FROM the recent string of crises at symphony orchestras you might conclude that orchestral business models are as outdated as the musicians’ Victorian attire. The Philadelphia Orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April; the Honolulu Symphony and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra recently folded; and musicians of the Detroit Symphony had their pay cut after a six-month strike. In a turbulent economy that has carried a wide range of organizations, including arts groups, banks and newspapers, to the brink, orchestras are being forced to re-examine their missions and structures to accommodate a changing fiscal and social landscape.
US: Survival Strategies for Orchestras [音楽時評]
アメリカのOrchestras の最近の窮状をみると，you might conclude that orchestral business models are as outdated as the musicians’ Victorian attire. と書き始めています．
The Philadelphia Orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April; the Honolulu Symphony and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra recently folded; and musicians of the Detroit Symphony had their pay cut after a six-month strike. に続いて，1937年に大洪水に見舞われた後，当時の市長が “Music Makes a City,” といって創設した歴史のある Louisville Orchestra も，遂に破産申請に至ったといいます．
Louisville Orchestra は，Elliott Carter，Lukas Foss, Paul Hindemith, Roy Harris, Gunther Schuller and many others に多くの新作を委嘱して，世界のorchetra 界に名を轟かしたのでしたが，最近の経済事情には購えなかったようです．
1つの案として，楽員を77人から52人に減らして，不足をfreelancer で埋めたらという案があり，現実に，この方式によっている楽団もあるのですが，近年は，例外を別にして，楽団自体が収入源に悩んでいるようです．
その例外のOrchestra of St. Luke は，The rotating work force of the excellent Orchestra of St. Luke’s, for example, makes it easier to survive challenging times. “One of the things that makes us resilient is our flexibility,” said Katy Clark, the orchestra’s president and executive director. “We don’t spend what we don’t have. We don’t guarantee work to our musicians and don’t require that they turn up. Even though you might think this would be anarchic, we have very stable personnel to an amazing extent.” と，これだけ有名になると，ちゃんと成り立っているのです．
その強みは，Another benefit of freelance orchestras, Ms. Clark added, is that they tend to have more inclusive management styles and thus suffer less labor friction. と，労使対立を避けやすいことにもあるようです．
St. Luke’s currently has balanced budgets, no operating deficit and a new revenue stream from the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, a complex for performance and rehearsals that opened in March, with rooms for rent by outside groups at affordable rates. The orchestra, which is often presented by Carnegie Hall and other organizations in collaborative partnerships that Ms. Clark described as fundamental to its success, has not cut any of its self-produced programs but has received fewer fee engagements during the recession.“Orchestras need calibrating for a different world with different priorities,” Ms. Clark said. “I don’t feel pessimistic, but it’s a grueling process to have to go through redefinition and recalibration.”
New buildings like the Schermerhorn and DiMenna centers may justify their cost. But the high fees paid to music directors seem unsustainable. つまり新しい施設，設備はそのコストに値するかもしれないけれども，指揮者の高額報酬は維持できないというのです．
True, a vibrant and innovative director — Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, David Robertson in St. Louis, Alan Gilbert in New York — can attract new audiences with adventurous programming. The New York Philharmonic’s Web-savvy promotional campaign for its terrific production of Ligeti’s modernist opera “Le Grand Macabre” last spring created a buzz for the orchestra, and an unusually youthful audience attended the sold-out concerts.
high culture would attract wealth and power, an idea borne out when General Electric cited the cultural attractions of Louisville in its decision to move there in the 1950s. And the arts still attract business: Paula Angelo, a spokeswoman for Nissan, said in a telephone interview that Nashville’s “robust cultural environment” was a factor in the company’s decision to relocate its headquarters there from Los Angeles in 2006.
最後に，Orchestras have been slow to adapt to changing times, but a younger generation of prodigiously talented, hard-working and forward-thinking musicians are fostering innovative ways to attract fresh audiences and remain vital to their communities. New, streamlined ensembles, we may hope, will rise from the ashes of old ones. Perhaps they’ll even lose the white tie and tails. と大変大胆な提案をしています．
日本でも少なくとも一部は参考になるのではないでしょうか．
Survival Strategies for Orchestras
Louisville Orchestra
The Louisville Orchestra (seen here in 1950, led by Robert Whitney, left foreground) revived its fortunes by commissioning new works in the 1950s.
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: May 25, 2011
Charles Fentress, Jr./Courier-Journal
Louisville's mayor, Charles Farnsley, was a booster. “Music Makes a City,” an engaging documentary from last year about the Louisville Orchestra that was just released on DVD, offers an inspiring and cautionary tale of creative chutzpah and financial mismanagement. The orchestra, which itself filed for bankruptcy in December, was founded shortly after the floods that crippled Louisville, Ky., in 1937.
It began as a ragtag ensemble that rehearsed, according to the film, “in a gloomy room that smelled of stale beer.” A young conductor, Robert Whitney, quickly drummed the ensemble into shape, but financial problems loomed from the start. Charles Farnsley, the mayor of Louisville from 1948 to 1953, suggested that the orchestra, instead of spending money on glamorous soloists, commission new pieces: a policy that the board, though initially shocked, adopted. The endeavor was facilitated in 1953 by a $400,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to commission and record 52 compositions a year for three years. The DVD features lively interviews with some of the composers chosen, including Elliott Carter.
This remarkable venture, which resulted in works by Lukas Foss, Paul Hindemith, Roy Harris, Gunther Schuller and many others, put Louisville and its orchestra on the international cultural map and attracted luminaries like Shostakovich and Martha Graham to visit the city. But that wasn’t enough to fend off the regular financial crises that have dogged the orchestra over the decades since, until its recent bankruptcy filing.
This perennial instability has stemmed in part from an overreliance on bailouts from private sponsors and large corporations, some of which reduced donations during difficult economic periods or moved out of town. “No one wanted to face the reality that one day support would end,” said Jorge Mester, the orchestra’s current music director, in a telephone interview.
One solution being discussed is to reduce the Louisville Orchestra’s 71 salaried players to 55 and fill in the gaps with freelancers. “The musicians, of course, don’t want to abandon their colleagues,” Mr. Mester said. While the ideal is an orchestra that plays 52 weeks a year, he added, “it’s not a calamity” to use freelancers. He doesn’t fear that quality would suffer.
A reliance on freelancers is growing increasingly prevalent in many industries. Some first-rate orchestras, like the New York ensembles Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, have long had freelance structures. But even with lower overhead many freelance music organizations are now playing fewer concerts and producing less income for the musicians.
Stewart Rose, a horn player with St. Luke’s since 1983, also plays with Orpheus and the New York City Opera Orchestra and is currently on a temporary arrangement with the New York Philharmonic. He enjoys “the variety that comes along with freelancing,” he said in a telephone interview. But the time lag between performances during a slow stretch can be demoralizing, he said. “It’s really been tough for everyone with the decline in the amount of work out there.”
While the freelance model can be perilous for musicians, the upside for orchestras is a more flexible operating system. The rotating work force of the excellent Orchestra of St. Luke’s, for example, makes it easier to survive challenging times.
“One of the things that makes us resilient is our flexibility,” said Katy Clark, the orchestra’s president and executive director. “We don’t spend what we don’t have. We don’t guarantee work to our musicians and don’t require that they turn up. Even though you might think this would be anarchic, we have very stable personnel to an amazing extent.”
Another benefit of freelance orchestras, Ms. Clark added, is that they tend to have more inclusive management styles and thus suffer less labor friction.
St. Luke’s currently has balanced budgets, no operating deficit and a new revenue stream from the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, a complex for performance and rehearsals that opened in March, with rooms for rent by outside groups at affordable rates. The orchestra, which is often presented by Carnegie Hall and other organizations in collaborative partnerships that Ms. Clark described as fundamental to its success, has not cut any of its self-produced programs but has received fewer fee engagements during the recession.
“Orchestras need calibrating for a different world with different priorities,” Ms. Clark said. “I don’t feel pessimistic, but it’s a grueling process to have to go through redefinition and recalibration.”
Jennifer Taylor for The New York Times A recent concert of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, with the conductor Ivan Fischer and the violinist Nikolaj Znaider.
Grueling but potentially beneficial, according to Alan D. Valentine, president and chief executive of the Nashville Symphony, which went through bankruptcy in 1988 and streamlined its operations. “Chapter 11 bankruptcy is not the end of the world,” Mr. Valentine said. “It’s a tool that businesses use every day to restructure debt and their operations.”
After the orchestra moved into the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in 2006, Mr. Valentine said, ticket sales increased from $2.6 million in the 2005-6 season to more than $7 million in 2006-7. Sales have remained strong.
New buildings like the Schermerhorn and DiMenna centers may justify their cost. But the high fees paid to music directors seem unsustainable.
True, a vibrant and innovative director — Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, David Robertson in St. Louis, Alan Gilbert in New York — can attract new audiences with adventurous programming. The New York Philharmonic’s Web-savvy promotional campaign for its terrific production of Ligeti’s modernist opera “Le Grand Macabre” last spring created a buzz for the orchestra, and an unusually youthful audience attended the sold-out concerts.
But conductors (some of whom hold multiple positions and most of whom earn extra money from guest-conducting gigs) often receive 10 to 30 times the salaries of the musicians in their orchestras. According to tax documents, in the 2008-9 season Lorin Maazel was compensated $3.3 million as music director of the New York Philharmonic; Michael Tilson Thomas, $1.6 million as music director of the San Francisco Symphony; Charles Dutoit, $1.2 million as chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Executive directors can earn up to $1.5 million. In comparison base pay in the 2010-11 season for players in top orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra averaged around $130,000 to $136,000. (A few musicians received up to $500,000.) Members of regional orchestras earn less; at the Nashville Symphony musicians receive a minimum of $53,000 and benefits.
The highly trained musicians, you could argue, deserve every penny of their salaries. But as with extravagant conductor fees, it also seems unsustainable to pay star soloists huge fees. According to a former employee of the major agency Columbia Artists Management with knowledge of contracts, top performers like the pianist Lang Lang and the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter often collect $75,000 or more for three subscription concerts with a major orchestra. Fees for their solo recitals are usually in the $65,000 range.
Starry names sell tickets, but a reliance on subscription sales is outdated, given that members of the keep-your-options-open generation seldom commit to events months in advance. Orchestras also need to increase their relevance to their local audiences, although at a recent discussion hosted by the radio station WQXR, Raymond M. Hair Jr., the president of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, said musicians often resent having their job descriptions expanded to include education and outreach activities. That proved a major issue in the Detroit Symphony strikes, after which minimum salaries were cut from $104,650 to $79,000.
Alan Pierson, the recently appointed artistic director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, which has also seen its fair share of financial woes, said in the discussion: “It doesn’t mean that every member of the orchestra should be out there talking to kids. But as these great orchestras are facing trouble, we as organizations have to work harder to make a case that we need to exist, that these organizations have a vital role in the community.”
In “Music Makes a City” the narrator says that Mayor Farnsley believed in the Confucian principle that high culture would attract wealth and power, an idea borne out when General Electric cited the cultural attractions of Louisville in its decision to move there in the 1950s. And the arts still attract business: Paula Angelo, a spokeswoman for Nissan, said in a telephone interview that Nashville’s “robust cultural environment” was a factor in the company’s decision to relocate its headquarters there from Los Angeles in 2006.
Orchestras have been slow to adapt to changing times, but a younger generation of prodigiously talented, hard-working and forward-thinking musicians are fostering innovative ways to attract fresh audiences and remain vital to their communities. New, streamlined ensembles, we may hope, will rise from the ashes of old ones. Perhaps they’ll even lose the white tie and tails.
Detroit Symphony を去ったコンマスその他 [音楽時評]
Detroit Sympnony が賃金引き下げを巡ってあれだけ長期のstrike をやった理由の１つは，処遇の低下は音楽水準の低下につながるというモノでしたが，現実に，シーズン終了後，23年間コンサートマスターを務めてきたEmmanuelle Boisvert が，Dallas Symphony のAssociate Concertmaster に移動することが明らかになりました．
Ms. Boisvert は，Detroit で経歴を終える心づもりだったようですが，strike 中に何度か Dallas で演奏機会を得て，そこでたいへん良い音楽環境に恵まれ，そこからの破格の offer を了承したといっています．写真のように
同じように，打楽器の主席，副主席，ティンパニスト，そしてフルートの主席代行もDetroit を去るということです．No one should minimize the losses of musicians of the caliber of Boisvert, Jones, Nissly and Ding. Acting principal flutist Philip Dikeman is also leaving the DSO．
Detroit の音楽水準は，これらに代わって，低い賃金でもDetroit に来る人の如何で，少なからぬ影響を受けそうです．
以上，気になっていたことの事後報告まで．．．
May 25, 2011, 2:09 pm
Detroit Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Is Leaving
By DANIEL J. WAKINThe Detroit Symphony Orchestra, struggling to find its feet after a bitter six-month strike, has suffered another loss. Its concertmaster of 23 years, Emmanuelle Boisvert, is moving to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as an associate concertmaster. The announcement, which came on Wednesday, was made not by the Detroit Symphony but by a committee of orchestra members that was set up during the strike and sponsored their own concerts. The orchestra’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Weigandt, confirmed the move and said Ms. Boisvert had told the players but not yet formally informed orchestra management. “Management has the news release, and that’s what we’ve got,” she said.
Stradivarius violin on loan to the DSO's concertmaster Emmanuelle Boisvert photographed at Orchestra Hall in Detroit on Friday Dec 20,2002. / Special to the Free Press
In a statement, Ms. Boisvert said she performed with Dallas during the strike several times and, in what could be seen as a stab at Detroit’s management, said she marveled at the Dallas Symphony’s “commitment to classical music, the intrinsic respect offered to musicians by the administration and esteemed music director, Jaap van Zweden, and the emphasis they place on communication and teamwork at all levels.”
Ms. Boisvert said she had planned to finish her career in Detroit, but the Dallas Symphony “presented me with an opportunity I simply couldn’t refuse.” Deciding to leave was “heart wrenching,” she said.
The Detroit Symphony’s principal timpanist, Brian Jones, is also joining the Dallas orchestra, according to the news release. The orchestra resumed concerts in April after a settlement that produced large pay cuts.
Paul Lewis(pf)のシューベルト後期ピアノ曲演奏 [音楽時評]
７月初めに王子ホールでシューベルト晩年のピアノ曲を演奏予定の Paul が，シカゴでほぼ同じ曲目でシューベルト・リサイタルを開いた音楽評が掲載されていたのでご紹介します．
評者は，シューベルトの作風が，1822年に疾病（梅毒）にかかってから以後の後期には，明るい，快活な作風から大きく変わったと断じています．Once the Austrian composer was diagnosed with syphilis, in 1822, the expressive nature and message of his music changed. Sorrow and melancholy became more evident, even in works wearing a sunny exterior.
Lewis' deep insights into the emotional complications of this music were matched by his firm grasp of classical structure and the ways in which Schubert's lyrical gift illuminates that structure. This was Schubert playing of a very high order.Lewis' program focused on works dating from the final four years of Schubert's tragically short life (he died in 1828, at 31). Two masterpieces – the four Impromptus, Opus 90 (D.899) and the Piano Sonata in G major (D.894) – were set off by less familiar fare, notably the 12 Waltzes (D.145) and "Hungarian Melody" in B minor (D.817). というのは，まさしく７月１日に予定されているLewis の王子ホールのプログラムとそっくり重なります．
この演奏会がキャンセルされずに実現することを切に期待するものです
Paul Lewis' Schubert recital a thing of rare beauty
サントリーホール：アンデルシェフスキー（pf）リサイタル [音楽時評]
久しぶりに外来演奏家のリサイタルに出かけました．「アンデルシェフスキーは語る」というプログラム内容に，「．．．具体的に自分たちは日本のために何が出来るのでしょうか？それは日本を訪れて音楽を奏でることで，日本への連帯の意を示すことだと思うのです．」と記述されています．
プログラムは，バッハに始まってバッハに終わるモノでした． バッハ： イギリス組曲第5番 ホ短調 BWV810 シューマン： ペダル・ピアののための練習曲（6つのカノン風小品）op.56
※※※※※※※※ ショパン： マズルカ イ短調 op.59-1
マズルカ 変イ長調 op.59-2 マズルカ 嬰へ短調 op.59-3 バッハ： イギリス組曲第6番 ニ短調 BWV811 でした．
バッハのイギリス組曲BWV810に始まって，同811で終わる3人の作曲家の作品でした．Program Notes には，これを起承転結と並べていました．
ポーランド人とハンガリア人を両親としてワルシャワに生まれたアンデルシェフスキーは，今日では世界の主要オーケストラ，指揮者と協演し，リサイタルでも各地で賞に輝く活躍を見せており，指揮でも，室内楽でも多面的に活躍している才人です．
この人のピアノは，ピアノを優しく打鍵し，左手と右手のバランスが絶妙にコントロールされて，切々と訴えるモノがありました．
そもそもステージに応接間風の椅子3脚が置かれ，私がホールに入ったときにはアンデスシェフスキーがそこで悠々と日本茶を飲んで寛いでいました．そこからスッと立ち上がってピアノの前の，食卓テーブルに並ぶような椅子に座ってスッとピアノを弾き始めたのには感心しました．バッハの時代のサロンないしロビーでピアノが弾かれる姿を想像してしまいました．
全体に小品を集めた組曲，練習曲，それに同一作品番号の枝番に入ったマズルカという組み立てでしたが，そのどれでも短調にならず，たっぷりとニュアンスを滲ませて好演していました．
アンコールが4曲弾かれましたが，ここでもシューマンの「森の情景」から，第3曲「孤独の花」，第6曲「宿」，第7曲「予言の鳥」，そして最後に， 第9曲「別れ」がどれも静かに好演されました．
「1人で小宇宙を作り出すピアノの魅力」にすっかり魅せられた一夜でした．
DSO announces its 2011-12 season [音楽時評]
６ケ月という長期に亘る労使紛争，ストライキで存続が危ぶまれたDetroit Symphony Orchestra が，Musicians 側のほぼ全面譲歩で息を吹き返し，2011～2012年シーズンの概要を公表し，定期会員の募集に踏み切ったようです．
Music director Leonard Slatkin は健在で，まだ全貌は明らかではないのですが，約20％を20世紀以降作品に当てる意欲的なシーズン内容だそうです．
そして，経営陣も，rebooting spring concerts, dropping ticket prices for the future by up to 50%, rebuilding next season and hashing out ambitious programs designed to broaden the orchestra's reach. と背水の陣を敷いているようです．
Slatkin のプログラミングも，Roughly 20% of the works are contemporary, nearly all of them by living composers working in America, from elder statesmen like William Bolcom and David Del Tredici to up-and-comers like Mason Bates. Nearly a third of the season represents DSO premieres. と1/3 がDSO初演だそうですから，なかなか大変です．Slatkin is walking a tightrope, trying to cultivate adventure while also minimizing risk. といいます．
While the DSO will play about a dozen fewer classical concerts at Orchestra Hall next season than previously, the overall number of classical orchestral concerts remains the same when the neighborhood events are included. These concerts, to be held throughout metro Detroit, will be announced in the fall. Free community concerts and chamber concerts are also in the works. Stay tuned．
あとはどうぞご自由にご渉猟下さい．
DSO announces its 2011-12 season
Music director Leonard Slatkin / KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/Detroit Free Press
BY MARK STRYKER
DETROIT FREE PRESS MUSIC CRITIC
Tickets for 2011-12
Concerts at Orchestra Hall, Max M. Fisher Music Center, Detroit. Subscriptions on sale Monday: $75-$1,600. Single tickets (on sale in August): $15-$50. A $25 student pass gains admission to all classical, pops and jazz concerts. 313-576-5111
Since the end of the epic six-month musicians strike in April, Detroit Symphony Orchestra officials have been sprinting -- rebooting spring concerts, dropping ticket prices for the future by up to 50%, rebuilding next season and hashing out ambitious programs designed to broaden the orchestra's reach.
Much of the immediate future remains under construction, but one major edifice is being announced today: the 2011-12 classical and pops seasons at Orchestra Hall.
This will be music director Leonard Slatkin's fourth season, and what's most interesting -- and rewarding -- is how consistently classical programming tracks with Slatkin's previous agenda: Roughly 20% of the works are contemporary, nearly all of them by living composers working in America, from elder statesmen like William Bolcom and David Del Tredici to up-and-comers like Mason Bates. Nearly a third of the season represents DSO premieres.
The post-strike DSO is reinventing big chunks of its operation to better relate to the lives of metro Detroiters, but it's significant that Slatkin doesn't need to gin up or water down his core programming. Musically, the DSO is already engaged with contemporary life and already values surprise.
Not that it couldn't dig deeper. Slatkin's taste in new music favors audience-friendly styles, and unfamiliar fare is obsessively balanced on every program by a beloved evergreen. The orchestra would reach a higher plane of creativity if it at least opened a dialogue with harder-edged modernism from America and abroad and truly let go of the reins once in a while. Slatkin is walking a tightrope, trying to cultivate adventure while also minimizing risk.
Next season highlights include:
• Bates' "B-Sides," which mixes orchestra and electronics; Del Tredici's "Final Alice," a polystylistic 1976 score that helped lead classical music back to tonality; John Adams' post-9/11 memoriam "On the Transmigration of Souls," and Osvaldo Golijov's "Sidereus," the first work by this important Argentine-American composer to be performed by the DSO.
• A world premiere by Chinese-born Du Yun, winner of the DSO's Lebenbom prize for female composers.
• The overdue return of music director emeritus Neeme Järvi, who will team with pianist Helene Grimaud in Brahms' Second Piano Concerto and lead an unusual 50-minute arrangement of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger."
• Appearances by conductors Jerzy Semkow, Helene Bouchez and Louis Langree; pianists Emanuel Ax, Kirill Gerstein and Robert Levin; violinists Nicola Benedetti and Julian Rachlin, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis.
The DSO also is planning neighborhood and community concerts, which will take the orchestra into the suburbs, and chamber music and education initiatives made possible by the new contract.
While the DSO will play about a dozen fewer classical concerts at Orchestra Hall next season than previously, the overall number of classical orchestral concerts remains the same when the neighborhood events are included. These concerts, to be held throughout metro Detroit, will be announced in the fall. Free community concerts and chamber concerts are also in the works. Stay tuned．
サントリーホール:都響B定期，インバル指揮 [音楽時評]
5月11日，サントリーホールに東京都交響楽団B定期を聴きに行ってきました．指揮は音楽監督のエリアフ・インバルでした．
プログラムは，
シューベルト: 交響曲第５番 変ロ長調 D485
※※※※※※※※
リヒアルト・シュトラウス： 交響詩「英雄の生涯」 oｐ．40
でした．
シューベルトの第5交響曲を最初に聴いたのは，NHKが未だ日比谷にあった頃，クルト・ウエス指揮の交響楽団の放送用録音で聴いたことを思いだします．生録音ということで，靴の上に音の出ない上履きを履かされてスタジオに入り，拍手の合図で出来るだけたくさん聴衆がいるように倍速で拍手するようにといって，拍手の練習をさせられたのが忘れられません．
都響はたいへんアンサンブルのよい楽団で，特にインバルの指揮ではそれがフルに発揮されます．シューベルトはまだまだモーツアルトの影響を強く受け継いでいたようで，特に交響曲第40番のメロディが何度も現れます．弦楽器とりわけ低弦の澄んでよく揃ったアンサンブルが，弦楽部門をたいへん美しく響かせていました．
全4楽章ですが，急－緩－メヌエット－急のスムースな音楽の流れを華麗に展開してくれました．
「英雄の生涯」は6部構成で，「英雄」（ホルン・低弦，変ホ長調）「英雄の敵」（木管・ヂューバ．ト短調）「英雄の伴侶」（ヴァイオリン・ソロ）でそれぞれのキャラクターを提示し，「英雄の戦場」「英雄の業績」「英雄の引退と完成」で英雄がその業績にもかかわらず，過去を美化せずに回想し，隠棲する姿を描き出しています．
主題にかかわるソロ・合奏がたいへんよくまとまって，たいへん好演だったと思います．
またまた改めて東京都交響楽団の実力を楽しんだ一夜でした．
US:日系女流指揮者が音楽監督に [音楽時評]
漢字が分らないのですが，日本出身で，8歳から両親と共にアメリカに渡ったKayoko Dan さんが，33歳の若さで，テネシー州のChattanooga Symphony & Opera のMusic Director に就任するそうです．6月には結婚を予定されているそうですからたいへんお目出度いことです．
このPosition になんと２５０人の応募があったそうです．そこからDVD映像でまず45人に絞られ、さらに9人に絞り込んで、実際にSymphonyの指揮をして貰って、2年がかりでKayoko Dan さんに決定したそうです．
“In the end, we had had nine very good visits,” McCallie said. “The difficulty in making the decision was that there were so many positive things to talk about. ... But we realized everybody was leaning the same way. I’ve never seen a stronger consensus.”
“I think the thing that made her stand out in the end was her warmth and sincerity in combination with a very easy style of conducting,” he said. “We were looking for somebody who was going to have a sense of programming music, something people would want to support and attend. We feel like under our new director we are going to be able to maintain the highest [standard of] excellence. We’re very excited about that.”
そんな彼女は，音楽一辺倒になるのを嫌って，triathlons and marathons で走ることにも熱中するような多彩な女性のように思われます．
音楽監督になったら，Chattanooga のCommunity にも融け込みたいそうです．
いずれ演奏したい曲に，Beethoven の第９とMozart の Requiem を上げているのは，やはり日系なのでしょうか．
後はどうぞご自由にご渉猟下さい．
Chattanooga Symphony & Opera names first woman music director
Kayoko Dan will be the new Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra conductor. Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press
CONDUCTOR’S NOTES
* Kayoko Dan is getting married in June.
* She has a border collie mix named Maggie Moo. “She’s my accomplice, my sidekick,” Dan says.
* She competes in triathlons and marathons. “I realized when I went to graduate school that my life was becoming just music. I needed to start doing something to pull me away from music. I didn’t want to be a one-dimensional human. So I took up running because it’s the cheapest.”
* Her parents live in Houston and her younger sister lives in Japan.
* She hates butterflies and loves cows.
* She enjoys dance. Her first professional conducting job was “The Nutcracker.”
* Her dream pieces to conduct include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor.
After a two-year search, the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera has selected a new music director.
Kayoko Dan, 33, will succeed Robert Bernhardt as the eighth leader of the CSO. She is the first woman and the youngest person to earn the position of CSO music director.
“We think she’s a superstar in the making,” CSO Executive Director Molly Sasse said.
Dan is currently the director of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra in Lexington. The position in Chattanooga will be her first leading a full orchestra.
Bernhardt, who held the position for 19 years, will continue as pops conductor and will become the CSO’s first music director emeritus.
An 11-member committee, including four musicians, made the selection.
More than 250 applications for the CSO position from across the United States were sent to Henry Fogel, a Chicago-based orchestral consultant who narrowed the field to 45.
The four musicians on the search committee watched DVDs of all the semifinalists and took their selections to the group. Over two years, the top nine of 12 finalists each led the CSO as a guest conductor.
“There was a great chemistry we had together,” Dan said in a recent interview. “It felt good, being on the podium here and working with them.”
Katie Wilson, the CSO’s marketing director, said CSO musicians were involved heavily in the decision to offer the position to Dan.
“We had to know that they could work with the new director,” she said.
Spencer McCallie, who served as committee chairman, said each meeting would begin with the musicians sharing the reactions of their colleagues to each candidate.
“In the end, we had had nine very good visits,” McCallie said. “The difficulty in making the decision was that there were so many positive things to talk about. ... But we realized everybody was leaning the same way. I’ve never seen a stronger consensus.”
Principal bassoonist Gordon James, who served on the selection committee, said all the guest conductors except Dan received at least one negative review from the orchestra.
“I think the thing that made her stand out in the end was her warmth and sincerity in combination with a very easy style of conducting,” he said. “We were looking for somebody who was going to have a sense of programming music, something people would want to support and attend. We feel like under our new director we are going to be able to maintain the highest [standard of] excellence. We’re very excited about that.”
Born in Japan, Dan moved to Houston with her family at age 8. She said music was how she found her place as a child.
“Singing in a choir or playing the piano was a way of communicating with people,” she said. “I felt like I was part of a community in the classroom. When I couldn’t speak [English], I felt like I was just an outsider, but with music I was able to belong.”
Sasse and Wilson said they hope Dan’s appointment will help to build a new generation of CSO patrons.
“Youth is a big part of why the search committee was attracted to her,” Sasse said. “I think the musicians felt like she was a consummate musician. I think they feel like she can move the orchestra ahead artistically.”
But Dan is not focused on her youth, except where it allows for potential progress.
“Time will take care of that,” she rationalized. “The good thing is, I’m still growing.”
Q&A with Kayoko Dan
Q: How did you find the experience of working with the CSO?
A: From the first rehearsal, the musicians were so responsive to what I did and what I asked them to do. They were very patient with me. Sometimes I’ll conduct an orchestra and I feel like I’m fighting against the musicians. With the CSO, there was a really huge bond we were able to establish right away.
Q: How do you plan to lead the CSO in conversation with the community?
A: The conductor is the only person on stage who isn’t making any sound. So I have to have the orchestra for me to be able to communicate with the audience. I’m just the one standing there and leading them, but really it’s the orchestra that’s making the beautiful sound. Together, we’re able to communicate with the audience.
Q: Do you have any philosophies on conducting?
A: My number one goal is to make sure we sound good. I don’t really practice in front of a mirror. I don’t want to look choreographed. I’m there to lead them and I’m there to help make sure we sound good together. I don’t want to get in the way.
Q: What are some of your goals here? In what direction would you like to take the CSO?
A: The artistic growth is number one. I’d like to introduce some newer works. There are some amazing works that have been done recently that the audience in Chattanooga deserves to hear. [Also] bringing in a lot of younger, up-and-coming soloists that definitely will make it big later on in their lives. I’d like to commission some works in the future. I know some really talented young composers who are itching to write pieces. I want to make sure the CSO is the leading organization for performing arts in this community.
Q: What are the benefits and challenges of being the first female music director in CSO history?
A: I hope musicians don’t see me as a woman, and I hope the community doesn’t see me as a woman. I hope they see me as a conductor. Musicians can sense a good or bad conductor right away. It doesn’t matter what gender you are.
Q: You’re an advocate of music education. Do you plan to continue your efforts in Chattanooga?
A: Absolutely. The children are the future audience and patrons, and they might actually be playing in our orchestra in a decade or two. We have to make sure they are exposed to music and they come to concerts. They should know it’s accessible to them as well.
Q: Are you at all nervous about your new position here?
A: No, I’m just excited right now. I’m sure I will be nervous once it settles. I try not to think about it. I’m a realist, but at the same time I’m more hopelessly optimistic in a way. I think things will work out. There’s no sense worrying about things that haven’t happened yet.
Q: What will your role as music director entail?
A: We have to make sure that the concerts sound good and that we’re providing programs that are educational, enthusiastic, energetic, entertaining and all that good stuff, to the audience, so they’re excited about coming to the concerts and they’re inspired. Number two is that as the music director I have to be the ambassador of arts and music in the community.
MetOpera 日本ツアー指揮者交替 [音楽時評]
Metropolitan Opera 日本ツアー；6/1～6/19 に同行する予定だったMusic Director, James Levine が，脊椎手術後の休養に当たることとして，日本ツアーには同行しなくなったそうです．
代役は，Principal Guest Conductor で 次期 Music Director として極めて有力視されているFabio Luisi が当るそうです．ただ，Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” は，Gianandrea Noseda が振る予定です．
夏には Boston Symphony 関連でTanglewood 出演は全てキャンセルですが，代役は未定です．
Boston Bymphony の秋の開幕公演は， Anne-Sophie Mutter will open the season in Boston on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 as conductor and soloist in Mozart violin concertos. と二役をこなす予定です． its concerts at Carnegie Hall and during a California tour in December は，前者はKurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach and Stéphane Denève で，後者は Ludovic Morlot, a former assistant conductor in Boston and the incoming music director of the Seattle Symphony, will take over the California trip.とあります．
あとBoston の代役には，Jiri Belohlavek, Andris Nelsons and Marcelo Lehninger，さらには，Bernard Haitink が予定されているそうです．
結構，羨ましいほどの代役陣ですね．Andris Nelsons がLevine の後を継ぐMusic Director の有力候補であることは，前に紹介したことがあります．
Levine Withdraws From Met Tour and Tanglewood
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: May 6, 2011
¶ The conductor James Levine’s continuing struggle with back problems has caused him to wipe clean his slate of performances between next week and next fall, music officials said on Friday. The casualties include a long-awaited Metropolitan Opera tour to Japan and the Tanglewood Festival season.
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¶ The physical woes of Mr. Levine, 67, have been unrelenting, causing repeated cancellations over the last few years. The biggest casualty came in March, when he was forced to resign as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also cut back on Met opera performances this spring.
¶ Now, the Met reports, he is bowing out of a three-week tour of Japan in June. “Following his doctors’ advice, James Levine is taking the summer off to rest and recuperate from his ongoing back condition,” the Met said in a statement. The principal guest conductor, Fabio Luisi, who Met officials say is a likely candidate to succeed Mr. Levine as music director, will take over conducting duties in runs of Puccini’s “Bohème” and Verdi’s “Don Carlo” in Japan. Gianandrea Noseda is still scheduled to lead Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
¶ The tour is already shadowed by worries among members of the Met company about safety threats that could be posed by damage to nuclear reactors in Japan caused by the recent earthquake. The Met has said that conditions are safe and that the tour is proceeding.
¶ Also on Friday, the Met said that Mr. Luisi would take over for Mr. Levine for the Met Orchestra’s May 15 concert at Carnegie Hall, with Natalie Dessay as soloist. Richard Strauss’s “Don Juan” will take the place of Debussy’s “Images” on the program.
¶ Mr. Levine has been looking increasingly weak, needing assistance to come on stage for bows and tooling around the Met in a mobile chair. But his conducting motions have remained vigorous, and he has plowed through five hours of Wagner’s “Walküre” in recent performances.
¶ In an almost simultaneous announcement, the Boston Symphony said that Mr. Levine would step aside from his duties conducting and teaching at Tanglewood, where he was to lead the symphony as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, made up of students. Replacements have yet to be announced. A student orchestra performance of Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” was scrapped, sure to be a disappointment to the young musicians as well as to audiences who have come to value the enthusiastic performances with Mr. Levine and the Tanglewood fellows, as the students are called.
¶ As of now, the only dates on Mr. Levine’s schedule until the fall are performances of “Die Walküre,” the second installment of the Met’s new “Ring” cycle, on Monday and on May 14. The May 14 performance is to be broadcast live in HD around the world. His next Met performance after that is Oct. 13, with the opening of a new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.”
¶ The announcements concerning Mr. Levine’s withdrawals came on the day the Boston Symphony disclosed his replacements for next season, including conductors for its concerts at Carnegie Hall and during a California tour in December.
¶ Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach and Stéphane Denève will lead the orchestra for the March 6-9, 2012, Carnegie stand, and Ludovic Morlot , a former assistant conductor in Boston and the incoming music director of the Seattle Symphony, will take over the California trip.
¶ Instead of Mr. Levine, Anne-Sophie Mutter will open the season in Boston on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 as conductor and soloist in Mozart violin concertos. The tour substitutes will take over Mr. Levine’s other concerts in Boston, along with Jiri Belohlavek, Andris Nelsons and Marcelo Lehninger.
¶ In addition, Bernard Haitink has been engaged as a guest conductor for three programs, leading Beethoven symphonies, Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” and Mendelssohn’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with narration by Claire Bloom. Esa-Pekka Salonen will also take the podium at the Boston Symphony for the first time since 1988.
