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Philly’s New Hall The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2001–02 season will include the grand opening of the $255-million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in December. The orchestra, which has been performing in the Academy of Music since its founding in 1900, will enjoy the Kimmel Center’s 2,500-seat Verizon Hall, as well as the 650-seat Perelman Theater, a multipurpose performing space for the orchestra’s chamber music concerts and for dance and theatrical presentations. The Center also houses a smaller black-box theater, a restaurant and refreshment bars, a performing-arts gift shop, and a new education center. Find out more at www.philorch.org. Match Me in St. Louis The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was millions of dollars in debt when it made a plea for public support in early 2000. To the rescue came the family of Rent-A-Car founder Jack Taylor, with $40 million ($5 million for operating expenses and the remainder for the SLSO endowment). The donation requires a dollar-for-dollar match over four years and is intended to encourage further support from the community. AFM Relieves Wrists The American Federation of Musicians has teamed up with Wristreleve, a company that produces a corrective wrist support, to provide more than 10,000 samples of the product to AFM members across the country. Unlike immobilizing wrist splints, which are typically worn for 30 days to treat carpal tunnel syndrome and prevent playing, Wristreleve claims to give the wearer complete mobility of the hand and wrist while relieving compression of nerves and tendons by lifting the roof of the carpal tunnel. The product is also sold at pharmacies nationwide. For more information, call (800) 677-0355 or go to www.wristleve.com. Moving Music Directors The often controversial tenure of Franz Xaver Ohnesorg as executive director of Carnegie Hall has come to a sudden close. Although described by some as creative and a great organizer, five of Carnegie’s top executives resigned or were dismissed this fall due to disagreements. Ohnesorg, who received an offer he couldn’t refuse to head the Berlin Philharmonic, will remain until August 31, 2001, to fulfill his two-year contract with the New York Philharmonic. Meanwhile, the slew of new music-director appointments continues apace, headed by the New York Philharmonic’s choice of Lorin Maazel. At the start of the 2002–03 season, Maazel will replace Kurt Masur, whose tenure began in 1991. Other appointments include Stephen Alltop to the Cheyenne Symphony; Michael Christie to the Colorado Music Festival, where he succeeds Giora Bernstein; Steven Sloane to the American Composers Orchestra, in the 2002–03 season; Kirk Muspratt to the Indiana Symphony; and Anthony Princiotti to the New Hampshire Philharmonic. Thomas Wikman steps down as music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque in May, whereupon he becomes conductor laureate. And Peter Stafford Wilson has been promoted from assistant to associate conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio. Players' Posts Alexander Barantschik, concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, as well as an active violin soloist and chamber musician, has been appointed concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony beginning in September 2001. He replaces Acting Concertmaster Nadya Tichman. Says conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, "I have found [Barantschik] to be an inspiring orchestra leader and a fantastic colleague, a musician who has truly distinguished himself in everything from the classic Romantic repertory to the most contemporary music." The Symphony also has announced new principal second violin Dan Smiley. Members of the Miró String Quartet have been named faculty artists-in-residence at Kent State University’s Hugh A. Glauser School of Music, and resident quartet of Kent/Blossom Music, Kent’s annual summer chamber-music festival (in cooperation with the Cleveland Orchestra). The quartet members will work full-time teaching undergraduate and graduate violin, viola, and cello students and coaching chamber music.
Cellist Paul Katz will be joining the Strings and Chamber Music faculties of New England Conservatory in fall 2001. He will also be heading a new string-quartet professional training program at NEC. A founding member of the Cleveland Quartet and former president of Chamber Music America, Katz is currently professor of cello and chamber music at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Fellow Cleveland Quartet founder Martha Strongin Katz, a violist, joined the NEC faculty this past January. And William Grubb has been appointed director of string chamber music studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He will continue to teach cello and chamber music on the faculty at Butler University, and at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Awards and Honors The Philadelphia Orchestra has chosen five winners of its annual Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition. The musicians, who range in age from just 12 to 20, will appear as soloists at special concerts with the Orchestra during its 2001–02 season, and also receive monetary awards. This year’s winners are violinist Katie Hyun, cellists Yeon-Sun Joo and Jonah Kim, pianist Jie Chen, and timpanist Ryan Joseph Duffy DeLisi. Initiated in 1933, the competition has produced many notable winners, including Jaime Laredo and Hilary Hahn. The Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts held a reception in December to announce its 2001 honorees. They include violin teacher Dorothy DeLay, who at age 83 is in her 52nd year of teaching at the Juilliard School; she has been named Educator of the Year. Kent Nagano, who recently was appointed principal conductor of the Los Angeles Opera, is Conductor of the Year. And Steve Reich, whose works over the past 33 years have included chamber music, orchestral works, multitrack tape pieces, and much more, is Composer of the Year. Finally, the American Classical Music Hall of Fame will induct 12 laureates at a ceremony at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music on April 21, 2001. Honorees include the New York Philharmonic, the Juilliard String Quartet, and Itzhak Perlman, as well as conductor Arthur Fiedler and composers Antonin Dvorák, Paul Hindemith, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Virgil Thomson. Cello Smorgasbord The Manchester International Cello Festival takes place May 2–6, 2001, at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Produced in association with the BBC under artistic director Ralph Kirshbaum, the Festival focuses this year on the influence of America. It will include exhibitions on Pablo Casals and on cello and bow makers; workshops and lectures; performances by the BBC Philharmonic, Laurence Lesser, Truls Mørk, and others; master classes by cellists including Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi; The Strad Cello and Bow Making Competition; and much more. The closing recital will feature a hallmark of the festival: a performance of the Six Bach Suites, each by a different player. For more information, call (44) 1625-530140, e-mail alisongodlee@lineone.net, or visit www.rncm.ac.uk/events/festivals/index.html.
Next, the Sixth American Cello Congress will be held in conjunction with the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition May 29–June 2, 2001, in the new Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. This year’s Congress will be focused exclusively on the cellist as ensemble player and on performance opportunities in America today. Makers of cellos and bows will display their wares in an exhibition organized by the Violin Society of America. There will also be an exhibition of instrument dealers, accessory manufacturers, and music publishers. The Competition’s preliminary and semifinal rounds will be held May 24–29 before an international jury, and all events will be open to the public. Evening concerts will feature cello ensembles and an evening called The Cello in Popular Music: Jazz, Cajun, and Beyond. Ensembles from U.S. cello societies and clubs will present lecture-demonstrations on the use of the cello ensemble in teaching practices and on new music by American composers. And everyone is invited to rehearse and perform in a massed ensemble of hundreds of cellists under the baton of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s former principal cellist Ronald Leonard. The closing event of the Congress will be the final round of the Competition with the Baltimore Symphony. And if you still haven’t had your fill of all things cello, the New Directions Cello Festival is slated to be held June 15–17, 2001, at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. This unusual festival is devoted solely to nonclassical and alternative cello performance and education, and will host guest artistists Erik Friedlander, an improvisational cellist and composer; neo-chamber-grunge ensemble Rasputina; Dutch improv cellist Ernst Reijseger; old-time music group Big Fiddle; and the Chris White Quartet, which plays jazz standards and originals. The fee is $150 for registrations mailed by May 15, 2001, after which it goes to $175. Single-day and concert-only passes are also available. For more information, call or fax (877) 665-5815, e-mail info@newdirectionscello.com, or visit www.newdirectionscello.com.
News, from the U.S. or abroad, is always welcome. Please mail to Heather K. Scott, Market Report, Strings, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979; fax to (415) 485-0831; or e-mail to Heather@stringletter.com.
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