnership in which the Princeton-based vehicle plant invested $100,000 in … the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, Children’s Museum of Evansville, Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science and Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. Tiffannie Hedin of Toyota Indiana said during Tuesday’s announcement she reached out to the organizations a couple months ago and found they had been able to pivot to virtual opportunities…. Hedin said the basis of this program is … ‘creating access, creating equity, reducing barriers’ … Those barriers can range from a lack of transportation, physical barriers, socioeconomic reasons or a lack of awareness of programs offered in their community. Hedin said these organization were already thinking differently on how to provide that access…. In addition to its $100,000 grant, Toyota Indiana is gifting several employees free memberships for all four organizations.”