Latest News
Pletnev cancels Proms and Edinburgh appearances
5 August 2010
The Russian National Orchestra (RNO) has issued a statement saying that Mikhail Pletnev, who was recently arrested in Thailand on charges of sexually molesting an under-age boy, before being released, will not be conducting the forthcoming RNO concerts at the Proms (18 August) and Edinburgh (19 August). He has taken the move, according to the statement, 'in order to have the necessary time to deal with the accusations against him.'
Andrey Boreyko, a former member of the RNO Conductor Collegium, has been named as his replacement for both UK concerts. Pletnev commented on his decision: 'I do not wish to overshadow the wonderful music making of the RNO and their tour in the UK with the current accusations surrounding my person. I will not comment on the ongoing investigation, but I hope the matter will be resolved speedily and it will be clear that I am innocent of the accusations against me. I look forward to returning to the UK with my orchestra soon.'
BBC Concert Orchestra signs Boston Pops conductor
3 August 2010
Crossing the channel: Keith Lockhart
Hot on the heels of its televised Proms performance at the weekend, accompanying the Sondheim 80th birthday programme, the BBC Concert Orchestra (BBCCO) has announced the signing of Keith Lockhart as principal conductor and Johannes Wildner as principal guest conductor. Lockhart, who will continue his work as conductor with the Boston Pops alongside his new position, makes his BBC Proms debut on 30 August, leading the BBCCO in an evening of ‘English classics and US pizzazz’.
Wildner brings a wealth of European Experience to orchestra, having held the posts of chief conductor of the Prague State Opera, first permanent conductor of the Leipzig Opera and general music director of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia. At the beginning of his professional career he spent ten years as a violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic. His first concert with the BBCCO will be at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 27 September.
The BBCCO’s general manager, Andrew Connolly, commented: ‘In securing Keith Lockhart as the BBC Concert Orchestra’s seventh principal conductor we welcome a musician who embodies the international appeal and ambition of the Concert Orchestra – 2010 style! From its roots in the British Light Music tradition the BBCCO now embraces music awesomely broad in range and style.
‘Johannes’s affinity for repertoire from the Strauss family to contemporary music, as well as his first hand experience of the great European music-making tradition has won him many friends in the orchestra and audiences alike.’
Streetwise Opera and The Sage Gateshead to forge new partnership
2 August 2010
'Helping homeless people move forward': Streetwise Opera comes to the Sage
Streetwise Opera (SO) is to form a new partnership with The Sage Gateshead. The charity, which aims to 'use music to help homeless people move forward in their lives’, received a grant this year from the Northern Rock Foundation worth £90k over three years.
The partnership will see the relocation of Streetwise Choir North East,
which the SO calls the ‘UK’s first choir made up of people who have experienced
homelessness,’ to The Sage Gateshead in September 2010, with plans including
organising work placements and performing opportunities at the venue.
The timing of the partnership comes at the start of a new three-year
funding agreement between The Northern Rock Foundation and Streetwise Opera.
The foundation, which made 81 awards to various bodies in 2010, totaling more
than £8m, helped SO to start working in the North East in 2006 and supported
The Sage Gateshead with a donation to its endowment fund in 2001.
Streetwise Opera has also made it to the televised finals of The
National Lottery Awards, a national search to find the UK’s favourite
Lottery-funded projects. The Award is determined by a public vote between 26
July and 13 August and the final will be televised live from London’s Roundhouse on 4 September.
Matt Peacock, SO founder and CEO, said: ‘We are honoured to be working in partnership with The Sage Gateshead, an organisation at the forefront of community music-making in the UK and the world. This is a strong collaboration of two organizations who are specialists in providing the maximum opportunities and benefits for people in the community through music. We are very excited that the Streetwise Choir North East will be now based at The Sage Gateshead and look forward to the opportunities the partnership will bring to our choir members.’
Derry revels in 'City of Culture' victory
30 July 2010, Michael Quinn
Derry celebrates succesful bid
Derry/Londonderry is to be the UK’s first City of Culture. Northern Ireland’s second-largest city proved victorious in an inaugural short list that also included bids from Birmingham, Sheffield and Norwich. It will celebrate the designation with a year-long programme of cultural events in 2013.
The choice of the ‘Maiden City’ – so-called because of its historic status as one of the few European cities whose fortifications (still intact) were never breached – had been widely anticipated. Some commentators have suggested it was politically inevitable, coming just weeks after the publication of The Saville Report into the Bloody Sunday killings in the city in 1972.
Central to Derry’s successful bid – unanimously selected by an independent panel chaired by Phil Redmond – was the city’s determination to explore the last four centuries of division and turbulence in what was praised as ‘a compelling cultural programme’.
Chief executive of Derry City Council, Valerie Watts, welcomed the news as ‘a once in a lifetime chance not only to share our innate talent, creativity and energy with the rest of the world, but also to transform this region forever. This is a new chapter in our journey from plantation to peace, and its legacy will last for generations’.
Derry’s programme of ‘joyous celebration and purposeful inquiry’ will have four core strands focusing on children and young people, culture in the digital age, international events and a ‘cultural platform to explore issues of identity’. It is expected to include a contemporary music and dance festival, an international festival of visual art and a ‘water-based spectacular’ on the city’s River Foyle.
Voted the UK’s ‘tenth most musical city’ in a survey by PRS for Music in March this year, Derry is home to more than a dozen festivals, and classical music-rooted promoters Music 55-7.
The bid had been backed by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and prominent Derry-born figures including first minister Martin McGuinness, composer and songwriter Phil Coulter, and head of UK Music, Feargal Sharkey. It is expected to create 3,000 jobs and double visitor numbers to the city. Derry has also been shortlisted for the title of European Youth Capital, also for 2013.
The City of Culture competition was launched in July 2009 by the then culture secretary Ben Bradshaw. With London excluded from bidding, it seeks to demonstrate that ‘excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25’.
New cultural agreement between Britain and India
29 July 2010
The DCMS has announced a ‘step change’ in cultural co-operation between India and the UK, following the signing today of a new cultural agreement by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and Jawhar Sircar from the Indian Ministry of Culture, in the presence of prime minister David Cameron and the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.
‘The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in Delhi will give a boost to cultural exchanges between the UK and India and will lead to an extensive programme of activity in both countries over the next five years,’ said a statement from the DCMS.
Hunt commented:
‘The UK and India share a cultural bond that has been richly celebrated in art, literature, film and music for generations.
‘This agreement will lead to a fantastic array of cultural activity over the coming years and I’m delighted that already new exhibitions by Anish Kapoor have been secured, along with a new Hay Festival of Literature in Kerala, a new alternative rock festival in cities across India and a host of other exciting projects.’
Among the commitments laid out in the MoU are:
- To develop an active programme of cultural exchanges in each country;
- To facilitate exchanges of exhibitions and reciprocal visits;
- To collaborate on skills sharing, digitising missing parts in libraries and archives to bring together collections; and
- To facilitate exchange of best practice within media, broadcasting and information services.
Those witnessing the signing also included a sporting and cultural delegation that has been accompanying Hunt on his visit to India, including Dame Lynne Brindley (British Library), Vernon Ellis (British Council), and Sir Mark Jones (Victoria & Albert Museum).
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